Montreal – International Women’s Day, March 8, has a special significance for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as it honours Studio D, its trailblazing English Program feminist film unit.
The NFB will be taking part in the book launch of Olivier Ducharme’s Nous ferons les films que nous voulons – ONF féministe (1971–1976) at the Cinémathèque québécoise on March 12. Published by Éditions Écosociété, Ducharme’s book is available in stores starting February 25.
- The event will be followed by a screening of the En tant que femmes film Souris, tu m’inquiètes by Aimée Danis, featuring Micheline Lanctôt, starting at 7 p.m.
Online offerings in March
- Launch of the website The Legacy of Studio D, March 6
An initiative of the University of Calgary in collaboration with the NFB.
The Legacy of Studio D offers a new look at the major contributions of Studio D, unlocking a rich repository of feminist artistic and political activism.
- Starting March 7 on nfb.ca and CBC Gem, Laurie Townshend’s A Mother Apart accompanies Jamaican-American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chinas she re-imagines the essential art of mothering—having been abandoned by her own mother.
- All five films in En tant que femmes are available online.
- The intrepid womenwho helped create Canadian cinema come to vibrant life in A Return to Memory, a documentary by Donald McWilliams illuminating their vital but little-known role in establishing Canada’s National Film Board during World War II.
- nfb.ca will also feature a two-part blog post by Camilo Martín-Flórez, the NFB’s English collection curator, exploring the studio’s formative years and visionary pioneers.
- The NFB’s online channel Studio D: The Women’s Film Studio has been expanded to 80 titles, with new works added by Martín-Flórez and French collection curator Marc St-Pierre.
- The NFB’s online channel The Female Gaze features films that challenge cultural taboos surrounding women’s rights, their sexuality and their fight for bodily autonomy.
Community screenings
The NFB is presenting International Women’s Day screenings in communities across Canada. Featured this year is A Return to Memory by veteran director Donald McWilliams, looking at the intrepid women who helped create Canadian cinema as we now know it, during the early days of the NFB, as well as screenings of Laurie Townshend’s A Mother Apart.
For a complete and up-to-date list of screenings, visit the NFB schedule.
A BIT OF HISTORY: Some key moments in women’s filmmaking at the NFB
- Studio D
Founded in 1974, following years of advocacy by producer Kathleen Shannon, Studio D was the world’s first publicly funded production unit dedicated to making films by and for women.
It produced some of the NFB’s most celebrated films, including three Oscar-winning documentaries: Beverly Shaffer’s I’ll Find a Way (1978), Terre Nash’s If You Love This Planet (1982) and Cynthia Scott’s Flamenco at 5:15 (1984). Not a Love Story (1981), Bonnie Sherr Klein’s controversial exposé of commercial pornography, became one of the NFB’s biggest commercial hits, and Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (1992), directed by Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie, would bring LGBTQ2+ issues to a broad general audience.
Studio D was disbanded in 1996 during a period of downsizing at the NFB and across the federal public sector—but has left an invaluable legacy of approximately 160 films and an enduring NFB commitment to women’s filmmaking.
- French Program — Regard de femmes
In 1973, NFB French Program released En tant que femmes, a five-part film series made “by women, with women, for women,” focusing on women’s identity in a changing Quebec.
In 1986, NFB French Program established its own distinguished women’s production unit, Regard de femmes. Under the direction of Josée Beaudet, the unit worked with feminist film pioneers like Diane Beaudry (Histoire à suivre…), Anne Claire Poirier (Tu as crié LET ME GO) and Mireille Dansereau (Les seins dans la tête). The unit would go on to produce more than 40 films over a 10-year period.