Making Movie History: The Women

Five grandes dames of Quebec cinema shed light on the historic struggle to bring women's stories to the screen. Director Aimée Danis, who died in May 2012, founded Les Productions du Verseau in 1973, producing major feature films like Léolo (1989). Mireille Dansereau was the first woman in Quebec to direct her own independently produced feature--La vie rêvée (1972)--and in 2012 Montreal's Cinémathèque québécoise mounted a major retrospective of her rich and diverse body of work. The celebrated film editor Hélène Girard, nominated many times over for Gemeaux and Jutra Awards, has given shape to countless titles over her remarkable 40-year career. See separate entries on Anne Claire Poirier and Paule Baillargeon.