Barbara Sternberg

Barbara Sternberg (born in 1945) is a Canadian film director known for her experimental films.[1] Sternberg directed films such as Opus 40 (1979), Transitions (1982), At Present (1990), Through and Through (1992), and Midst (1997).[2]

Barbara Sternberg
BornMarch 24, 1945
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
OccupationFilm director

Early life

Sternberg was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 24, 1945.[2] In her youth, she created art by writing books for her family members. Sternberg said that her use of photos and text in these books is "similar to the way I work now."[3] She created her first film using her father's 16 mm camera in order to make a gift for her husband. Sternberg said, "My husband at the time didn't have any home movies and barely any photographs from his growing-up; so I wanted to make him this home movie, to create a past for him."[3] Although she did not initially consider her films as works of art, she eventually began to take them seriously. Sternberg attended Ryerson Polytechnic University to learn how to make films, but she ignored the teachings in order to make experimental films. "I didn't think at all about industrial film", she said, "I just started making stuff in a way I would later learn to call 'experimental'."[3]

Career

Sternberg began her career in filmmaking during the mid-1970s and was one of the few female directors in Canada working in the avant-garde genre at the time.[1] Since the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Queen's University and York University have all acquired her films for their collections, Sternberg has received significant national attention in Canada.[4] Aside from her national recognition, Sternberg's films have also been featured in various international institutions, such as Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.[4]

Directing techniques

When she began her career, Sternberg transferred Super 8 images onto 16 mm in order to modify the original image to give her films an imperfect finish. This distinguishing filming technique was used to give authenticity to her films. By making her films look like moving photographs, she was able to "turn reality into image".[4] Due to her interest in "images that bear the traces of life, body, and the materiality of film", Sternberg's films blurred the line between reality and fiction.[4] Although Sternberg's films were initially characterized for her unique filming technique, she eventually began to utilize modern technology and incorporate them into her directing. By switching from "single channel video, to installation, to hand processed 16mm, to digital media and performance", Sternberg is thoroughly "engaged in finding the links between technological process and aesthetic production." [4]

Contribution to the Canadian experimental film scene

Through her contribution to the Canadian experimental film scene, Sternberg helped pave the way for other experimental female directors in Canada. As William Wees notes, "Women were, at best, marginally represented in the world of Canadian experimental film when Sternberg started making films. The recognition they received was instrumental in opening a predominantly male preserve to the work of female film and video-makers, many of whom have profited from her trail-blazing efforts without, I suspect, realizing who helped to open the way for them".[5]

In addition, Sternberg also contributed to the Canadian experimental film scene by incorporating "a female aesthetic sensibility" into her films. As a result, Sternberg was able to bring a female perspective to Canadian experimental cinema that was not present before.[4]

Filmography
Year Title
1974 The Good Times
1976 A Study in Blue and Pink
1979 The Cuten Spielers
1979 Opus 40
1980 ' ... The Waters Are the Beginning and the End of All Things'
1981 (A) Story
1982 Transitions
1985 A Trilogy
1989 Tending Towards the Horizontal
1990 At Present
1991 Through and Through
1995 Beating
1996 What Do You Fear?
1997 C'est la vie
1997 Midst
1997 Past/Future
2000 Awake
2000 For Virginia
2000 Like a Dream that Vanishes
2000 Off the 401
2001 4 Women
2001 Breaking Out of the play
2002 Burning
2002 New York Counterpoint
2002 Sunsets
2003 Glacial Slip
2003 Jakarta
2003 (Rome) Skyling
2003 Tabula Rasa
2004 In the Garden
2004 So What?
2005 Dark
2005 Praise
2005 Surfacing
2007 Once
2007 Time Being I
2007 Time Being II
2007 Time Being III
2007 Time Being IV
2008 After Nature
2008 Beginning
2010 Love, Winnipeg
2011 In the Nature of Things
2011 (Vers)ing
2013 Reading Thomas Bernhard
2020 Once I Am

Awards and accolades
Year Award Festival Nominated Work Result
1980 Best Experimental Film International Super 8 Festival Opus 40 Won
1982 Best Experimental Film Atlantic Film Festival Transitions Won
1982 Best Sound Atlantic Film Festival Transitions Won
1993 Award of Excellence Ann Arbor Festival Through and Through Won
2011 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts Won
gollark: That was fäst.
gollark: More seriously: your question is unclear.
gollark: rm -rf ~
gollark: Possibly, but I think Github has a better privacy record.
gollark: Github is less bad I guess.

References
  1. Wise, Wyndham (2001). Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Incorporated. p. 200. ISBN 0-8020-8398-6.
  2. "Barbara Sternberg -- femfilm.ca: Canadian Women Film Directors Database". femfilm.ca. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
  3. Hoolboom, Mike (2000). Like a Dream That Vanishes: The Films of Barbara Sternberg. Toronto: The Images Festival of Independent Film and Video. p. 16. ISBN 0-9682115-26.
  4. "Canadian Film Encyclopedia - Barbara Sternberg". legacy.tiff.net. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
  5. Crammaer, Gerda. "Barbara Sternberg Nomination Statement" (PDF). Canada Council for the Arts. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-05. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
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