The Other Side of the Picture. Teresa MacInnes (Director). Gillian Darling Kovanic (Producer). Montreal, PQ: National Film Board of Canada, 1999. 53 min., VHS, $39.95. Order Number: C9198 074. Subject Heading: Women artists-Canada. Grades 7 and up / Ages 12 and up. Review by Stephanie Yamniuk. **** /4

This video celebrates Canadian women artists, their talents and their stories. Several different genres are featured, as well as several Canadian women artists who are alive today. Canadian artist Dorothy McCarthy, who is featured first in the video, says: "When I was growing up, I heard, and I actually believed that there had never been any great women artists. This was the wisdom of the day." The video follows her to the ocean where she is shown painting, and we hear what it is like to be a woman artist.

      Viewers will take a visit to the National Museum of Women in Art in Washington, D.C., and see how women artists are honored in comparison with the U.S. National Gallery of Art where only one in every 30 old paintings is by a woman. This video does a good job of talking not only to artists but to museum curators about women as artists, both in the US and in Canada. One curator reminds viewers: "A lack of women's art has nothing to do with talent or genius, it has to do with certain social conditions." Women were denied entrance to art school and usually learned to paint from their father, brother or husband.

      Emily Carr is honored in the video as the most well-known Canadian women artist. Her work is viewed and enjoyed by many people from all cultures. The video does a good job of looking at the many genres of her work.

      I recommend this video because of the informative and respectful approach it takes to women artists.

Highly Recommended.

Stephanie Yamniuk, who works at the University of Manitoba, has taught grades 1-12 and is a freelance writer.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - February 2, 2001.

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