Making Movie History

Short profiles of some of the greatest artists, rebels and dreamers who shaped the NFB

Making Movie History: Colin Low
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Colin Low reflects on leaving art school in Calgary to join the NFB and his early days in the NFB's animation department.
Making Movie History: Alanis Obomsawin
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Alanis Obomsawin talks about how she got her start at the NFB and the overarching importance of sound/story in her work.
Making Movie History: Tom Daly
Joanne Robertson 2012 6 min
A look at the work and legacy of Tom Daly, the legendary Unit B producer, who died in 2011.
Making Movie History: Werner Nold
Denys Desjardins 2013 7 min
The NFB was a key factor in Werner Nold's decision to leave Switzerland for Canada. Intent on a film career, the young photographer found work with Gilles Carle as an editor (Dimanche d'Amérique, 1961). It was an age of exploration, and Nold found himself on one of the most adventurous expeditions of all, alongside Brault and Perrault, on a shoot unlike any other. But Nold rose to the challenge, working with miles of footage and tape to give epic form to the seminal Pour la suite du monde (1963). Having cut over 100 flms - documentary, fiction and animation - he is a generous mentor to a new generation of editors.
Making Movie History: Gerald Potterton
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Director and Animator Gerald Potterton recalls arriving at the NFBs celebrated Animation Studio and some of his forays into live action fiction.
Making Movie History: Grant Munro
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
In this short interview, Grant Munro, the celebrated animator, actor and director recalls being recruited by Norman McLaren to join the NFB's legendary animation studio.
Making Movie History: Co Hoedeman
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
An undisputed master of puppet animation, Co Hoedeman would captivate TV audiences with The Sand Castle (1977), a film that went on to win an Oscar for Best Animated Short. He had emigrated from Holland in 1965, aged, 25, in the hopes of finding work at the NFB. Canada's public film producer would become his creative base. Experimenting with an astounding range of techniques--paper cut-outs, papier-mâché, sand, and an array of puppets--Hoedeman conjures up fantastic worlds, finding inspiration in Inuit legend, ecology and his own vivid imagination. Artisan animator par excellence, he crafts all elements himself and operates his own camera. A devoted father and grandfather, he excels in making films for young audiences, and his Ludovic series, featuring an adventurous and amiable teddy bear, was a hit with children of all ages.
Making Movie History: Carol Geddes
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Director and writer Carol Geddes reflects on telling stories from an aboriginal perspective as a filmmaker in the NFBs North West studio.
Making Movie History: Anne Wheeler
Joanne Robertson 2012 6 min
Director and editor Anne Wheeler reflects on her early documentaries with the NFB, the birth of the North West and Prairie Studios and working with Donald Sutherland.
Making Movie History: Jacques Bensimon
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Lateformer NFB commissioner Jacques Bensimon, who headed the Film Board from 2001 to 2006, recalls coming into the NFB as a director in the early 1960s, at a time when the institution was seeking to broaden its horizons and expand its reach.
Making Movie History: Michael Scott
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Producer Michael Scott reflects on moving from the NFBs head office in Montreal to help set up the NFBs Prairie studio in the late 1970s.
Making Movie History: Mort Ransen
Joanne Robertson 2012 6 min
Director and editor Mort Ransen reflects on documenting social change at the NFB in the heady 1960s.
Making Movie History: Robert Duncan
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
A series of interviews with NFB artisans (filmmakers, producers, technicians, etc.) coupled with archival footage recounting the infancy of cinema, NFB Memories is a project that seeks to track the role of the Film Board since its inception while playing homage to the art of filmmaking at large. In this excerpt, writer and director Robert Duncan reflects on the art of writing in documentary in this short profile interweaving interviews, photographs and film excerpts.
Making Movie History: Svend-Erik Eriksen
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Svend-Erik Eriksen reflects on his early days working on animation projects at the NFBs Vancouver based studio.
Making Movie History: André Melançon
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
Having fallen under the spell of Fellini in the movie theatres of his native Abitibi, André Melançon wandered into the NFB at a time when anything could happen. He nabbed a role in Clément Perron's Taureau (1973), a gig that led to another offer--to direct children's films. With no directing experience, he forged ahead, drawing upon his natural ease with kids and previous experience as a school counsellor. 1978 would be a banner year: Melançon's documentary Les vrais perdans earned widespread praise and Comme les six doigts de la main was hailed as the year's best Quebec feature film. La guerre des tuques (1984) consolidated his stature in the growing genre of children's film. He went on to direct other features, along with TV series and theatrical productions, returning to the theme of childhood with the touching documentary Printemps fragiles (2005).
