Judith Rosemary (Sparks) Crawley (April 21, 1914 – September 16, 1986) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

film producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the c ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. She and her husband Frank Radford "Budge" Crawley co-founded the production company Crawley Films in 1939."Judith (Rosemary) Sparks Crawley."
''Library and Archives Canada''. Retrieved: April 23, 2016. Crawley is best known for writing the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...

-winning documentary '' The Man Who Skied Down Everest''. She is considered to be the first Canadian female filmmaker, and is recognized as being a pioneer for women who work in the film industry.

Early life

Judith "Judy" Sparks was born in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

to Roderick Percy Sparks, a prominent tariff counsel and Rheba (Fraser) Sparks. She studied at the

Ottawa Ladies' College The Ottawa Ladies' College was a non-denominational Ottawa educational institution founded in 1869 for the purpose of providing a quality education to women. The private school operated on First Avenue in The Glebe from 1914 to 1942. During the Se ...

, and later studying English and economics from 1933 to 1936, graduated from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, having earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

. After her marriage to her next door neighbour, "Budge" Crawley, on October 1, 1938, Crawley became interested in

filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

Filmmaking career

Crawley wrote the script and edited ''Île d'Orléans'' (1938), the first film she worked on with her husband. Shot during their honeymoon, the film won the Hiram Percy Maxim Award from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for Best Amateur Film in 1939, making their collaboration the first Canadian film to receive this type of recognition. Crawley and her husband founded Crawley Films in 1939. As her family grew, Crawley became increasingly interested how to properly raise children. In 1947, she wrote, directed and starred in the educational childcare short film ''Know Your Baby''. Despite its financial failure upon release, the film became immensely popular with audiences, and prompted two follow-up series commissioned by

McGraw Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...

. From 1941 to 1944, after being hired by renewed Scottish documentary filmmaker

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 ...

, Crawley became a freelance cinematographer, screenwriter, editor and director for the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

(NFB), often working with her husband. During her time at the NFB, Crawley directed ''Four New Apple Dishes,'' the first NFB film to be directed by a woman.St. Pierre, Mar
"Women and film: A tribute to the female pioneers of the NFB."
''National Film Board of Canada'', March 4, 2013. Retrieved: April 23, 2016. As an independent filmmaker on contract to the NFB, the Crawley's ''The Loon's Necklace'' (1950) "remains in the national collective unconscious of generations of Canadians.Armatage et al. 1999, p. 5. In 1957, Crawley and her husband were given a joint

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

.Forrester, James
""The Crawley Era."
''Cinema Canada'', June 1982. Retrieved: April 23, 2016. After 1961, Crawley elected to focus on producing and writing rather than directing."Judith Crawley."
'The Canadian Encyclopedia''. Retrieved: April 23, 2016. As a result, Crawley wrote the script for '' The Man Who Skied Down Everest'', which in 1975 won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This film was the first Canadian-made production to take home the

for Best Documentary . After separating from her husband in 1965, Crawley founded another film production company with two of her children, Michal and Jennifer."Judith Crawley."
''Canadian Women Film Directors Database''. Retrieved: April 23, 2016. From 1979 to 1982, Crawley was the president of the

Canadian Film Institute The Canadian Film Institute (CFI) (french: Institut canadien du film (ICF)) Canadian Film Institute involves Canada in the film production, study, appreciation process of film/moving images for cultural and educational purposes. The Canadian Film ...

. In 1986, Crawley and her husband received a joint Special Achievement

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; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for sc ...

for their continued work in the Canadian film industry.

Death

On September 16, 1986, Crawley died from

respiratory disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, ...

Partial filmography

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Armatage, Kay, Kass Banning,

Brenda Longfellow Brenda Longfellow (born 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker known for her biographies of female historic figures. Since 2007, Longfellow's focus in her films has been on environmental issues. Biography Brenda Longfellow was born in Copper Cliff ...

and

Janine Marchessault Janine Marchessault is a professor of Cinema and Media Studies and Canada Research Chair (2003-2013) at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her main fields of research are Ecologies of Media and Mediation, (sub)urban cultures, the works of Ma ...

, eds. ''Gendering the Nation: Canadian Women's Cinema''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. . * Khouri, Malek. ''Filming Politics: Communism and the Portrayal of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-46.'' Calgary, Alberta, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 2007. . * McInnes, Graham. ''One Man's Documentary: A Memoir of the Early Years of the National Film Board''. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba, 2004. . * Wise, Wyndham.
''Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film''.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawley, Judith 1914 births 1986 deaths Businesspeople from Ottawa Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian women cinematographers Canadian women film directors Canadian women screenwriters Canadian women film producers Film directors from Ottawa Film production company founders Canadian women film editors Writers from Ottawa 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 20th-century Canadian women writers