When visiting the Gene Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago two years ago, Michael Metzger, who works at the Block Museum of Art, said he saw a poster in the lobby about the Films by Women/Chicago ’74 festival. It inspired him to research the long-standing tradition.

Organized by an all-women collective at the height of the second wave of the feminist movement in the U.S., the first Films by Women/Chicago ’74 festival screened over 70 feature films and shorts by women directors and filmmakers in the Gene Siskel Film Center in September 1974.

“I was struck by the fact that here is this amazing event that happened in Chicago … (it) seemed to gather so much of women’s film history and also represented the cutting edge of women’s filmmaking at its moment,” said Metzger, who helps curate the cinema and media arts at the Block Museum.

For the festival’s 50th anniversary, the Block Museum and the Gene Siskel Film Center came together to revive the festival this fall. From Sept. 23 to November, the renewal features film screenings from the original festival and others from the same era.

Around 10,000 people attended the original festival, which featured mainstream Hollywood, arthouse, animation and activist documentary films from across the 60-year global history of cinema.

“It’s not like there’s one kind of filmmaking or one kind of story being told,” Metzger said. “It’s really meant to reflect the diversity of women’s filmmaking throughout history.”

One of the featured directors was Dorothy Arzner, the only female film director in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. The Block Museum featured two of her films: “Craig’s Wife” and “Dance, Girl, Dance,” each paired with a short film on Saturday.

“Dance, Girl, Dance” follows two dancers who fight for the spotlight and the affection of a wealthy man while trying to protect their own integrity. After its release, it was well-regarded as a feminist film.

Chicago resident Elasa Crawford, who attended the showing of “Dance, Girl, Dance” Saturday, said even though she had never previously heard of Arzner, she was intrigued by the story.

“It felt of the time but also very forward thinking, very progressive with how it treated women and centered their stories,” Crawford said.

Before “Dance, Girl, Dance,” Gunvor Nelson’s 1970s experimental short film “Take-Off” was shown Saturday. “Take-Off” follows the story of a stripper who, after removing her clothes, undoes her body parts as well. 

Chicago resident Angela Dancey, who also attended “Dance, Girl, Dance,” said she thought the addition of “Take-Off” before Arnzer’s film was an interesting combination. 

She said “Arnzer’s early understanding of the male gaze” contrasted with Nelson’s short of objectifying and sexualizing women, which she found to be very illuminating of the female experience. 

“I’m really grateful that the Block hosts events like this, makes them open to the public and not only that but free to the public,” Dancey said. “It’s a huge gift to the community to bring things like that here.”

The Block Museum will also screen “Attica” and “I Am Somebody” on Oct. 4, “Bev Grant & Newsreel Films” on Oct. 10 and “Will” on Oct 17.

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