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Women (30)
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Crazy, QuiltDonald McWilliams 1997 27 minThis film is part of a series of television programs including interviews with the directors of short animated films as well as the films themselves. This video includes 2 animated shorts: Quilt (by Gayle Thomas), an animated tribute to patchwork quilting and Scant Sanity (by John Weldon), an exploration into the nature of the mind and reality in which a person seeking job counseling receives psychiatric treatment instead, thereupon becoming convinced of the reality of his own internal world. -
Capturing Reality: The Art of DocumentaryPepita Ferrari 2008 1 h 37 minIn this feature-length film on the art of the documentary, director Pepita Ferrari interviews 33 leading documentarians and shows clips from over 50 films. From cinéma-vérité pioneers like Albert Maysles and Michel Brault to mavericks like Errol Morris and Nick Broomfield, it explores the challenges of capturing reality on film. Directors as diverse as Pakistani feminist Sabiha Sumar and new media guru Peter Wintonick reflect on ethical issues and the contested status of the “truth.”
Featured interviews include German iconoclast Werner Herzog; Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán; British director Kim Longinotto and Alanis Obomsawin, the First Lady of First Nations cinema. -
The Creative Process: Where Do I Start?Scott Smith 2009 12 minThis short documentary captures the savvy of great Canadian storytellers on film. Sharing their insights on inspiration, authenticity, tenacity and what compels them in their creative endeavors are Double Happiness director Mina Shum, Oscar® winner Denys Arcand, The Hockey Sweater author Roch Carrier, Emporte-moi director Léa Pool and Zacharias Kunuk, the filmmaker behind Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner).
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Camera TestJoyce Wong 2019 5 min
What gets lost when female voices are stymied during the creative process? Pairing intimate interviews with absurdist re-enactments, Joyce Wong crafts a tartly subversive look at patriarchy and racism in the film industry.
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Daughter of the CraterNadine Beaudet & Danic Champoux 2019 1 h 15 minA woman with a deep love of the land, Yolande Simard Perrault sees her life as having been shaped by a planetary upheaval in Charlevoix, Quebec, millions of years ago. As enduring as the Canadian Shield, she’s a woman of strength and spirit, a child of the crater left by the meteor’s impact. This documentary portrays a determined woman who’s the reflection of a land created on an immense scale. She was the creative and life partner of filmmaker Pierre Perrault, who gave up everything to be by her side. The film charts the influence of her unquenchable dreams and her contribution to the building of a people’s collective memory. In a stream of images and words, Simard Perrault recounts the splendours of the landscape and the people who shaped it. Generous and boundless, she embarks on a quest for identity that nurtures and perpetuates the oeuvre of the man who breathed new life into Quebec cinema.
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Dream MagicKaterina Cizek 2008 6 minThis revealing portrait of NFB filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin was shown at a gala ceremony in 2008, where Obomsawin received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Her work has captured some of the most startling events in Canadian history, including the armed standoff between the Canadian Army and Mohawk warriors in 1993. Her films cross a spectrum of social issues, but they are always human. Obomsawin explains in the interview, "For me, a real documentary is when you're really listening to somebody; they are the ones that will tell you what the story is, not you."
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Dear AudreyJeremiah Hayes 2021 1 h 29 minAcclaimed activist-filmmaker Martin Duckworth has devoted his life to peace and justice. But now he’s put down his camera to fight for the most important cause he’s ever faced. While caring for his wife through the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Martin’s love deepens as he looks back on an epic life and career.
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Evelyn LambartÉric Barbeau 2005 5 minA profile of Norman McLaren’s main collaborator, animator Evelyn Lambart, who worked as his assistant for several years and co-directed six of his films, including the celebrated Begone Dull Care.
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Eleven Moving Moments with Evelyn LambartDonald McWilliams 2017 1 h 3 minThis feature-length documentary shines a much-deserved spotlight on Evelyn Lambart, who stood side-by-side with Norman McLaren for 21 years. Dubbed The First Lady of Canadian Animation, Lambart was an accomplished animator in her own right. This compilation, playfully contextualized by filmmaker Donald McWilliams, aims to prove just that.
