Community-Based Feminist Video Production in Toronto
Video Guide, Oct. 1984, v. 6, no. 5, pp. 8-9
This article discusses the various, current occurrences of feminist video artists working collectively to produce social documentary, and the challenges they face with budget, distribution, and lack of support for their social and political orientation. The first collaboration discussed is: Our Choice: A Tape About Teenage Mothers. Five video artists work with Jessie's Centre For Teenage Mothers on the production, which had a $5,000 Ontario Arts Council budget. The second project involves 4 artists working with the Centre for Spanish Speaking People. The currently unnamed video tells the story of 5 immigrant women who filed a complaint against their Commodore factory foreman in Toronto. The women were eventually awarded $75,000 in a precedent setting case that helped to created the then unknown concept of 'sexual harassment'. Bociurkin also writes that Women's Groups themselves are producing their own video works. The Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, produced a video to counter the myths that give men permission to rape, to show at their speaking engagements. The Rexdale Women's Centre created a tape to raise issues vital to immigrant women.
ITEM 1984.150 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Our Choice: A Tape About Teenage Mothers – Madeliene Duff
Our Choice: A Tape About Teenage Mothers – Nancy Nicol
Our Choice: A Tape About Teenage Mothers – Phyliss Waugh
Our Choice: A Tape About Teenage Mothers – Jane Wright
Our Choice: A Tape About Teenage Mothers – Marusia Bociurkin
Our Choice: A Tape About Teenage Mothers – Caroline Murray
unnamed video - sexual harassment – Margaret Moores
unnamed video - sexual harassment – Consuelo Rubio
unnamed video - sexual harassment – Almerinda Travassos
unnamed video - sexual harassment – Phyliss Waugh
Born In Flames – Lizzie Borden
Mini Skools Pay Mini Wages – Nancy Nicol
No More Strangers – Rexdale Women's Centre