Kathleen Shannon

Kathleen Shannon CM (November 11, 1935 – January 9, 1998) was a Canadian film director and producer. She is best known as the founder and executive producer of Studio D of the National Film Board of Canada,^[1] the first government-funded film studio in the world dedicated to women filmmakers.

Shannon joined the National Film Board in 1956 as a music editor.^[2] After Shannon had some 200 films to her credit as an editor she directed her first film, Goldwood in 1974, based on her childhood memories of one of the mining towns where her father, a mining engineer, had worked. She went on to direct a series of 11 shorts in Working Mothers (1974–1975). At this time she began to lobby for a women's film unit at the NFB.

In 1974, the National Film Board of Canada created Studio D. Shannon served as executive producer of Studio D from 1975 to 1986, overseeing the production of over 80 films. Under her tutelage, Studio D produced films such as I’ll Find A Way (1977), the Academy Award–winning If You Love This Planet (1980), and Not a Love Story (1981).^[3]

In 1986, Shannon was named a Member of the Order of Canada.^[4] The same year, she stepped down as executive producer, although she continued to work with the studio until 1992 when she retired.

After retirement she moved to the Kootenays where she started a women's guest house and a counselling centre.^[5] In a tribute to Shannon, the NFB instituted a documentary film award in her name, to be presented each year at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival.^[6] One of the last films produced at Studio D before its closure in 1996 was a biographical documentary about Kathleen Shannon called Kathleen Shannon: On Film, Feminism, and Other Dreams, directed by Gerry Rogers.

Shannon died of lung cancer at the age of 62.^[7]

