oh what a darling, young heroine. an early pioneer to canadian filmmaking, a revolutionary feminist of her time, a lover of bears and dogs and nature and also, completely bonkers. nell shipman is my hero.
one of the first women to find widespread success in a directorial role during the silent era, her films (like "
Back to God's Country", the most successful canadian silent film EVAR) were often set and filmed in the wilderness with nature and wildlife being integral to the films' plots.
what i most love about shipman is her total denial of the patriarchal systems that were set in place in filmmaking of that time (and some would argue are still in place in hollywood). her stories centered around female characters that took charge, fooled authority figures, saved animals and killed bad guys rather than playing the role of a passive, victimized damsel-in-distress. in fact, her characters often ended up saving the male protagonist - when you think about it, this portrayal of women was revolutionary for filmic narrative of that time.
shipman also acted in the first nude scene ever in "Back to God's Country" - she is overseen bathing in a creek by male onlookers. this is really interesting to me because you'd think that being so strongly opposed to the patriarchal stereotypes of the time she would want to avoid male objectification. but when i watched the scene it is shown as completely natural - in no way is shipman flaunting herself to entice the male gaze, there's no close up of her gently lathering her legs or tossing her hair back, she's just swimming with her pet bear. at the time this openness to the human form was unheard of and to me (and many others who saw it) it was natural and innocent, just a woman in god's country. it's sad to see how many filmmakers chose to portray female nudity now.
nell shipman was strong, confident, creative and not afraid to be considered a total nut job. although her film career ended up going down hill after years of opposition and her marriage fell apart, nell continued to write and direct well into her later life as well as speak as an animal rights activist for many years and operate her own zoo (in which she kept her many dogs, bears, rodents, etc...)!
on top of all this she also had wicked style. i raise my fist for you ms. shipman. total platonic girl crush.
you can read more about how awesome nell shipman is here and here.
photo sources:
2. here
3. here
4. here
5. here
6. here