Making Movie History: Arthur Hammond
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Director Arthur Hammond discusses his work documenting the inside of large institutions.
Making Movie History: Bonnie Sherr-Klein
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Bonnie 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.
Making Movie History: Claude Pelletier
Denys Desjardins 2013 5 min
Claude Pelletier witnessed the radical transformation of recording technology in the course of his career: from heavy, unwieldy gear that needed to be trucked to location to lightweight, portable Nagras. The new technology would spark an aesthetic revolution, liberating soundmen from old constraints and nurturing a new era of experimentation. Pelletier worked alongside Gilles Groulx and Arthur Lamothe, contributing to seminal Direct Cinema titles like Golden Gloves (1961) and Bûcherons de la Manouane (1962). He would collaborate on over 100 productions, including important Quebec films like De mère en fille (Poirier, 1968) and Où êtes-vous donc? (Groulx, 1969). Fascinated by genealogy, Pelletier found time to explore local parish archives during film shoots, compiling a list of close to 90,000 names linked to his family surname. Since they retired, he and his wife, Laura Gauthier, have become certified genealogists.
Making Movie History: Denys Arcand
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
As a young man, Denys Arcand had his heart set on history. He fell into cinema by happenstance, only to become Quebec's most famous director--a winner several times over at Cannes and recipient of the 2003 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. His beginnings wer auspicious. While making a student film in 1961, Arcand was assigned an extraordinary crew that included Brault, Groulx, Carrière and Gosselin. His new friends found a place for him at the NFB, and the agency became his school. He honed his craft alongside cameraman Bernard Gosselin and watched as Pour la suite du monde took form in a neighbouring editing suite. Inspired by this creative foment, he went on to make a remarkable series of films. Referencing Machavielli, classical tragedy, or biblical scripture, the iconoclastic Arcand challenges and stimulates, exploring contemporary Quebec with fearlessness and humour.
Making Movie History: Don Owen
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Director Don Owen recalls working with Tom Daly and the legendary Unit B and his groundbreaking improvised drama Nobody Waved Good-bye.
Making Movie History: Dorothy Todd Hénaut
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Dorothy Todd Hénaut describes her arrival at the NFB and her work on the groundbreaking Challenge For Change community filmmaking program.
Making Movie History: Edouard Davidovici
Joanne Robertson 2012 4 min
In a long and happy career at the NFB, master editor Edouard Davidovici witnessed the evolution of editing techniques. Before non-linear digital technology became the norm, Davidovici and his colleagues were adept at handling the raw material of cinema, cutting and splicing film on stand-up Moviolas or flatbed Steenbecks. As chief editor at the NFB, he oversaw the picture and sound edit of hundreds of productions in a range of genres.
Making Movie History: Evelyn Spice Cherry
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Evelyn Spice Cherry talks about directing documentaries at the NFB during the Second World War. Cherry was one of the first women directors at NFB.
Making Movie History: Jacques Leduc
Denys Desjardins 2014 5 min
Schooled in the creative freedom of Direct Cinema, Jacques Leduc would excel in documentary-inflected drama like On est loin du soleil (1970), composed entirely of long shots, as well as sensitive vérité-style projects like Chroniques de la vie quotidienne (1977–1978), an imaginative series of seven films corresponding to the days of the week. Audacious and endlessly inventive, Leduc explored the terrain between fiction and documentary in films such as Albédo (1982) and Le dernier glacier (1984). His critically acclaimed feature Trois pommes à côté du sommeil (1988) paved the way for further work in fiction film. A gifted cinematographer, he has collaborated with directors like Tahani Rached, Jean Chabot, Paule Baillargeon and Yves Dion. In 1993, he co-founded Casa Obscura, a Montreal-based, artist-run space where he hosts regular film-related events.