Filmography

• Goldwood, 1974 (director; writer; editor; music)
• I Don't Think It's Meant for Us, Challenge for Change series, 1971 (director; editor)
• It's Not Enough, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; editor; producer)
• Like the Trees, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; editor; producer)
• Luckily I Need Little Sleep, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; editor; producer)
• Mothers Are People, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; editor; producer)
• Our Dear Sisters, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; producer)
• The Spring and Fall of Nina Polanski, 1974 (producer; music)
• They Appreciate You More, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; editor; producer)
• Tiger on a Tight Leash, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; editor; producer)
• Would I Ever Like to Work, Challenge for Change series, 1974 (director; editor; producer)
• ...And They Lived Happily Ever After, 1975 (co-director with Irene Angelico, Anne Henderson; co-editor with Irene Angelico, Anne Henderson; producer)
• Co-op Housing: The Best Move We Ever Made, 1975 (producer)
• Co-op Housing: Getting It Together, 1975 (producer)
• Great Grand Mother, 1975 (producer)
• My Friends Call Me Tony, 1975 (producer)
• My Name Is Susan Lee, 1975 (producer)
• Just-A-Minute, 1976 (producer)
• Maud Lewis: A World Without Shadows, 1976 (producer)
• A Working Chance, 1976 (producer)
• Beautiful Lennard Island, 1977 (producer)
• Gurdeep Singh Bains, 1977 (producer)
• How They Saw Us: Needles and Pins, 1977 (producer)
• How They Saw Us: Women at War, 1977 (producer)
• How They Saw Us: Women at Work, 1977 (producer)
• Kevin Alex, 1977 (producer)
• The Lady from Grey County, 1977 (producer)
• Some American Feminists, 1977 (producer)
• Veronica, 1977 (producer)
• Benoît, 1978 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: Flin Flon, 1978 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: Holidays, 1978 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: Stunt Family, 1978 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: The Thirties, 1978 (producer)
• Eve Lambart, 1978 (producer)
• Patricia's Moving Picture, 1978 (producer)
• Rencontre, 1978 (producer)
• Sun, Wind and Wood, 1978 (producer)
• An Unremarkable Birth, 1978 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: McIntosh, 1979 (producer)
• Prairie Album, 1979 (producer)
• The Right Candidate for Rosedale, 1979 (producer)
• Sea Dream, 1979 (producer)
• Boys Will Be Men, 1980 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: Agnes Campbell MacPhail, 1980 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: Birth, 1980 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: Homestead, 1980 (producer)
• Canada Vignettes: The Vote, 1980 (producer)
• Just A Lady, 1980 (producer)
• Laila, 1980 (producer)
• Rusting World, 1980 (producer)
• The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, 1980 (producer)
• Julie O'Brien, 1981 (producer)
• Louise Drouin: Veterinarian, 1981 (producer)
• Four Centuries: The Firearm in Canada, 1982 (producer)
• It's Just Better, 1982 (producer)
• Portrait of the Artist... as an Old Lady, 1982 (producer)
• The Way It Is, 1982 (producer)
• Attention: Women at Work, 1983 (producer)
• Dream of a Free Country: A Message from Nicaraguan Women, 1983 (director; producer)
• I Want to Be an Engineer, 1983 (producer)
• Pukaskwa National Park, 1983 (producer)
• Adèle and the Ponies of Ardmore, 1984 (producer)
• Abortion: Stories from North and South, 1984 (producer)
• Behind the Veil: Nuns, 1984 (producer)
• Head Start: Meeting the Computer Challenge, 1984 (producer)
• On Our Own, 1984 (producer)
• This Borrowed Land, 1984 (producer)
• Too Dirty for a Woman, 1984 (producer)
• The Treadmill, 1984 (producer)
• Turnaround: A Story of Recovery, 1984 (writer; co-editor with Shelly Hamer; producer)
• Waterwalker, 1984 (producer)
• The Best Time of My Life: Portraits of Women in Mid-Life, 1985 (producer)
• Dark Lullabies, 1985 (producer)
• DES: An Uncertain Legacy, 1985 (producer)
• Speaking Our Peace, 1985 (producer)
• Spirit of the Kata, 1985 (producer)
• A Writer in the Nuclear Age: A Conversation with Margaret Laurence, 1985 (producer)
• Beyond Memory, 1986 (producer)
• Children of War, 1986 (producer)
• Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, 1986 (producer)
• Firewords: Louky Bersianik, Jovette Marchessault, Nicole Brossard, 1986 (producer)
• First Take Double Take, 1986 (producer)
• The Impossible Takes a Little Longer, 1986 (producer)
• Moving On, 1986 (producer)
• No Longer Silent, 1986 (producer)
• Nuclear Addiction: Dr. Rosalie Bertell on the Cost of Deterrence, 1986 (producer)
• A Safe Distance, 1986 (producer)
• Speaking of Nairobi, 1986 (producer)
• Sylvie's Story, 1986 (producer)
• Thin Dreams, 1986 (producer)
• The Legacy of Mary McEwen, 1987 (producer)
• A Love Affair with Politics: A Portrait of Marion Dewar, 1987 (producer)
• The Man Who Stole Dreams, 1987 (producer)
• To a Safer Place, 1987 (producer)
• Worth Every Minute, 1987 (producer)
• 15th Anniversary, 1989 (narrator)
• Adam's World, 1989 (producer)
• Goddess Remembered, 1989 (producer)
• Illuminated Lives: A Brief History of Women's Work in the Middle Ages, 1989 (producer)
• Russian Diary, 1989 (producer)
• The Burning Times, 1990 (producer)
• Gathering Together, Faithful Women series, 1990 (director; co-editor with Gerry Rogers)
• Harmony and Balance, Faithful Women series, 1990 (director; co-editor with Gerry Rogers)
• I'll Never Forget You, Faithful Women series, 1990 (director; co-editor with Gerry Rogers)
• Priorities and Perspectives, Faithful Women series, 1990 (director; co-editor with Gerry Rogers)
• Texts and Contexts, Faithful Women series, 1990 (director; co-editor with Gerry Rogers)
• Through Ignorance or Design, Faithful Women series, 1990 (director; co-editor with Gerry Rogers)
• Working towards Peace, Faithful Women series, 1990 (director; editor)
• Full Circle, 1993 (producer)

References