Making Movie History: Bonnie Sherr-Klein
2012 · 5m · Canada
Directed by Joanne Robertson
Genres: biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative
Bonnie Sherr-Klein recalls the beginnings of Studio D, the women's studio, and co-directing the film Not a Love Story.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A five-minute oral history of a feminist film collective doesn't sound like a subversive premise, but there's something quietly radical about letting Sherr-Klein simply *talk* about resistance cinema without irony or editorializing—the film trusts the archive more than most documentaries deserve to.
Robertson positions this archival remembrance within the lineage of Studio D itself—a film about filmmaking history that practices the very transparency and collaborative spirit its subject pioneered, with restraint and formal clarity that honors both the subject and the documentary essay tradition.
The pick here is the decision to let Sherr-Klein's voice and presence carry the entire weight on what's clearly a minimal budget; there's no cutaway padding, no music crutch—just a filmmaker's recollection and the visual memory of it, which transforms five minutes into something that feels earned rather than rushed.