The Song of the Shirt
An astonishing essay film about women workers in nineteenth century London. This feminist tale about the origins of the welfare state takes the form of a layered, polymorphous documentary using a proliferation of screens, overhead projection of texts and images, and distanced acting. The back-and-forth between different places, different times and information highlights the contradictions specific to the labour market and produces a reinvention of women’s past. The combination of relentless political content and a disjointed, disturbing form makes “The Song of the Shirt” stand out from its contemporaries, and from our contemporaries too… A lesson in history and in filmmaking.
Federico Rossin
Cinema historian, independent programmer
An astonishing essay film about women workers in nineteenth century London. This feminist tale about the origins of the welfare state takes the form of a layered, polymorphous documentary using a proliferation of screens, overhead projection of texts and images, and distanced acting. The back-and-forth between different places, different times and information highlights the contradictions specific to the labour market and produces a reinvention of women’s past. The combination of relentless political content and a disjointed, disturbing form makes “The Song of the Shirt” stand out from its contemporaries, and from our contemporaries too… A lesson in history and in filmmaking.
Federico Rossin
Cinema historian, independent programmer