Making Movie History: Jean-Claude Labrecque
Denys Desjardins 2013 7 min
The NFB would be Jean-Claude Labrecque's school. Arriving in 1959, the dedicated young cinephile quickly grasped the essentials of cinematography, leaving a bold mark on early Quebec films like Le chat dans le sac (Groulx, 1964) and La vie heureuse de Léopold Z (Carle, 1965). A cinematographer of singular talent, Labrecque went on to direct his own films: 60 cycles (1965) and Jeux de la XXIe Olympiade (1977). Keenly tuned to the evolution of Quebec society, he would capture important cultural events on film in Nuits de la poésie (1970, 1980) and André Mathieu, musicien (1993), and document key historical moments like de Gaulle's "Vive le Québec libre!" and Bernard Landry's 2003 electoral campaign. Prolific and erudite, Labrecque produced a body of work that constitutes a richly detailed and deeply humane record of modern Quebec history.
Making Movie History: Jeannine Hopfinger
Joanne Robertson 2014 4 min
Jeanine Hopfinger describes working in the NFBs Montrael distribution office in the 1940s and bringing films to audiences in the days before television.
Making Movie History: Kaj Pindal
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Celebrated animator Kaj Pindal reflects on his arrival at the NFB, his signature cartoon style and and some of his early works including the Oscar nominated What on Earth!.
Making Movie History: Michael Spencer
Denys Desjardins 2013 5 min
A young Englishman abroad, Michael Spencer was stranded in Canada when World War II began in 1939. He would make Canada his home--and help establish the country's film industry. He arrived at the NFB in 1941, starting as a cameraman and becoming a producer in 1945. While NFB Commissioner John Grierson favoured documentaries, viewing film as an educational tool, Spencer wanted to make dramatic features. He was intent on creating a domestic movie industry, independent from Hollywood, and in 1966, NFB management tasked him with devising a system of public film financing. Receptive to the plan, the federal government created the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC)--precursor of Telefilm--and appointed Spencer as its first Executive Director. He occupied the post from 1968 to 1978, overseeing the production of such films as Les ordres (Brault, 1974) and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Kotcheff, 1974).
Making Movie History: Michèle Cournoyer
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
Michèle Cournoyer came to the NFB with a background in the fine arts. During the 1970s, she made her own independent shorts, including a striking experimental collage films. Arriving at the NFB in the early 1990s, she would make inventive use of the rotoscope, a technique that allows animators to draw over live-action footage. She turned to a new medium with The Hat (1999), a work executed in ink. Rendered in minimalist black and white, the film addressed the difficult visual metaphors. The Hat won worldwide acclaim-and Cournoyer went on to tackle similarly challenging subjects with Accordion (2004) and the chilling Robes of War (2008). Mastering the art of film without words, she has left us speechless.
Making Movie History: Morten Parker
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Morten Parker recalls the early days of documentary filmmaking at the NFB, including the making of his Oscar nominated film The Stratford Adventure.
Making Movie History: Paule Baillargeon
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
Paule Baillargeon was among the members of the Grand Cirque Ordinaire, an adventurous theatre collective that burst onto the scene in 1969. Shifting to cinema, she had roles in Entre tu et vous (Groulx, 1969) and Le temps de l'avant (Poirier, 1975), in which her character confronts the issue of abortion. The role set the tone for her career: feminist by necessity, she would approach cinema as a form of rebellion. With La cuisine rouge (1979), she directed her first feature film, and with Vie d'Ange, she shared a writing credit with Pierre Harel. The '80s brought a string of strong roles--in films by Jutra, Pool, Rozema, Leduc--but she gravitated to directing with Sonia (1986) and Le sexe des étoiles (1993). Her most recent documentary is Trente tableaux (2011), an autobiographical work that draws upon her multiple talents.
Making Movie History: Rex Tasker
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Rex Tasker reflects on the changes that led to the creation of the NFBs Atlantic Production Studio.
Making Movie History: Robert Forget
Denys Desjardins 2014 6 min
Working outside the spotlight, the visionary Robert Forget was a major force of change at the NFB. Alive to the creative potential of new technologies, he was always one step ahead. As a young producer in 1971, he founded Vidéographe, an artist-run video production centre that remains a vibrant player in independant media creation. Forget was appointed head of French Program from 1989 to 1993, when he became Director for Technical Service. Not content to simply produce (over 75 films!), the tireless Forget oversaw historic advances in computer animation. In 1994, he established Montreal's famous CineRobotheque viewing facility and in 2000 he pioneered internet distribution with CinéRoute. Technological innovation and creativity were always inter-connected for Forget-and the NFB owes a huge debt to his forward-looking leadership.
