Remembering the NFB's groundbreaking women's film studio, 50 years later

CBC

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An event in Cobourg, Ont., is shining a light on a precedent-setting piece of Canadian film history.
And it all started in a basement room at the National Film Board.
That was the first location of Studio D — created in 1974 with the purpose of making films by, for, and about women, and initially given a shoestring budget of just $100,000.
Fifty-one years later, the studio is being highlighted by the Canadian Women in Film Museum with a screening of a documentary about its history, as well as a screening of one of the most acclaimed works to come out of it — the academy award-winning 1977 short documentary, I'll Find a Way.
"Without that policy that the film board had started, I would have never gotten an opportunity to become a film director," Beverly Shaffer, director of I'll Find a Way, told CBC News.
As outlined in a blog post by the film board last year, it was the NFB's Kathleen Shannon who pushed for, founded, and served as the first executive producer of Studio D, which gets its name from the NFB's traditional in-house letter naming system.
"No such thing existed anywhere in the world at that time," said Shaffer of the publicly-funded, explicitly feminist film studio, which provided training and support to fledgling filmmakers until 1997 when it was shut down.
"Initially, a lot of the women didn't have filmmaking experience, but the film board was surprised and astonished [to learn] there was a big audience for these films, because of the issues and the perspective that they were showing," she said.
Those issues included difficult or under-covered topics like abortion around the world, queer life in Canada, pornography, motherhood and the dangers of nuclear war.
Not only did audiences respond — critics did too, ultimately awarding Studio D filmmakers with 130 awards in total, including three Oscars.
The first one of those, Shaffer's win in 1977, carried extra significance because it broke a multi-decade academy award dry spell for the film board.
Rick Miller with the Canadian Women in Film Museum in Cobourg told CBC Toronto that he feels awareness about Studio D and its films is "pretty low," inspiring him to hold Sunday's screening event.
"It aligns with the narrative of our museum, which is film history of Canadian women … and also aligns with our narrative of women who are overcoming the gendered expectations of their time," he said.
The museum will screen a number of other Studio D titles this fall, Miller said.
The NFB itself has also endeavoured to raise awareness about Studio D, uploading some 90 of its films to a new online channel in 2024.
According to Suzanne Guèvremont, current NFB chairperson, the film board remains committed to gender parity, with 56 per cent of productions in 2023 and 2024 directed by women. It also sets targets for Indigenous, Black and racialized filmmakers, she said.
"Studio D marked the NFB's first step on a broader journey toward equity, diversity and inclusion across all areas of our work," Guèvremont said in a statement.