ABSTRACT
Comparing the careers of art cinema directors Québécoise Mireille Dansereau and Swede Gunnel Lindblom with a focus on the production context of their respective debut films Dream Life (La Vie rêvée, 1972, Canada) and Summer Paradise (Paradistorg, 1976, Sweden), the chapter analyzes the film policies that shaped their works and the emerging women’s film activism in Canada and Sweden. Mobilizing the concept of “gender talk” to address the increased speakability of how gender inequality shaped conditions for women in the film industry, the authors demonstrate how in Canada “gender talk” led to policy reforms, while in Sweden there were no formal gender equality bids until much later. The chapter discusses how women, especially working in a premier, male-dominated art cinema fiction feature film context, encountered similar challenges despite policy differences, which included navigating informal networks and relying on support from influential men. However, both Dansereau and Lindblom made films that challenged male norms and included diegetic “gender talk,” hence contributing to putting women’s issues on the agenda.