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GoldwoodKathleen Shannon 1975 20 minGoldwood is a search for the early self. A woman describes the look and feel of her childhood to an artist friend. The story of her days at Goldwood unfolds through his paintings and live footage of their visit to the site. Nature has reclaimed the land. The adult attempts to reclaim the child. The woman discovers pieces of her doll's plate, lost thirty years before. "I haven't been a figment of my own imagination," she says. The film evokes the universal feelings of a child in an adult's world and the awareness of self.
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Hand-Crafted Cinema Animation Workshop with Caroline LeafEric Roberts 1998 35 minThis short film brings together animation workshops led by award-winning independent animator Caroline Leaf. The film, which discusses and demonstrates Leaf’s artisan's approach to narrative filmmaking, explores 3 techniques she pioneered during her 20-year tenure at the NFB: sand, paint-on-glass and scratch animation.
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In PiecesPaule Baillargeon 2011 1 h 21 minPaule Baillargeon is 37 years old, 11 years old, 65 years old. . . In this film composed of fragments, she tells her story: the story of a woman, a filmmaker, a mother, a feminist, an artist. Of an actress, too, who delivers a powerful narrative that is both soothing and unsettling. These potent images, her images—filmed, painted, photographed, drawn, animated—merge into the portrait of a life that has been wild, rebellious and gentle. The tableaux are not so much autobiography as an authentic tale, as unpredictable and unique as any life.
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InterviewCaroline Leaf & Veronika Soul 1979 13 minA freewheeling cinematic experience, this film is the work of two filmmakers who relate their perceptions of each other through their respective animation techniques. Images and words are paired in startling associations. Each does a visual portrait of the other, based on characteristic gestures and impressions. A combination of techniques and materials produces a film of rich visual texture shaped by the hands and heads of two very different people.
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Kathleen Shannon: On Film, Feminism & Other DreamsGerry Rogers 1997 49 minWith quiet intelligence and wry humour, retired documentary filmmaker Kathleen Shannon takes us through the arc of her life and career. Beginning with childhood, moving through her formative years, to her overwhelming desire to give women a chance to tell their stories, this film paints a vibrant portrait of one woman who blazed the way. It's a story of struggle, persistence, and success… and of course, of the NFB's Studio D.
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The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-BlachéMarquise Lepage 1995 52 minThis feature documentary is a portrait of Alice Guy-Blaché, one of cinema's most fearless pioneers. A filmmaker before the word even existed, Guy-Blaché made her first film at the end of the last century, when cinema was still brand-new. After directing, producing and writing more than 700 films, she slipped into oblivion. This film rescues her brave and shining memory.
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Margaret Perry—FilmmakerLes Krizsan 1987 24 minMargaret Perry, now in her eighties, is the unsung heroine of the Nova Scotia film industry. For over a quarter of a century, she shot, directed, wrote and edited all the tourist films for the province. Through her camera, we view changes in the landscape, in lifestyles, and in film technology.
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Making Movie History: The WomenDenys Desjardins 2013 11 minThis short documentary profiles a selection of pioneering French female filmmakers from the history of the NFB, including Paule Baillargeon, Aimée Danis, Mireille Dansereau, Marthe Blackburn, and Anne Claire Poirier. These women speak frankly of the challenges and joys of making films for, by, and about women.
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NFB Pioneers II: Her Voice, the Studio D StoryLucia Piccinni 2007 55 minPart of the NFB Pioneers series with the Doc Channel, this episode deals with the Studio D, the first permanent, state-funded women's film unit in the world created in 1974. Studio D gave a number of women the unprecedented opportunity to work consistently on women-centred film projects. Features interviews with Gerry Rogers, Bonnie Sherr-Klein, Zoe Dirse, Susan Trow, Gail Singer, Dorothy Henault and Beverly Shaffer.
