Studio D: The First Female Film Studio

The National Film Board was also the first government-run film studio to have a female-only operated unit. This unit was called Studio D. 

Studio D was founded in 1974. It produced over 57 films and won over 120 awards, including three Academy Awards. At its height, it had six leading directors and several producers. It lasted just over 22 years. The story behind it is one of perseverance and hardship. But it all starts with one woman, Kathleen Shannon. 

Shannon was an adventurous filmmaker, even from an early age. By age 16, she had dropped out of high school and went to cataloging music for Crawley Films in Ottawa. Shannon joined the NFB as an editor in 1956. She edited 200 films before she was given her directorial debut. Her first film, Goldwood(1970), followed her life growing up in a mining town in British Columbia.  The most famous of all her films was the Working Mother film series. (1974-1975). This series and Our Dear Sisters(1975) were created under the NFB’s Challenge for Change Program (1967-1980).

These films would follow the lives of mothers and women throughout Canada, including indigenous women. When filming this series, Shannon would reflect: "While I was doing my research it had struck me that working mothers had a lot in common, so I intended to show the similarities by interviewing people of obviously different age, different economic situations, different background, where it becomes clear that the problems at the core are the same." 

Even though Shannon never directed an animated or CGI film, her mental health story is one that many can relate to. Shannon came from a troubled family. Her documentary, Kathleen Shannon: On Film, Feminism & Other Dreams(1997) with The National Film Board, recounts her life’s story under the hand of her parents. Her childhood was neglectful and unstable. Her family moved over 26 times while she was under 16, and alcoholism controlled her parent's lives. Her parents encouraged her to drink as a child for any occasion and punished her in unusual ways. When interviewed about it in her documentary, Shannon said: “And then one punishment that he wreaked on me when I was, I think, ten or so ... .I guess that’s the time when I was perceived as being “really difficult.” He {Father} pretended I didn’t exist for quite a long time. I don’t know how long, maybe six weeks…..”I simply didn’t exist.”

Shannon recounted how the lack of family bonds, socialization, and sexism she felt growing up influenced her drinking habits and relationships. Before working at the NFB, Shannon played various instruments in The Kitsilano Boys Band. This band would rehearse in the basement of her high school. Shannon was one of the first female members. She took on small jobs to support herself during this time and supported herself enough to move away from her parents and follow her passion for film. In both places where she was showcasing her talents, she had her boss and band members sexually harass her. 

“And there were extremely difficult things. There was no name for it then. There was no term for sexual harassment. But now I think back to when I couldn’t get up in the morning. I’d sleep in, my boss would phone, and I’d say, “Yes, I’m coming. I’m on my way. And I couldn’t help it. I just went back and crawled into bed. And I realized now I was quite depressed.”  

Shannon was also isolated at school because she overperformed, which compounded her feelings of depression. “I was isolated in that way because I did very well, and I was assumed to be…to be…aloof and proud of it—stuff like that. When I was young, I was kind of desperately shy. Because I never really…I never really learned to socialize as part of a group. Even then, I tended to start groups and lead them because that was easier than feeling like an outsider in a group.” 

Shannon would leave her film music job to work at the NFB and thrive. There, she saw visible flaws in the films directed at women that were produced. All films produced by The National Film Board in the 1940s and 50s encouraged what is now considered backward thinking for mental health, particularly women's health. Several encouraged pregnant wives to continue with laborious housework as it was a fun thing to do! Some told women to ignore their female concerns and advice about pregnancy and only listen to their husbands. Others guilted women into having relations with their husbands even if they were not in the mood. 

Shannon saw these videos as troubling. “What it did was just sort of make me embarrassed. about being female and not wanting to identify with…I mean, what choices are these on the screen? You know, The Harridan, The awful old gossip, the woman who doesn’t know nearly as much as her husband about the female body and pregnancy. I mean, what are these choices, you know?”

When speaking about fitting in at the National Film Board, Shannon said, “It was lonely, and it felt a little bit crazy, how to fit in. Well, The thing to do was work hard. At a certain point, I suddenly realized that the nine men I trained all earned more than me now, and I went to the art director…The acting director of production pointed this out. And he paused and then said,” You must have trained them well.” It was then that I realized that maybe my work isn’t inferior in some way. Maybe there is something weird going on.”

“……I never made it as a filmmaker. I was just beginning my (When she was 18 years old) apprenticeship. When I moved into this management position and started Studio D. After about five years of sitting in those management meetings, most of the time, it was just me and several men - I began to see that nothing would get decided, which drove me nuts. I think I was very thorny, very difficult, so I started taking (up) knitting, which somehow made it easier. I didn’t come out with my stomach in knots the way I had before. I knew that at the end of the meeting, even if nothing had been accomplished, I had another row done on my sweater.”

Shannon vividly remembers people telling her she could drink and act like a man, which she found pride in. This encouraged her, as she was convinced that the goal of fitting into society was to act like a man. However, this backward encouragement led her down a dark path in later years.

“Well, in my family, anything called for a drink. If you are upset, have a drink. If there is something to celebrate, “Let’s have a drink!” Anything. Everything. And then, when I began working with people in film, where there is lots of alcohol flowing, I would be told that…Proving that I could think like a man and drink like a man. And I took those as compliments. “Oh, this is a clue as to what I should be like.” I drank a great, great deal.”

She elaborated a bit more. “...And people who knew within the studio were very discreet. And there were several attempts made, I think…I think people must have been very worried about me. And finally, one day, three people from the studio came over and gently confronted me. And they’d looked after everything. One of them packed my clothes, and they took me to the hospital for the detox process (That people were supposed to have done before getting into this clinic.), and they delivered me there. “

Shannon’s coworkers saved her life. She completed rehab and continued working with the National Film Board. After the success of her documentaries, the NFB approved Shannon's start of Studio D. The studio was given a $100,000 budget and three women on staff: Shannon, Margaret Pettigrew, and Yuki Yoshida. 

Her reaction to the possible formation of a woman's unit for 1975? She felt that a women's unit in English production at the Board would be justified because "The credibility of women's films would come about a lot better if women worked together for a while. . . . We've been working on our own for such a long time. And I think we could develop different kinds of documentaries. I think that could happen. I think it could be very fine."

When asked for advice for female filmmakers dealing with a harsh work environment, Shannon stated, “Get a group of women friends together that you can work with…and or just to debrief… Just debriefing after a day is hard. It’s really good to have people who know what you’re talking about say, “Oh, I know!” That’s so crucial. Otherwise, you just feel like you are crazy.”

Kathleen Shannon worked as a counselor for her community after she retired from the National Film Board in June 1986. She was determined to help console people who went through similar things to her. She lived in a cabin and continued knitting with her various animals by her side.  

Studio D closed in 1996 due to budgeting issues and a lack of overall funding. The last film ever produced in the studio was about Shannon’s life. The film brought to light her struggles with alcohol, work-life balance, and her experiences at the NFB and Studio D. Kathleen Shannon would also pass two years later during surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from her lungs.