2016 Essays

Gerda Hintze

Pennanen, Riikka

Gerda Hintze is one of the pioneer female screenwriters who worked in early Finnish film. In fact, only two female scenarists are known to have worked during the silent era: Katri Viita for Työn sankarilaulu/A Song About the Heroism of Labour (1929) and Hintze for Kajastus/Mirage (1930), which ended up being her only script that went to production. However, identifying all of the crew members of silent era Finnish films is challenging. Only a select few (if any) members of the crew were officially credited in the existing opening credits or programmes, which were available for patrons attending the screenings. In some cases, Suomen kansallisfilmografia/Finnish National Filmography only identifies the surname of crew members (Uusitalo et al. 1996). Also, gender neutral or masculine pseudonyms were sometimes used by women working within film, such as writer-screenwriters Hella Wuolijoki (Juhani Tervapää), Seere Salminen (Serp), and Kersti Bergroth (Tet), all of whom began their work in film later in the 1930s or early 1940s.