Judith Crawley

Judith Rosemary (Sparks) Crawley (April 21, 1914 – September 16, 1986) was a Canadian film producer, cinematographer, director, and screenwriter.[1] She and her husband Frank Radford "Budge" Crawley co-founded the production company Crawley Films in 1939.[2]

Judith Crawley and family
Judith Crawley and family, c. 1950
Born(1914-04-12)April 12, 1914
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
DiedSeptember 16, 1986(1986-09-16) (aged 72)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Other names
  • Judith Rosemary Sparks
  • Judith Rosemary Sparks Crawley
Alma materMcGill University
OccupationFilmmaker
Known forFilmmaking
Spouse(s)Frank Radford "Budge" Crawley
Children
  • Michal
  • Patrick
  • Roderick
  • Alexander
  • Jennifer
  • Mariah
AwardsGenie Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Canadian Film Industry

Crawley is best known for writing the Academy Award-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.[3]

Early life

Judith "Judy" Sparks was born in Ottawa, Ontario to Roderick Percy Sparks, a prominent tariff counsel and Rheba (Fraser) Sparks. She studied at the Ottawa Ladies' College, and later studying English and economics from 1933 to 1936, graduated from McGill University, having earned a Bachelor of Arts.

After her marriage to her next door neighbour, "Budge" Crawley, on October 1, 1938, Crawley became interested in filmmaking.[4]

Filmmaking career

Crawley wrote the script and edited Île d'Orléans (1938), the first film she worked on with her husband.[2] 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.[5]

Crawley and her husband founded Crawley Films in 1939.[2] 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.[2][Note 1]

From 1941 to 1944, after being hired by renewed Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson, Crawley became a freelance cinematographer, screenwriter, editor and director for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), often working with her husband.[6] During her time at the NFB, Crawley directed Four New Apple Dishes, the first NFB film to be directed by a woman.[3]

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.[7]

In 1957, Crawley and her husband were given a joint Canadian Film Award.[5]

After 1961, Crawley elected to focus on producing and writing rather than directing.[8] 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 Academy Award for Best Documentary .[2]

After separating from her husband in 1965, Crawley founded another film production company with two of her children, Michal and Jennifer.[9]

From 1979 to 1982, Crawley was the president of the Canadian Film Institute.[2]

In 1986, Crawley and her husband received a joint Special Achievement Genie Award for their continued work in the Canadian film industry.[2]

Death

On September 16, 1986, Crawley died from respiratory disease.[2]

Partial filmography
Year Title Credited As
1938 Île d'Orleans Writer, Editor
1939 A Study of Spring Wild Flowers Director
1940 Four New Apple Dishes Director
1941 Ottawa on the River Director
1941 Who Sheds His Blood Director, Writer
1947 Know Your Baby Director
1948 Holiday Island Director
1948 Why Won't Tommy Eat? Director
1949 He Acts His Age Director
1951 The Terrible Twos and the Trusting Threes Director
1953 The Frustrating Fours and the Fascinating Fives Director
1954 Food for Freddy Director
1954 From Sociable Six to Noisy Nine Director
1958 Legend of the Raven Producer
1975 The Man Who Skied Down Everest Writer
1985 The Start of a Lifetime Director

References

Notes
  1. From 1949 to 1957, Crawley directed another childcare series entitled Ages and Stages, which featured some of her children.[2]

Citations
  1. Wise 2015, p. 1954.
  2. "Judith (Rosemary) Sparks Crawley." Archived 2019-04-01 at the Wayback Machine Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved: April 23, 2016.
  3. St. Pierre, Marc."Women and film: A tribute to the female pioneers of the NFB." National Film Board of Canada, March 4, 2013. Retrieved: April 23, 2016.
  4. McInnes 2004, p. 175.
  5. Forrester, James A.""The Crawley Era." Cinema Canada, June 1982. Retrieved: April 23, 2016.
  6. Khouri 2007, p. 116.
  7. Armatage et al. 1999, p. 5.
  8. "Judith Crawley."The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved: April 23, 2016.
  9. "Judith Crawley." Canadian Women Film Directors Database. Retrieved: April 23, 2016.

Bibliography
  • Armatage, Kay, Kass Banning, Brenda Longfellow and Janine Marchessault, eds. Gendering the Nation: Canadian Women's Cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-8020-4120-3.
  • 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. ISBN 978-1-55238-199-1.
  • McInnes, Graham. One Man's Documentary: A Memoir of the Early Years of the National Film Board. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba, 2004. ISBN 978-0-8875-5679-1.
  • Wise, Wyndham. Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4426-5620-8.
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