Aerlyn Weissman (born 1947 in

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) is a two-time Genie Award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker and political activist on behalf of the lesbian community.

Career

Weissman trained in sound recording in the United States before coming to Canada in 1970, and worked as a sound designer at the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

- one of very few women in that role. She worked on Janis Cole and Holly Dale’s '' P4W: Prison for Women'' (1981), and '' Hookers on Davie'' (1984). After the success of '' Forbidden Love'', Weissman collaborated with Lynne Fernie on a film about lesbian writer Jane Rule, the Genie-winning '' Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule'' (1995). She also directed the film ''Without Fear'' (1993), about women surviving violence. Weissman's indie documentary '' Little Sister’s vs Big Brother'', a stirring and comprehensive epic of the bookstore's struggles against state censorship, premiered in 2002. Included in the NFB's 2003 queer pedagogical package, this film's heroic portraits of the bookstore's activist triumvirate Janine Fuller, Jim Deva, Bruce Smyth (and writer/employee Mark Macdonald), are already enshrined in the Canadian queer pantheon. Since 2001 Weissman has also directed for the TV documentary series '' KinK'', as well as making ''WebCam Girls'' (2004, 52). She is best known for the Genie Award-winning 1992 film '' Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives'', which she co-directed with Lynne Fernie, and the 2002 film ''Little Sister's vs. Big Brother'', about the longstanding censorship battle between Canada Customs and

Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, also known as Little Sister's Bookstore, but usually called "Little Sister's", is an independent bookstore in the Davie Village/West End, Vancouver, West End neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Can ...

, a prominent LGBT bookstore in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. She was one of the co-directors, alongside

Louise Clark Louise Clark is a Canadian businesswoman, producer, and broadcast executive. Her most notable work is attributed with the Canadian television show ''Corner Gas''. She has worked on "television drama and comedy shows, feature films, movies-of-the-w ...

Jackie Burroughs Jacqueline Burroughs (2 February 1939 – 22 September 2010) was a British-born Canadian actress. Burroughs starred in over 100 films and television shows over her career, including ''Heavy Metal (film), Heavy Metal'', ''The Care Bears Movie'', ...

, John Walker and John Frizzell, of the landmark Canadian feminist feature film '' A Winter Tan'' (1987), the controversial semi-fictional account of

Maryse Holder Maryse Holder (October 19, 1940 – September 1977) was an American memoirist and feminist writer, who was the author of '' Give Sorrow Words''. The book was published posthumously in 1979 by Grove Press, with an introduction by feminist autho ...

's sex odyssey to Mexico. Her other films include ''Scams, Schemes, and Scoundrels'' (1996), ''Lost Secrets of Ancient Medicine: The Blue Buddha in Russia'' (2006) and ''The Portside'' (2009), as well as episodes of the television series '' KinK''. Based in Vancouver, Weissman has studied at the Centre for Digital Media and taught at

Emily Carr University of Art and Design The Emily Carr University of Art and Design (stylized as Emily Carr University of Art + Design and abbreviated as ECU) is a public university of art school, art and design located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1925 as the Van ...

. Currently, she mentors at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School on Galiano Island, British Columbia. She has also participated in many panels and academic symposiums about filmmaking, and offers workshops at VIVO, a Vancouver Media Arts Centre. She is a member of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, and Vancouver Women in Film and Television, and received the award for Woman of the Year in 1996. Now living on the West Coast of British Columbia, she continues to explore her interest in independent cinema and innovative television. Alongside documentary making, Weissman has worked on digital media projects including interactive signage for Sky Train commuters of InTransit BC, creating a template for heritage tourism in BC with The Saturna Project, and sustainable strategies for the fishing industry with the UBC Fisheries Project. Weissman's documentary ''Little Sister's vs. Big Brother'' was included in the NFB's 2003 queer pedagogical package. She is interviewed in

Matthew Hays Matthew Hays is a Canadian film critic, writer, film festival programmer and academic. He won a Lambda Literary Award for his 2007 book '' The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers''. Hays teaches film studies, journalism ...

' 2007

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...

-winning book '' The View from Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers''.

Themes

Aerlyn Weissman's work has covered topics ranging from forensic archaeology, digital technologies, censorship, and social software. She is also interested in politics and aesthetics of urban space, locative art/mapping, public rituals, and peace building. Her work is deeply engaged with Canadian women's, sexual, and lesbian history. She has remarked that Studio D films often ignored the Canadian context and wanted to take on the “politics of specificity”.

Personal life

Aerlyn Weissman was born in

and moved to Canada in 1970.

Awards

''Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule'' won the 1996

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978), known as the "Etrog Awards" for sculptor ...

for Best Short Documentary, the L.A. Outfest Outstanding Documentary Short Film, as well as Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. Weissman also won the Genie Award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 1993 for ''Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives''. Her first feature film, ''A Winter Tan'' was nominated for Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Actress, and Best Sound at the 1989 Genies. She received the Vancouver Women in Film and Television award for Woman of the Year in 1996. She has received two Gemini Awards for her recording excellence. She was awarded the Mayor's Arts Award for Film and New Media in 2009 by the City of Vancouver. 0She received an honourable mention in 2008 for her film ''Crossing'' at the Webby Awards. For her film ''Webcam Girls'' has a HotDocs Selection.

Filmography

Director

*'' A Winter Tan'', 1987 *'' Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives'', 1992 *'' Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule'', 1995 *''Scams, Schemes, and Scoundrels'', 2002 *''Little Sister's vs. Big Brother'', 2002 *'' KinK'', 2002-2003 *''Lost Secrets of Ancient Medicine: The Journey of the Blue Buddha'', 2006 *''Lost Secrets of Ancient Medicine: The Blue Buddha in Russia'', 2006 *''The Portside'', 2009 *'' Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride'', 2009

Sound

*''My Friends Call Me Tony'', 1975 *''Tree Power'', 1979 *'' A Wives' Tale (Une histoire de femmes)'', 1980 *''The Breakthrough'', 1981 *''The KGB Connections'', 1982 *''Portrait of the Artist... as an Old Lady'', 1982 *''Body by Garret'', 1982 *'' Hookers on Davie'', 1984 *''Inner Rhythm'' 1986 *''Blue Snake'', 1986 *''No Way! Not Me'', 1987 *''Eternal Earth'', 1987 *'' Artist on Fire'', 1987 *'' Calling the Shots'', 1988 *'' Strand: Under the Dark Cloth'', 1989 *''Meeting Place'', 1990 *''Distress Signals'', 1990 *''John Wyre: Drawing on Sound'', 1991

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weissman, Aerlyn 1947 births Living people Canadian documentary film directors Canadian television directors Canadian women film directors Canadian LGBTQ film directors LGBTQ people from Illinois Film directors from Illinois Film people from Chicago 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people Film directors from Vancouver Academic staff of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Documentary Film Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Short Documentary Film Canadian women television directors LGBTQ television directors 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Canadian women documentary filmmakers Canadian lesbian artists