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Making Movie History: Bonnie Sherr-KleinJoanne Robertson 2012 5 minBonnie Sherr-Klein recalls the early days of Studio D, the women's studio, and the birth of the seminal film Not a Love Story which she co-directed.
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Nunavut Animation Lab: I Am But a Little WomanGyu Oh 2010 4 minInspired by an Inuit poem first assigned to paper in 1927, this animated short evokes the beauty and power of nature, as well as the bond between mother and daughter. As her daughter looks on, an Inuit woman creates a wall hanging filled with images of the spectacular Arctic landscape and traditional Inuit objects and iconography. Soon the boundaries between art and reality begin to dissolve.
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Making Movie History: Sylvia HamiltonJoanne Robertson 2014 4 minDirector Sylvia Hamilton reflects on her work with the NFBs Atlantic Studio and the birth of New Initiatives in Film - A Studio D initiative for women of colour and aboriginal women.
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Making Movie History: Alanis ObomsawinJoanne Robertson 2012 5 minAlanis Obomsawin talks about how she got her start at the NFB and the overarching importance of sound/story in her work.
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Nunavut Animation Lab: I Am But a Little Woman (Inuktitut Version)2010 4 minInspired by an Inuit poem first assigned to paper in 1927, this animated short evokes the beauty and power of nature, as well as the bond between mother and daughter. As her daughter looks on, an Inuit woman creates a wall hanging filled with images of the spectacular Arctic landscape and traditional Inuit objects and iconography. Soon the boundaries between art and reality begin to dissolve.
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Our Dear SistersKathleen Shannon 1975 14 minAlanis Obomsawin, an Indigenous woman who earns her living by singing and making films, is the mother of an adopted child. She talks about her life, her people, and her responsibilities as a single parent. Her observations shake some of our cultural assumptions.
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A Return to MemoryDonald McWilliams 2024 1 h 58 minWhen Canada entered World War II, the National Film Board suddenly had an urgent new mission—and hundreds of women stepped forward, helping to create Canadian cinema as we now know it.
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Stories Sarah TellsAnn Marie Fleming 2013 4 minThis short film pays tribute to director, screenwriter and actress Sarah Polley. Her latest film, Stories We Tell, a feature length documentary about her family history, premiered at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, then screened to unanimous acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival. It was called “a brilliant film: an enthralling, exquisitely layered masterpiece” by Maclean’s film critic Brian D. Johnson. Here, a whimsical, playful film tells the story of the kinds of stories Polley tells. Using humorous, simple line animation, the film comments on the messiness of life and art.
Produced by the NFB in co-operation with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation on the occasion of the 2013 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. -
Stories We TellSarah Polley 2012 1 h 48 minThis feature documentary is an inspired, genre-twisting film directed by Oscar®-nominee Sarah Polley. Polley's playful investigation into the elusive truth buried within the contradictions of a family of storytellers paints a touching and intriguing portrait of a complex network of relatives, friends, and strangers.
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SaltAmber Goodwyn , Morgan Gage , … 2000 1 h 17 minThese provocative 20-minute movies made by high school students provide an insider's look at youth culture. Made by four 17-year-old directors with help from a professional crew, Salt is a four-part filmzine: four films, four flavours, four windows into youth culture that explore alternative education, Montreal's flourishing independent music scene, the troubling practice of self-mutilation and a quest for the punk subculture.
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Twenty Years of Feminist FilmmakingCheryl Sim & Janice Brown 1994 5 minA clip montage for presentation at the National Action Committee on the Status of Women to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Studio D and the National Action Committee.
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Western EyesAnn Shin 2000 39 minThis documentary presents two Canadian women of Asian descent who are contemplating eyelid surgery. Maria and Sharon, of Philippino and Korean heritage respectively, believe their looks--specifically their eyes--get in the way of how people see them. Layering their stories with pop culture references to beauty icons and supermodels, filmmaker Ann Shin looks at the pain that lies deep behind the desire for plastic surgery.
