Biographical portraits: Exploring identity, gender, and teaching in narrative representations of Canadian artists

In this thesis I engage in a critical and interdisciplinary examination of the intersections between film and life writing when exploring issues of representation, gender, and identity. At the centre of this is the pivotal question---where are all the women artists? I trace how my professional experience in the Canadian film industry and my studies in education led me to discover five Canadian documentary films, each offering insight into the experiences of male and female artists in Canada, predominantly around the time of the Group of Seven (1920-1933). Through these films I was introduced to Doris McCarthy (1910-present), an artist-teacher who appears in two of the five films and whose collection of life writings are central to this thesis. At the foundation of this study is the intent to show that these modes of communication offer educative possibilities for imagining the multiple histories that exist in our world.