Kathleen Shannon
| Kathleen Shannon | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 11, 1935 Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Died | January 9, 1998 (aged 62) |
| Occupation |
Film director Film producer |
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, 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. 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).
In 1986, Shannon was named a Member of the Order of Canada. 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. 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. 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.
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