A FEMINIST LENS: THE 1973 WOMEN & FILM INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL EXHIBITION
October 27, 2024 - March 1, 2025
TIFF Film Reference Library, 4th Floor
Recently celebrating 50 years, the 1973 Women & Film International Festival remains an overlooked event in Canadian film history. A groundbreaking 10-day event at the St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto, the festival showcased films by women in cinema from the 20th century, including Alice Guy-Blaché, Alanis Obomsawin, and Agnès Varda. The exhibition A Feminist Lens presents archival material from the TIFF Film Reference Library collection, never before seen in Toronto. It includes Super 8 and open-reel video recordings, photos, letters, newspaper clippings, and documents, providing a glimpse into the collaborative and feminist work of those who helped bring the festival to life.
Drawing on concerns regarding the loss of women’s histories, this exhibition showcases important women filmmakers, their voices, and diverse perspectives through archival material that preserved an important moment in the feminist and activist movements, women's history, and Canadian cinema history.
This exhibition draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
The curator would like to warmly thank the entire team at the TIFF Film Reference Library, in particular Natania Sherman, for their incredible guidance in making this exhibition a reality. In addition, the curator would like to acknowledge the support and care provided by Archive/Counter-Archive and Vtape in this project, and express her deepest gratitude to the organizers of the Women & Film International Festival, with special thanks to Suzanne Depoe and Kim Tomczak.
