Jenny Gilbertson (born Jenny Brown; 28 October 1902 – 8 January 1990) was a Scottish documentary and educational filmmaker.

Early life and education

Jenny Gilbertson was born on 28 October 1902, in

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

; the only daughter of Mary Dunn Wright, and an iron merchant, William Brown. She studied at Laurel Bank School, then furthered her education at

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

where she earned an MA in teaching. Her relationship with films started after she went to London for a secretarial course in journalism in 1929. She concluded that educational and documentary style filmmaking was for her after she saw an amateur film about the Scottish

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of C ...

in London; which resulted in her purchasing her first 16mm camera. Gilbertson chose Shetland as her first subject as she had been taken there by her family as a child. Gilbertson met native Shetlander farmer Johnny Gilbertson while filming one of her earlier films, ''Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric (1933)'', where Gilbertson played the lead in the story-documentary film. They married shortly after the completion of the film, in 1934. She experienced a halt in her filmmaking career until the 1960s, due to the birth of her and her husbands two daughters, the distant location of

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

, and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It was not until after retiring from a teacher position that she entered her second phase of filmmaking.

Career

Following her purchase of a 16mm camera, Gilbertson went to the archipelagos of

in 1931. This is when she made her first film ''A Crofter's Life in Shetland'' and invited Scottish documentary maker

John Grierson John Grierson (26 April 1898 – 19 February 1972) was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. In 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" in a review of Robert J. Fl ...

to watch it. Grierson was impressed with her work and supported her by encouraging her to purchase a more advanced camera. She then purchased a 35mm

Eyemo The Eyemo is a 35mm movie film, 35 mm Movie camera, motion picture film camera which was manufactured by the Bell & Howell Co. of Chicago. Background Designed and first manufactured in 1925, it was for many years the most compact 35 ...

, and made five more films in

; all of which Grierson bought for the

GPO Film Unit The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office. The unit was established in 1933, taking on responsibilities of the Empire Marketing Board Film Unit. Headed by John Grierson, it was set up to produce sponsored documentary films ...

(General Post Office Film Unit). Following which Gilbertson toured Britain and Canada, lecturing on her film ''The Rugged Island: A Shetland Lyric''. She made one film with

Evelyn Spice Cherry Evelyn Spice Cherry (née Evelyn Spice) was a Canadian documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as the head of the Agricultural Films Unit at the National Film Board of Canada and as a member of the British D ...

, ''Prairie Winter'', (1934). During her hiatus after the lecture tours, the Gilbertsons ran a small hosiery business in their hometown of

in the 1940s. Later in 1947 Jenny Gilbertson accepted a temporary teaching position at the local Urafirth Primary School, which turned her supposed temporary employment into two decades. However, she revisited filmmaking after retiring from teaching in 1967, and returned to Canada soon after, where she made films for the

Canadian Broadcasting Company The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

. The revival of her filmmaking career was largely due to her husband's sudden death earlier in the year. Ideally returning to filmmaking in the 1970s, Gilbertson spent vast lengths of time in Arctic Canada producing some of her last works. ''People of Many Lands'', ''Jenny's Arctic Diary: Part I and II'', and ''Walrus Hunt'' were some of her later films that were sold to British and Canadian broadcasters, including the

Canadian Museum of History The Canadian Museum of History (french: Musée canadien de l’histoire) is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage o ...

. She also made a further film about Shetland, ''People of Many Lands- Shetland'' with Elizabeth Balneaves, which was broadcast by the BBC in October 1967. All the films Gilbertson had made during her filmmaking career were focused on embracing nature, farming life, fishing, families that did such activities and anything that captured the environment she was in.

Filmography

Legacy

Jenny Gilbertson left behind her feat of the one-woman show; she wrote, directed, lighted, staged, filmed and edited all her films by herself and was successful in doing so. Over twenty of her completed films, silent and with sound, black and white and in colour can now be found in the

Shetland Museum The Shetland Museum and Archives is a museum in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland. The new Shetland Museum at Hay's Dock was officially opened on 31 May 2007 by Queen Sonja of Norway and the Duke & Duchess of Rothesay (Charles & Camilla). Previous ...

Scottish Screen Archive The Moving Image Archive is a collection of Scottish film and video recordings at the National Library of Scotland, held at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, Scotland. There are over 46,000 items within the collection, and over 2,600 of these are publicly av ...

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

, and

. In November 2022 Banks' work featured in the GLEAN exhibition at Edinburgh's City Art Centre of 14 early women photographers working in Scotland. The photographs and films that were curated by Jenny Brownrigg were by Gilbertson,

Helen Biggar Helen Biggar (25 May 1909 – 28 March 1953) was a Scottish sculptor, filmmaker and theatre designer. She was politically active in the 1930s, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and was one of the filmmakers behind ''Hell UnLtd'', ...

, Violet Banks,

Christina Broom Christina Broom (''née'' Livingston; 28 December 1862 – 5 June 1939) was a Scottish photographer, credited as "the UK's first female press photographer". History Broom's parents were Scottish though she was born at 8 King's Road, Chelsea, Lo ...

, M.E.M. Donaldson, Dr Beatrice Garvie, Isabel Frances Grant, Ruby Grierson, Marion Grierson,

Isobel Wylie Hutchison Isobel Wylie Hutchison (30 May 1889–20 February 1982) was a Scottish Arctic traveller, filmmaker and botanist. Hutchison published poetry, books describing her travels to Iceland, Greenland, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands, and article ...

, Johanna Kissling, Isabell Burton-MacKenzie, Margaret Fay Shaw and Margaret Watkins

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Jenny British filmmakers 1902 births 1990 deaths People educated at Laurel Bank School Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

Scottish women film directors British women film directors Women film pioneers Women documentary filmmakers Mass media in Shetland People associated with Shetland