BY REBECCA GAGNON ’23
Frances Perkins is one of Mount Holyoke’s most famous alumnae — but who exactly is she and why did she have such a big impact? These are questions that the film, “Frances Perkins and the General Welfare,” directed by Mick Caouette from South Hill Film, will answer.
“It is a shortened biography of [Perkins’] life because we only have an hour,” Caouette said. “In modern time she was a labor secretary for Franklin Roosevelt and she was the first woman cabinet member in the 1930s. It was only 12 years after women gained the right to vote, so it was a pretty big deal. So, [the documentary] is about 60 years of her life.”
Perkins was born in Boston, though she is known as being from Maine. She attended Mount Holyoke, becoming one of the College’s most famous alums. While working on a school project, she observed working conditions in the mills, which prompted her to fight to improve them.
Graphic by Trinity Kendrick ’22
In 1907 she became the general secretary of Philadelphia Research and Protective Association, a group that worked to better immigrant girls’ working conditions. Then, she became secretary of the New York City Consumers League. Later, she became executive secretary of a citizen Community of Safety, the first woman to be appointed a position in the New York City government. Finally, in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt asked her to be in his cabinet, her most well-known position.
Caouette said that he decided to create a film about Perkins after reading an article on her being one of the first women in the Cabinet. The more he learned about her, the more he wanted to know.
“I just couldn’t put it down,” he said. He couldn’t believe that no one had created a film about her, and so he decided to do it himself.
“The research was in a lot of places and the difference between now and when I started in 1996 is that it is all online,” Caouette said. “For a lot of these films it isn’t just print and glorified manuscripts; you also have to find photos and film, which is a lot of other research.”
“As far as how I make the film, I have done things totally organic,” Caouette said. “I don’t write a script or any scenes, I just sit down and start editing with the information I have.”
One of the hardest things for Caouette to do while editing the film was deciding what parts of her life needed to be shown. The film could only be one hour long and it was originally two hours, so Caouette needed to decide what parts of her life to focus on and what parts would only be mentioned briefly.
A part of the film that truly moves him is the ending, when everyone talks about how much of an impact that Perkins had on labor laws.
“I think the idea of the film is to present her spirit, who she was, in the time in which she lived,” Caouette said.
“The message is, if people get together and work together, they can change the political system. She did it and she did it at a time where the country was in worse shape than it is in now,” he said.
The film will be screened on PBS in March 2020. Mount Holyoke is one of few places that get to see the film before it airs. During the credits, Caouette’s wife and daughter sing a version of Mount Holyoke’s graduation song as a tribute.