Exploring Technological Change: Margaret Perry's Nova Scotia Film Bureau Archive (1945-1969), A Guide for Exploring Technology 10

Abstract

ABOUT OUR EDUCATIONAL GUIDES SERIES

One of the central goals of Archive/Counter-Archive is to increase public engagement with our partner organizations and their collections through an “activation” of archival materials that foregrounds the pressing need to rethink what archives can/might do in the 21st century. In order to achieve this goal, we have developed a series of Educational Guides designed to accompany film and video from A/CA’s Case Studies and facilitate their integration into K-12 and postsecondary classrooms.

The guides are easily adaptable to different grades and subjects, and educators are encouraged to use these guides as a starting point to create their own lesson plans. Each guide contains important additional context for the materials featured, including information on key participants, essays and reflections, and synopses of selected works for classroom discussion. The guides also include critical discussion questions oriented toward a range of topics to encourage students and teachers to engage critically with A/CA’s archival materials by making connections between their context of creation and contemporary issues and experiences.

Margaret Perry is one of Canada’s most important, most prolific, yet least-known woman filmmakers and early film bureaucrats. Perry’s films are complex artefacts that merit careful and critical reflection. During her 24 years at the helm of the Nova Scotia Film Bureau, Perry oversaw the production and direction of over 50 films. Yet, because not much is known about her work as a filmmaker, Perry’s films have been dismissed, often without being seen, on charges of their “anti-modern” depictions of Nova Scotia. And yet, Perry’s films are significant for their creative depictions of a place and time about which limited film records remain and as a cinematic testament to the career of a trail-blazing and visionary filmmaker. The five downloadable guides listed below reintroduce and critically reframe Margaret Perry and the contribution of her films. They include important contextual information about Perry and her films, a lists of films suggested for classroom viewing, film synopses, and discussion questions oriented toward a range of thematic areas. They also suggest supplementary films and resources to complement the gaps present in Perry’s work.

Guide for Exploring Technology 10