A Feminist Lens: The 1973 Women & Film International Festival

Featuring audio-visual materials and documents from the TIFF Film Reference Library’s Special Collection

TIFF Film Reference Library, 4th floor

Opening day: Sunday, October 27, 2024

Curated by: Cléo Sallis-Parchet 

https://tiff.net/events/a-feminist-lens-the-1973-women-film-international-festival

https://tiff.net/events/le-bonheur-with-cleo-sallis-parchet

Recently celebrating 50 years, the 1973 Women & Film International Festival remains an overlooked event in Canadian film history. A groundbreaking 10-day event at the St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto, the festival showcased films made by women, such as Alice Guy-Blaché, Leni Riefenstahl, Alanis Obomsawin, and Agnès Varda. The exhibition A Feminist Lens presents archival material from the TIFF FRL collection, never before seen in Toronto, including digitized Super 8 and open-reel video, photos, letters, newspaper clippings, and administrative documents, providing a glimpse into the collaborative and feminist work of those who helped bring the festival to life.

Drawing on concerns regarding the loss of women’s histories, this exhibition showcases important women filmmakers, their voices, and diverse perspectives through archival material that preserved an important moment in the feminist and activist movements, women's history, and Canadian cinema history.

This exhibition is supported by Archive/Counter-Archive and draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Join us on October 27 at 6pm for an informal reception at the Varda Café Bar (3rd floor).

https://tiff.net/events/a-feminist-lens-the-1973-women-film-international-festival

https://tiff.net/events/le-bonheur-with-cleo-sallis-parchet