Making Movie History: Robert Verrall
Joanne Robertson 2012 5 min
Robert Verrall recalls coming to Ottawa to join the NFB and the early days in the animation studio including his work on the Oscar winning Romance of Transportation.
Making Movie History: Roger Racine
Denys Desjardins 2013 5 min
The term “pioneer” has rarely been so appropriate: Roger Racine was the first francophone cinematographer at the NFB, the first French Canadian to direct photography on a feature film, and a member of the very first TV crew at Radio-Canada. Hired by John Grierson in 1942, Racine would assist cinematographer Boris Kaufman, a newly arrived refugee from occupied France. Noted for his masterful work on Jean Vigo’s La petite Aurore l’enfant martyre< (1951)—feature films released during the ultra-conservative Duplessis years. Racine worked as a director at Radio-Canada from 1952 to 1964, and went on to found his own production company, Cinéfilms, now run by his son Christian.
Making Movie History: Rural Circuits
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Former projectionist Larry Gosnell describes the system of travelling projectionists that brought NFB films to rural communities, schools and workplaces in the 1940s and early 1950s.
Making Movie History: Terence Macartney-Filgate
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Terence Macartney-Filgate reflects on the groundbreaking series Candid Eye and the birth of direct cinema.
Making Movie History: The Women
Denys Desjardins 2013 11 min
This 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.
Making Movie History: André Lamy
Denys Desjardins 2013 5 min
André Lamy and his brother Pierre played an active role during the 60s heyday of Quebec's private film industry. Founding Onyx Films in 1962, they began by making TV programs and commercials, moving into feature production with films like Viol d'une jeune fille douce (1968), directed by Gilles Carle. In 1970, Lamy, whose experience had primarily been in the private sector, was surprised to be offered the position of Assistant Film Commissioner at the NFB. Named NFB Commissioner in 1975, he oversaw a period of expansion, boosting distribution efforts at home and abroad, and earning new international recognition for the agency. In 1980, he became head of the Canadian Film Development Commission, precursor of Telefilm Canada, another organization that underwent major growth under his watch. The age of downsizing was still to come! André Lamy died on May 2, 2010.
Making Movie History: Anne Claire Poirier
Denys Desjardins 2013 7 min
Anne Claire Poirier blazed a trail for women filmmakers, introducing a distinctly female gaze into Quebec cinema with compelling personal films that balanced rigorous filmcraft with feminist analysis. Beginning her career in the ’60s, when few women were making films, she persevered, insisting on directing her own work. The experience of making De mère en fille (1968), Quebec’s first feminist film, would steel her resolve—to bring more women into the NFB. Tenacious and generous, she initiated and produced En tant que femmes (1972), a six-film series directed by various women. Her own work, including the unrelentingly powerful Mourir à tue-tête (1979), continues to resonate. Her final film for the NFB, perhaps her bravest and most painful, was Tu as crié LET ME GO, dealing with the tragic loss of her own daughter.
Making Movie History: Claude Fournier
Denys Desjardins 2013 7 min
A master of Quebec comedy, Claude Fournier has directed such memorable films as Deux femmes en or (1970), a hit that pulled in two million veiwers, and the more recent J'en suis! (1997). Originally a journalist, he was drawn to cinema, and documentary in particular, through an interest in cinematography, a passion he shared with friend Michel Brault. He collaborated with Brault and his contemporaries on the NFB's early forays into Direct Cinema, contributing to the groundbreaking La lutte (1961). Fournier left the NFB to work in New York, honing his craft alongside Robert Drew, Richard Leacodk, and D.A. Pennebaker--the pioneering figures behind such seminal films as Primary (1960). The multi-talented Fournier would become a leading figure in Quebec's film and TV industry. He reunited with Michel Brault in 1994, co-writing the screenplay for Mon ami Max.
