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Gudrun Bjerring Parker (partial data)

Gudrun Bjerring Parker
Image: © National Film Board of Canada

Also known as: Gudrun Bjerring, Gudrun Parker
Country: Canada
Born: 1920
Died: 2022

Films directed by Gudrun Bjerring Parker

Quotes by Gudrun Bjerring Parker

"[At the National Film Board of Canada during World War II] I think the general impression was we were very wild, we wore slacks, the women wore slacks, and our hours were questionable, until two in the morning and so on."
-- Gudrun Bjerring Parker (source)

"I was working on films during that period [the 1940s and 1950s] and I was totally unaware of how we [women] were being represented. The most significant change that I see in the more recent films in the series ['Cinemama', Montreal, April 1984] is that women making films are now beginning to question that assumption."
-- Gudrun Bjerring Parker (source)

Quotes about Gudrun Bjerring Parker

"If adults are co-operative, children are uniformly delightful to work with. Gudrun Bjerring thinks so, at any rate—and she should know, having specialized in films for and about children for some time. Gudrun isn't terribly old herself, and she refuses to say she's a producer, really. She's just a junior. However, her name heads the list of the NFB Educational unit, and she has many films to her credit. [...] Gudrun uses her old name Bjerring on her films, though she's married to Morton Parker, also of the Film Board. They say it's a good thing if a film maker marries another addict, because it's so absorbing that your spouse is bound to be subjected to a lot of shop talk, and if he or she isn't interested, it could be difficult. Unlike the Cherrys [Evelyn Spice Cherry and Lawrence Cherry], the Parkers don't work in the same unit, though Morton wrote the commentary for Listen To The Prairies. When you meet Gudrun Bjerring, you can understand her success with children—and adults too. She is so completely poised that you can't imagine her being upset by any of the things that could, and usually do, go wrong in making films. She is also so serenely pretty that you might think she was the other kind of film star, the kind in front of the camera."
-- Elspeth Chisholm (source)

"Gudrun Bjerring Parker directed educational films, sometimes with all-women crews, using Judith Crawley on camera and Sally MacDonald on sound; she became head of the [National Film Board of Canada] educational unit."
-- Barbara Halpern Martineau (source)

"Gudrun [Bjerring] started off as a cutter, but soon revealed so original a talent for dealing with children and young people that she became a director of such films. She was a very quiet, extremely persistent worker with an outwardly sweet and accommodating approach which masked a truly tremendous tenacity."
-- Graham McInnes (source)

"The documentaries that pioneering filmmaker Gudrun Bjerring Parker made for the National Film Board in the 1940s and 50s are at once a fascinating glimpse into Canada's past and surprisingly relevant to the present day. They argue the necessity of affordable child care for working mothers, examine media bias and challenge accepted gender roles. They are also engagingly dramatic, inherently empathic and, at times, quietly lyrical. Ms. Bjerring Parker is often credited with helping create the template for the burgeoning NFB's distinctive documentary style. Her achievements are all the more remarkable when you consider she was one of the few female directors working at the film board in those decades."
-- Martin Morrow (source)

"Once, Barbara [Rowe Gordon] recalls, she worked with an entirely female crew. Gudrun Parker was director, Margaret Perry was camerawoman and Barb was manager. They were filming the Library School on the top floor of the Ontario College of Education in Toronto. There were no elevators and they had to carry all kinds of heavy equipment up three flights of stairs. Struggling under 2 and 5 kilowatt lights, and lugging cameras around, wasn't exactly a tea party but the female crew emerged with a successful take and none the worse for their exercise."
-- Betsy Mosbaugh (source)

"[Gudrun Bjerring Parker] was an iconic figure to us. She normalized the idea of women being behind the camera."
-- Terre Nash (source)

"Gudrun Bjerring, a pioneering woman director and one of the first in Canada, joined the [National Film Board] in the early 1940s and became head of the educational unit. Her films were often lyrical documentaries that reflected her interest in music, culture, and young children."
-- Wyndham Wise (source)

For QUOTES about a specific film by Gudrun Bjerring Parker, please see:   Vitamins A, B1, C and D    Before They Are Six    Listen to the Prairies    Children's Concert    Royal Journey    Opera School    A Musician in the Family   

Notes about Gudrun Bjerring Parker

(sources)

Bibliography for Gudrun Bjerring Parker

Section 1: Publications by Gudrun Bjerring Parker

Section 2: Publications about Gudrun Bjerring Parker

Brief Sections of Books

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Web Sites

Section 3: Publications about the Films of Gudrun Bjerring Parker

Before They Are Six (1943)

Brief Sections of Dissertations

Children's Concert (1949)  (also known as: "Concerts pour les jeunes")

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Royal Journey (1951)  (also known as: "Voyage royal")

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Opera School (1952)  (also known as: "La classe d'opéra")

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

A Musician in the Family (1953)  (also known as: "Un musicien dans la famille")

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Archival Collections

These archival institutions have holdings related to Gudrun Bjerring Parker or her films:

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