Patricia Gruben

Patricia Gruben is an American born filmmaker who currently teaches film studies at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.[1][2][3] In her career, she has been involved with three feature films and a number of shorts.[1][4][5] Gruben has worked in many different positions within the film industry, from being property master to directing a feature film.[1][4][6] In 2015, Gruben was the recipient of the Teamsters 155 Woman of the Year Award.[2][6]

SFU professors Martin Gotfrit and Patricia Gruben, and set designer Marian Wihak

Biography

Gruben was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1947.[1][3][7][8] She attended Rice University where she studied anthropology.[9] Gruben went on to attend the University of Texas where she studied film.[1][6][9] After completing her graduate studies, she moved to Toronto in the early 1970s.[1][6][9] Over the following years Gruben worked in different fields of the film industry, from commercials to productions designed for children.[1][4] Over the course of her career, she has worked as a director, an editor, an assistant director, a cinematographer, a props assistant, an art director, a writer, a set decorator and a producer.[1][4][6]

Career

Her first film, The Central Character (1979),[10] was a short.[1][4][6] The Women’s Companion to International Film, edited by Annette Kuhn and Susannah Radstone, states that this short "received immediate attention as the work of a major new figure in Canada’s Avant Garde."[1] Gruben went on to make another experimental short, Sifted Evidence (1982), which received international attention from film festival screenings.[1][6]

Gruben worked as a set decorator[11][12] for Spasms (1982),[13] a horror film directed by William Fruet, before working her first feature film.[5][11] Gruben wrote and directed Low Visibility (1984),[5][11][14] which told the story of a man who had lost his ability to communicate and his memory.[1] Gruben also wrote and directed Deep Sleep (1990), and directed Ley Lines (1993).[5][11] Ley Lines is an autobiographical documentary based on Gruben’s family tree, where she follows her lineage from America to Germany and Canada.[15]

Gruben began to teach at Simon Fraser University in 1984.[1][4][16] Three years later, in 1987, Gruben and Colin Browne founded the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters.[2][6] The program was part of the Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts, which received funding from both the government of British Columbia and the university.[2] The purpose of the program was to assist Canadian screenwriters by providing the opportunity to work with professionals in the industry.[2][6][17] In 2013, a Globe and Mail article announced that the program would end in 2014 due to lack of funding.[17] The program will be leaving the university in 2015.[2] Gruben is currently an associate professor at Simon Fraser University and specializes in Indian cinema.[18]

In 2015 she was a judge for the Daryl Duke Prize.[19]

Awards

Gruben received the Teamsters 155 Woman of the Year Award in 2015 from Women in Film and Television, a non-for-profit organization that hosts the awards.[2][6][20] The award requires that the recipient be "a woman who has achieved a significant success in the field of film or television, and who is recognized for mentoring other women in the industry."[6]

Filmography[21]
  • The Central Character (1979)
  • Sifted Evidence (1982)[22]
  • Spasms (1982), alternate title Death Bites
  • Low Visibility (1984)
  • Determinations (1988)
  • Deep Sleep (1990)
  • Ley Lines (1993)
  • Before it Blows (1997)
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References
  1. Ed. Kuhn, Annette; Radstone, Susannah. (1990). "Patricia Gruben." In The Women's Companion to International Film (pp. 182-183). London: Virago Press.
  2. Jones, Megan. (2015, June 29). SFU professor Patricia Gruben wins Woman of the Year Award. Retrieved from The Peak: http://www.the-peak.ca/2015/06/sfu-professor-patricia-gruben-wins-woman-of-the-year-award/
  3. Film Indexes Online.(2013-2015). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from Film Indexes Online.
  4. Brennan, Sandra R. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben Full Biography. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/198536/Patricia-Gruben/biography
  5. Women in Film and Television Vancouver. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from Women in Film and Television Vancouver: http://www.womeninfilm.ca/cgi/page.cgi/_membership.html/186-Patricia-Gruben
  6. Women in Film and Television Vancouver . (n.d.). 2015 Spotlight Award Winners. Retrieved from Women in Film and Television Vancouver: http://www.womeninfilm.ca/2015_Spotlight_Awards.html
  7. National Gallery of Canada. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from National Gallery of Canada: http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist.php?iartistid=2202
  8. Two sources state that Gruben was born in Chicago, one (a review from an entertainment review of one of her films) states that she is Texas-born. Leydon, Joe. (1993). Ley Lines. Variety Movie Reviews, 11-11
  9. Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from CFMDC
  10. Several sources differ on the year of The Central Character: Ed. Kuhn, Annette; Radstone, Susannah. (1990). "Patricia Gruben." In The Women's Companion to International Film (pp. 182-183). London: Virago Press and Brennan, Sandra R. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben Full Biography. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/198536/Patricia-Gruben/biography state The Central Character (1979) However McHugh, Kathleen. (1990, April). The films of Patricia Gruben Subjectivity of Space. Retrieved from Jump Cut: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC35folder/PatriciaGruben.html and Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from CFMDC: states The Central Character (1977)
  11. Brennan, Sandra R.(n.d.). Patricia Gruben Filmography. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/198536/Patricia-Gruben/filmography
  12. Film Indexes Online. (2013-2015). Spasms. Retrieved from Film Indexes Online.
  13. Also known as Death Bite. Directed by William Fruet. Film Indexes Online. (2013-2015). Spasms. Retrieved from Film Indexes Online.
  14. