2025 Essays

Helen Wiggins

McKernan, Luke

Helen Wiggins was a cutter and editor for British films from the 1920s through to the 1970s, working in newsreels, animation films, documentaries, and fiction films. Her silent era work is not as well documented as her sound era output, but it was then that she learned her trade by working in film laboratories, an area for which women’s contributions are little known and few had positions of seniority such that she enjoyed. This profile extends into the sound era in order to give greater context to the work in which she was to excel for over fifty years.