Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Textual record
- Moving images
- Graphic material
- Sound recording
- Object
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on the subject of the fonds.
Level of description
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1935-2007 (Creation)
- Creator
- Shaffer, Beverly, 1945-
Physical description area
Physical description
Contains 2.31m of textual records, 1,832 graphic materials (355 photographs, 1,237 slides, and 240 strips of negatives), 125 moving images (53 videotapes, 42 reels, and 30 DVDs), 21 sound recordings (audiocassette tapes), and 17 objects.
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Beverly Shaffer was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1945, and is known for her prolific career as a documentary filmmaker. Shaffer earned degrees from McGill University and Macdonald College before going on to receive her master's degree in film from Boston University in 1971. Before beginning her decades-long career at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), Shaffer worked at the flagship PBS station WGBH-TV in Boston on the Emmy Award-winning series Nova and Zoom, and contributed to Walsh's Animals, a partnership with the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Shaffer began working for the NFB as a staff director in 1975, where she helped found and sustain the groundbreaking women-run film production unit Studio D (1974-1986), which is widely credited as the world's first publicly funded feminist filmmaking studio. During her time at the NFB, she directed numerous documentaries and docuseries tackling subjects relating to social issues like women's rights, disability, domestic violence, and incarceration, including the Children of Jerusalem and Children of Canada series--the latter which included "I'll Find a Way," winner of the Best Live Action Short Oscar in 1978. Other notable films by Shaffer include Academy Award-shortlisted "Mr. Mergler's Gift" (2005) and the 1999 follow-up to "I'll Find a Way," "Just a Wedding."
Throughout her film career, Shaffer won numerous awards from film festivals around the world, including the Academy Awards, the American Film and Video Festival, the John Muir Medical Film Festival, Le festival du film des enfants, the Colombus International Film Festival, the National Educational Film & Video Festival, the Canadian Association for Young Children Film Festival, the Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Salerno, the Taiwan International Documentary Festival, and the Festival international du film pour l’enfance et la jeunesse, among others.
Shaffer retired from the NFB in the mid 2000s and continues to reside in Montreal, Quebec.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds contains materials relating to Beverly Shaffer's filmmaking career spanning from her earlier education through to her retirement, the bulk of which reflect her time as a salaried director with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), where Shaffer directed documentary films tackling issues like family relationships, women's rights, disability, and abuse.
The bulk of the fonds comprises research, correspondence, and other materials like scripts and budgets for potential film projects. Materials from shoots underway--including correspondence, schedules, and other related records--as well as post-production records including press releases and educational materials, can also be found in the fonds.
Numerous awards within the fonds, including certificates (textual) and physical awards (objects), reflect Shaffer's successes in film festivals around the world from the 1970s through the 2000s. Notably, a subseries is dedicated to her Oscar win at the 1978 Academy Awards for the Children of Canada series instalment "I'll Find a Way"--including many photographs, newspaper articles, letters of congratulations, and even sound recordings of coworkers' reactions to the win.
The fonds contains copies of most of Shaffer's films, mostly as reels and videotapes but including several DVDs. This includes the Children of Jerusalem and Children of Canada series, as well as many other documentary short films directed by Shaffer and footage of several interviews. Numerous photographs of cast and crew during and after filming--in the form of prints, slides, and negatives--can also be found in the fonds.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
- Arabic
- Armenian
- Chinese
- Dutch
- English
- French
- German
- Hebrew
- Italian
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Yiddish
- Polish
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- National Film Board of Canada (Subject)
- WGBH Educational Foundation (Subject)
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
This description was created by Processing Archivist Kate Moore in September 2023.