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Long live Studio D Kathleen Shannon, founder of the trailblazing women's studio at the National Film Board of Canada, died last Friday, Jan. 9, in a British Columbia hospital after a struggle with lung cancer. She was 62 years old. Shannon founded Studio D, perhaps the most controversial studio in the NFB's history, in 1973 in an effort to give women opportunities in the film business. Films created at the studio met with tremendous critical response worldwide, netting hundreds of awards, including three Oscars. >> In 1996 Shannon, who was awarded the Order of Canada for her contribution to film, expressed dismay when federal budget cuts led to the dismantling of Studio D. When asked last summer about the progress women had made in the film business, Shannon told the Mirror, "I think we're being sold an illusion that things have changed." >> Studio D's legacy includes such films as If You Love This Planet, Forbidden Love, Would I Ever Like to Work, I'll Find a Way and Not a Love Story: A Film about Pornography. One of the final films produced by Studio D, ironically enough, was Gerry Rogers' Kathleen Shannon on Film, Feminism & Other Dreams, in which the film guru discussed her philosophies. >> Shannon is survived by a son. --Matthew Hays
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