Canadian Women Film Directors Database
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Quote:
"In 1931, [Evelyn Spice Cherry] went to London, England, to make an amateur film and wound up crossing paths with John Grierson. The future Commissioner of the [National Film Board of Canada] was impressed with her first film, and offered her a job at the General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit—the London-based government film production organization that he headed. The GPO Film Unit was the epicentre of British documentary filmmaking, and counted among its ranks the greatest documentarians of the day. It was here that Cherry would serve her apprenticeship in the art of documentary. While in London, she married Lawrence Cherry, who was also originally from Saskatchewan, and the couple returned to Canada before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1941, she re-connected with Grierson, who was now at the NFB. He hired the Cherrys as a director-cinematographer team. Evelyn wrote, directed, edited and produced films, while Lawrence took care of the photography duties."
-- Marc St-Pierre


Source:
St-Pierre, Marc. "Women and film: A tribute to the female pioneers of the NFB." NFB Blog, March 4, 2013.