Women In Focus is one of three non-profit feminist arts centre in Canada devoted to women's cultural production in the film, video, and visual arts disciplines. Based in Vancouver since its founding in 1974, WIF has over 200 members across Canada.

To obtain information about origins and operation of WIF I spoke with Marion Barling, the founder of WIF; Sharon Costello, past president; and Sue Donaldson, current administrator. All three women were generous with their time and information but the limits of space permit only a small sampling of the material covered in the interviews. To obtain more in depth information about the film and video collection, educational events, exhibitions, and screenings contact the WIF office at #204-456 W. Broadway, Vancouver,
B.C. V5Y 1R3

GAEL: Why did you start WIF?

MARION: Essentially, I wanted to provide alternative images of women. In 1974 I was working on my MA at the University of British Columbia in Theatre and Film and I was very much at odds to know where to find images that reflected my own life as I knew it. There were no materials available. You were lucky to see one women in a hundred artists whose work was even represented in any collection. There were no tapes available on women artists, there were no books that represented women's contribution to the arts.

I wanted to see a women's aesthetic established: see a women's sensibility represented, understand what it is and what work comes out of it when you view the world through it. My general vision was to literally put women in focus.

In many ways the arts were the last to come to terms with sexism. There was a denial of sex as an issue in how the world was viewed, presented and controlled. In those days you were not a woman artist, you were an artist. Artists were not male or female. The fact that it was considered offensive or verboten to think of oneself as a woman artist says a lot.

There were new areas of aesthetic as well as social concern opening up for women and we had a huge amount of energy but no skills bank or financial resources to draw upon. I wanted to start a film and video production centre, so I got a group of women together and applied for funding. There were basically only two sources to draw upon: the Secretary of State Women's Program, and the Canadian Council.

The Secretary of State funds social issues not art, and the mandate of the Canada Council is to fund art not social issues. Eventually however we did receive a small amount of project funding and started working on productions.

GAEL: What Type of productions were initially encouraged by WIF?

SUE: At that point, in the first flush of the women's movement, there was a lot of work in issue-oriented productions. It was called deconstruction and it had to do with breaking down media images of women into their component parts and pointing out the sexism. We were beginning to look at the things going on around us, what they meant to women, how women were being portrayed, and how we felt about that. There were close to 50 productions between 1974 and 1978 about these issues. Pornography, media images of women, alcoholism, transition houses, etc., were incorporated by women artists into their own background and experience and translated into their artwork. A lot of these were poorly produced technically, but they were very important in establishing a groundwork of personal and political art.

GAEL: WIF expanded quite rapidly from being solely a production centre.
When did the other facets of the organization develop?

MARION: The distribution side of WIF was unavoidable because there were no other outlets established for our produced material. Distribution had the seed to become income-generating, but it required additional resources. In 1978 we held a Women's National Film and Video Festival in a community centre. We wanted to create an art environment so we displayed two and three dimensional works by women artists. We became acquainted with women visual artists who needed gallery space so we initiated discussion about providing a display area in the centre. We cleared a small room and started holding monthly shows. This provided a venue for women with first shows, emerging artists, space for installation and sculptural work as well as two-dimensional art. One thing led to another and it became necessary to obtain more funding.

Again, the demand and enthusiasm was there but we were operating with limited funds and a limited number of women who were skilled in business and administration.