ABSTRACT
Documentary Filmmaking by Women in Quebec: Nicole Giguére Video Femmes: A Unique Contribution to Filmmaking in Quebec Quebec has a strong documentary filmmaking tradition, a historical reality that is internationally recognized. What is known as direct filmmaking, or cinema vérité, grew out of the francophone film-directing program offered by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in the 1960s and 1970s. I am not sure if this type of filmmaking has had as much importance in anglophone productions as it has in francophone productions. It was within the context of the NFB's program that we aimed to represent and express aspects of the "real world" which is what I tried to do in my first documen taries, made in 1974-75. At that time we were motivated by an explosion of community and feminist activism. Along with the advent of the handheld camera, this kind of solidarity made production easier and facilitated the broadcasting of audio-visual materials. A handful of colleagues interested in both cinema and social intervention began the group known as Video Femmes. We wanted to produce our own documentaries on subjects of in terest to women. We also wanted to ensure the distribution of films and videos created by women from Quebec, both in and beyond Quebec. At the same time other video centres sprang up in Montreal, beginning with Le Videographe, which was followed by Coop video and Groupe d'Intervention Video (G1V), both of which also promoted films by women. All these groups still exist and are active in production and private distribution.