Making Movie History: Claude Godbout
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
Claude Godbout was a young actor in experimental theatre when he caught the eye of Gilles Groulx, who cast him in Le chat dans le sac (1964). Captured on celluloid by cinematographer Jean-Claude Labrecque, Godbout became an iconic figure for young French Canadians, caught up in the throes of the Quiet Revolution. Le chat dans le sac, along with Claude Jutra's À tout prendre (1963), came to epitomize the energy of Direct Cinema: together they propelled Quebec film into modernity. Turning away from acting, Godbout tried his hand at directing before founding Productions Prisma with friends. The company produced important features like Les ordres (Brault, 1974) and Les bons débarras (Mankiewicz, 1980). Godbout's recent produciton credits include the series Cinéma québécois (2008) and the documentary Le rêve américain (Boulianne, 2014).
Making Movie History: Fernand Dansereau
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
History placed Fernand Dansereau in the right place at the right time. In 1960, at the age of 32, after a few years as writer and director, he was named producer at the NFB. It was the dawn of the Quiet Revolution and the agency was in creative foment. Dansereau produced seminal early work by Lamothe (Bûcherons de la Manouane, 1962); Groulx and Gosselin (Voir Miami, 1963); Arcand (Champlain, 1964); and Brault and Perrault (Pour la suite du monde, 1963). A well-rounded artist, he became a driving force in Quebec's private film and TV industry, returning to the NFB to direct Quelques raison d'espérer (2001), a profile of his cousin, ecologist Pierre Dansereau. The tireless Dansereau recently directed La brunante (2007), a feature film that reunited him with actress Monique Mercure 40 years after their collaboration on Ça n'est pas le temps des romans.
Making Movie History: Jacques Drouin
Denys Desjardins 2013 5 min
Jacques Drouin's artistic trajectory is closely tied to the Alexeïeff-Parker pinscreen. No other filmmaker has employed the device with such dedication since Alexeïeff himself, who created the design in 1931. Consisting of a perforated board with 240,000 adjustable pins, the pinscreen can be manipulated to create evocative moving images. Having made a series of notable pinscreen films with his wife Claire Parker, Alexeïeff gave one of his 10 prototypes to the NFB. Intrigued by its creative potential, Drouin made good use of the precious item--to the great pleasure of its elderly inventor--crafting remarkable animation like Mindscape (1976) and Imprints (2005). Now recognized as the leading master of the technique, Drouin was called upon by the French Film Archives in Paris to oversee the 2007 restoration of their own pinscreens.
Making Movie History: Jacques Godbout
Denys Desjardins 2013 7 min
In the late '50s and early '60s, Jacques Godbout was part of a brilliant young gang who would transform the NFB's French Program. They came from diverse backgrounds and most had no previous film training. For his part, Godbout had just returned from Ethiopia, where he'd been teaching French, when he was hired in 1958. He would soon be collaborating with some of the most inventive artists of his generation: Hubert Aquin, Claude Jutra, Michel Brault, Fernand Dansereau, Gilles Carle and others. Active on many cultural fronts, Godbout launched the magazine Liberté, founded the Mouvement laïque de langue française, and served as the first president of the Union des écrivans du Québec. He would display a spirit of experimentation in both documentary and fiction, and his many credits include YUL 871, Kid Sentiment and Ixe-13, now considered a cult classic.
Making Movie History: Jacques Giraldeau
Denys Desjardins 2013 5 min
Art lover and cinephile Jacques Giraldeau established Quebec's first film club in 1948, the year of the Refus Global, an anti-establishment manifesto championed by his art-world peers. He got early film training at the NFB alongside comrade-in-arms Michel Brault and then cut loose for a few years to experiment with the 16mm Bolex, the new lightweight alternative to heavy 35mm cameras. He and Brault collaborated on Petites médisances (1953-1954), a series of 39 shorts that foreshadowed Direct Cinema. Returning to the NFB in 1960, he thrived in the creative atmosphere that soon gave birth to French Program. In 1963, Giraldeau co-founded the Cinémathèque québécoise. In a career spanning over 50 years, from La neige a neigé (1951) to L'ombre fragile des choses (2007), he has created an extraordinary body of work, bearing witness to the evolution of Quebec culture.
