Since Nell Shipman wrote and starred in
Back to God's Country
(1919), Canadian women have been making films. The accolades given to film-makers such as Patricia Rozema (
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
,
When Night is Falling
), Alanis Obomsawin (Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance), and Micheline Lanctôt (
Deux actrices
) at festivals throughout the world in recent years attest to the growing international recognition for films made by Canadian women. With
Gendering the Nation
the editors have produced a definitive collection of essays, both original and previously published, that address the impact and influence of a century of women's film-making in Canada. In dialogue with new paradigms for understanding the relationship of cinema with nation and gender,
seeks to situate women's cinema through the complex optic of national culture. This collection of critical essays employs a variety of frameworks to analyse cinematic practices that range from narrative to documentary to the avant-garde.