NFB celebrates International Women’s Day with a tribute to Studio D, Canada’s trailblazing feminist film studio. National Film Board of Canada honours March 8 with a month of programming and announces latest results in gender parity.

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 and the landmark French Program series En tant que femmes—both of which were founded in 1974 in anticipation of the UN’s International Women’s Year, and marked their 50th anniversaries last year.

Highlight events this month include:

• A special Studio D event on March 6 in the NFB’s Alanis Obomsawin Theatre in the heart of Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles;
• Community screenings across the country, featuring Donald McWilliams’ A Return to Memory;
• Online content with films, channels and blogposts—including the online premiere of Toronto filmmaker Laurie Townshend’s feature doc, A Mother Apart (Oya Media Group/NFB).

The NFB is also continuing to meet or exceed its parity commitments, first announced in 2016.

• In 2023–2024, women directed 56% of 126 NFB productions, for a total of 70 works, with 55% of production budgets allocated to works by women.
• Furthermore, all NFB animation and documentary units are currently led by women, who also make up a majority of staff producers—ensuring that women’s stories and perspectives are fully reflected throughout the NFB.

“It’s important to underline the legacy of all these trailblazing women whose films, passion and talent remain an inspiration for all of us. The 1970s and International Women’s Year were key moments for women and our struggle for full and equal rights. For 85 years, the NFB has been exploring vital issues and telling Canada’s stories, and today, our strong results in gender parity are further proof that, a half-century after Studio D was founded and the series En tant que femmes was produced, the NFB remains a unique creative environment for women and their diverse experiences,” said Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the NFB.

Studio D special programming and events

The NFB will explore Studio D’s powerful legacy with a public event in Montreal on March 6, in the presence of some of its visionary filmmakers—as well as a great selection of online programming. 

• March 6, Alanis Obomsawin Theatre, Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles
  A Celebration of Studio D: Fifty Years of Feminist Filmmaking (event in English).
  Free film screening and discussion on Thursday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m.
  Introduced by Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the NFB.
• If You Love This Planet, Terre Nash’s Oscar-winning short documentary, featuring a lecture by Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
• Accompanied by the Studio D short Just-a-Minute II, directed by Terre Nash, Margaret Pettigrew, Moira Simpson and Mary Aitkin, featuring one-minute clips on women’s experiences.

Accompanied by a short presentation on the legacy of Studio D by Rebecca Sullivan and John Brosz of the University of Calgary.
Discussion moderated by Rebecca Sullivan and journalist, critic and author Matthew Hays, with Studio D filmmakers in attendance.

En tant que femme special event

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.

Related links

Press Kits: A Mother Apart | A Return to Memory

French version here | Version française ici.

Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a one-of-a-kind producer, co-producer and distributor of distinctive, engaging, relevant and innovative documentary and animated films. As a talent incubator, it is one of the world’s leading creative centres. The NFB has enabled Canadians to tell and hear each other’s stories for over eight decades, and its films are a reliable and accessible educational resource. The NFB is also recognized around the world for its expertise in preservation and conservation, and for its rich and vibrant collection of works, which form a pillar of Canada’s cultural heritage. To date, the NFB has produced more than 14,000 works, 6,500 of which can be streamed free of charge at nfb.ca. The NFB and its productions and co-productions have earned over 7,000 awards, including 11 Oscars and an Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.