Nell Shipman was a true pioneer, and not just in screen nudity.A movie star who started writing her own scenarios, she wound up starring, writing, directing, producing and training the animals for her wilderness epics, climaxing with Alaskan Gold Rush adventure The Grub-Stake in 1923. Genuinely suspenseful and exciting, this northern western is also by turns silly, romantic, spectacular and moving: the total entertainment package.Unfortunately, Shipman and her co-director fell afoul of the industry when she denounced distributors who recut one of her previous films, and they found themselves frozen out of the business. Their little Spokane-based studio, with its own private zoo, moved to Idaho but ceased production in 1926.But for a while there they were really trailblazing. Shipman begins The Grub-Stake as a laundress / artist's model, appearing swathed in gauze as she poses for eager sketchers. This seems like a cheeky reference to one of her previous claims to fame,...
- 3/30/2017
- MUBI
Nell Shipman in The Grub Stake
Pioneering director and stunt performer Nell Shipman is to be celebrated at this year's Hippfest, it was announced today. The festival will open with a rare chance to see her 1023 film The Grub Stake, which was never released due to its distributor's financial problems. Set in the Idaho wilderness, it's an action adventure starring the director herself alongside n extensive animal cast.
Bo'ness Hippodrome, one of the oldest cinemas in Scotland. Photo: Richard West, licensed under Creative Commons
"“Nell Shipman is a deeply inspirational figure not only in the history of women’s liberation, but in the history of cinema generally," said festival director Alison Strauss, citing the success of her 1919 film Back To God's Country, which broke Canadian box office records. "Despite the promise of a glittering starlet career, Shipman turned down a seven year contract from Sam Goldwyn because she didn’t...
Pioneering director and stunt performer Nell Shipman is to be celebrated at this year's Hippfest, it was announced today. The festival will open with a rare chance to see her 1023 film The Grub Stake, which was never released due to its distributor's financial problems. Set in the Idaho wilderness, it's an action adventure starring the director herself alongside n extensive animal cast.
Bo'ness Hippodrome, one of the oldest cinemas in Scotland. Photo: Richard West, licensed under Creative Commons
"“Nell Shipman is a deeply inspirational figure not only in the history of women’s liberation, but in the history of cinema generally," said festival director Alison Strauss, citing the success of her 1919 film Back To God's Country, which broke Canadian box office records. "Despite the promise of a glittering starlet career, Shipman turned down a seven year contract from Sam Goldwyn because she didn’t...
- 12/15/2016
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
It was 1920 when Nell Shipman, a silent film starlet and screenwriter from Canada who broke into Hollywood as a teenager, packed up her 10 year-old son, director-lover and 70 abused animal actors and left Tinseltown for the Idaho wilds. Boise-based filmmaker Karen Day's doc "Nell Shipman: Girl from God's Country" unfolds this intriguing tale of a woman, lost to history, who worked outside the studio system -- while making waves on the inside. A bit about Nell from the filmmakers: During Shipman’s time in the remotely beautiful but harsh wilderness of Priest Lake in northern Idaho, she wrote, directed and starred in 25 silent films, sharing billing with her bears, wolves and sled dogs. She embodied the first action-adventure heroine performing her own death-defying stunts while shooting on-location films like "Back to God's Country," "The Girl from God's Country" and "The Grubstake." Financing for these independent films...
- 2/27/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
It was 1920 when Nell Shipman, a silent film starlet and screenwriter from Canada who broke into Hollywood as a teenager, packed up her 10 year-old son, director-lover and 70 abused animal actors and left Tinseltown for the Idaho wilds. Boise-based filmmaker Karen Day is now working a new documentary, "Nell Shipman: Girl from God's Country," about this intriguing tale of a woman, lost to history, who worked outside the studio system -- while making waves on the inside. Here's a bit of history about Shipman:During Shipman’s time in the remotely beautiful but harsh wilderness of Priest Lake in northern Idaho, she wrote, directed and starred in 25 silent films, sharing billing with her bears, wolves and sled dogs. She embodied the first action-adventure heroine performing her own death-defying stunts while shooting on-location films like "Back to God's Country," "The Girl from God's Country" and "The Grubstake." Financing for these independent films came from "angel.
- 4/7/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
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