Making Movie History: Jean Roy
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
A keen cinephile, Jean Roy arrived at the NFB with an amateur film under his arm. He was only 20 in 1949 when he went to the Arctic to shoot a series on Inuit culture. He worked with all the major NFB directors of the ’50s and ’60s—Devlin, Dansereau, Garceau, Giraldeau, Koenig, Kroitor, Palardy, Portugais and others. Michel Brault and Georges Dufaux would learn their craft as his assistants. One of eight cinematographers to collaborate on Jour de juin (1959), an early exercise in Direct Cinema, Roy later participated in Coopératio, a collective venture launched by Pierre Patry, and directed photography on Trouble-fête (1963), one of Quebec cinema’s first hits. As head of the NFB camera department, Roy established a program of institutional support for independent filmmakers—Aide au cinéma indépendant (ACIC)—which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2013.
Making Movie History: Michel Brault
Denys Desjardins 2013 7 min
Back in 1947, while still making amateur movies with Claude Jutra, could Brault have known that he would mark film history? His defiant experimentalism shook things up at the NFB, and films like Les raquetteurs (1958) would launch an irreversible movement. Alongside US filmmakers such as Richard Leacock, the young Québécois was at the forefront of the Direct Cinema revolution--and his "walking camera" would influence Jean Rouch. He collaborated with Pierre Perrault and the inhabitants of Île-aux-Coudres on the landmark film Pour la suite du monde (1963), a key moment in vérité cinema. Restlessly creative, Brault continued investigating both reality and fiction. His own feature, Les ordres (1974), honoured at Cannes, remains ingrained in Quebec's collective memory, as does his cinematography in legendary films like Mon oncle Antoine and Les bons débarras. It is impossible to imagine Quebec cinema without him. Michel Brault died in 2013 at the age of 85.
Making Movie History: Marcel Carrière
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
Marcel Carrière is to sound what Michel Brault is to image. Between 1958 and 1964, art and technology were interacting in exciting new ways at the NFB, and young filmmakers like Carrière embraced the creative possibilities with energy and imagination, transforming the language of cinema. With a determined sense of invention, Carrière refined the art of sound recording, liberating soundmen from bulky and unwieldy technology. He collaborated on many of French Program's early Direct Cinema films, beginning with Les raquetteurs (1958) through the masterful Pour la suite du monde (1963). He went on to direct his own films, working in both documentary and fiction, and infusing every project with charateristic humour and good will.
Making Movie History: Monique Fortier
Denys Desjardins 2014 6 min
Monique Fortier was one of the few women to make her way in the male world of the NFB in the 1950s. But make her way she did. Beginning as a secretary, she graduated to editing and in 1963 she became the first francophone woman to direct her own film, À l'heure de la décolonisation. Her NFB colleague Anne Claire Poirier would make her first film the same year. Fortier subsequently returned to editing, quietly labouring at the Steenbeck, shaping films that helped define Direct Cinema.
Making Movie History: Monique Mercure
Denys Desjardins 2013 6 min
From Festin des morts (Dansereau, 1965) to Naked Lunch (Cronenberg, 1991), Monique Mercure has played an astonishing range of roles, both large and small, with distinctive intensity and character. Launching her career at a time when the profession of film actress was hardly recognized in Quebec, she quietly established her powerful presence. Her friend Claude Jutra cast her in À tout prendre (1963), and Deux femmes en or (Fournier, 1970) would consolidate her popularity. Winning the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her extraordinary performance in J.A. Martin photographe (Beaudin, 1976), she went on to work with the biggest names in Quebec film--Jutra again, Labrecque, Poirier, Pool, Lepage, Aubert--crossing generational and linguistic divides. In La brunante (2007), she reunited with director Fernand Dansereau, reprising the role of Madeleine 40 years after she first played the character in Ça n'est pas le temps des romans.
Making Movie History: Pierre Hébert
Denys Desjardins 2014 5 min
Spontaneity and perseverance are intertwined in the inexhaustible art of Pierre Hébert, who has been exploring the limits of animated film for over 50 years. Arriving at the NFB in 1962, he was mentored by the great Norman McLaren. The avant-garde Hébert would push the boundaries of drawn-on-film animation, and with his anti-militarist film Memories of War (1982) he started performing alongside musicians in "live cinema" events, scratching directly onto projected film loops. These happenings inspired further film projects like La lettre d'amour (1988) and La plante humaine (1996), a masterful feature that traces his long creative path. Eternally innovative, Hébert appears around the world, collaborating in numerous projects, including Lieux et monuments.
Making Movie History: Pierre Juneau
Denys Desjardins 2013 5 min
One of the overlooked giants of Canadian film and broadcasting, Pierre Juneau played a key role in NFB history and in ensuring the place of the francophones within the agency. He arrived in 1949, having been involved in film clubs through a Catholic youth group. By 1954, at the age of 32, he was Assistant Regional Supervisor and official French Advisor. He was instrumental in the decision to relocate NFB headquarters to Montreal in 1956, a move that played a vital role in the evolution of Quebec cinema. When a fully independent French program was established in 1964, Juneau was appointed its first director. In 1968, he was appointed President of the Bureau of Broadcast Governors, later renamed the CRTC, and in 1982 he became President of the CBC, Canada's public broadcaster. He is remembered as one of Canadian culture's great public servants.
Making Movie History: Pierre Patry
Denys Desjardins 2014 4 min
It was Claude Jutra, always keen to work with friends, who brought Pierre Patry to the NFB, inviting him to assist on Les mains nettes (1958). Patry would direct a dozen films of his own, including Petit discours de la méthode ( 1963). He left early, dreaming of directing features--and by the tim he was 30, he had founded Coopératio and attained his goal. His first film, Trouble-fête (1964), was a box-office hit, announcing a new dawn for Quebec's movie industry. Patry went on to produce other features, including Michel Brault's Entre la mer et l'eau douce. Joining forces with industry peers, he helped establish the federal funding agency Telefilm Canada, but did not benefit himself. Following Les colombes (Jean-Claude Lord, 1972), his final film, he quit feature-film production and turned to the world of educational TV.
Making Movie History: Roger Blais
Denys Desjardins 2014 6 min
One life, many chapters! Blais began his working life as a wartime artist in Europe. Returning to Canada in 1945, he was recruited to the NFB by Grierson himself. Blais would develop enormous respect for the famous Scot, and his last film, Monsieur John Grierson (1974), is dedicated to his memory. Among the few early francophone directors at the NFB, Blais defended his right to work in his own language. Named executive producer of Studio F, the so-called French Unit, in 1954, he argued for a fully fledged independent French-language program. Following a remarkably prolific career at the NFB, he moved on to an impressive set of new challenges—leading a UN anthropology mission to New Guinea, running the audiovisual department for Expo 67, and more. He died in 2012 at the age of 95.
Making Movie History: Evelyn Lambart
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Animation pioneer Evelyn Lambert recalls arriving at the NFB in the 1940s, her celebrated collaborations with Norman McLaren and her approach to her solo work.
Making Movie History: Gudrun Bjerring Parker
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Gudrun Bjerring Parker talks about directing documentaries at the NFB in the 1940s. Parker was one of the first women directors at NFB.
Making Movie History: Sylvia Hamilton
Joanne Robertson 2014 4 min
Director 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.
Making Movie History: The Composers
Joanne Robertson 2014 5 min
Composers Louis Applebaum and Eldon Rathburn reflect on the role of music in film and their work as in-house composers for the NFB.
Making Movie History: Wartime Women
Joanne Robertson 2014 4 min
This short documentary presents an ensemble portrait of some of the women who worked at NFB during the Second World War. "It was the strength of the women that made the NFB the great thing that it was," recalled founding NFB Commismioner John Grierson in his later years.
Making Movie History: Léonard Forest
Alexandre Chartrand 2014 6 min
Dreaming of a life in cinema, the young Acadian arrived at the NFB in 1953. He displayed a unique sensiblity from the start, sharing a script credit with Anne Hébert on La femme de ménage. He went on to collaborate with Roger Blais on Les aboiteaux, a film that brought him back to Acadian New Brunswick — where he would return frequently in subsequent years. At 29, with full support from colleagues, he became the NFB ’s first French-speaking producer. As head of Studio F, he oversaw the rapid expansion of French-language production. It was a period of remarkable creativity that gave birth to films like Les brûlés. Forest gave vivid cinematic expression to the movement for Acadian emancipation: Les Acadiens de la dispersion was the first installment in a landmark trilogy. His pioneering activist impulse lead to the 1974 foundation of the NFB Acadian Studio, where subsequent generations of filmmakers have advanced his vision. He retired to Moncton, continuing to write with habitual verve.

Making Movie History

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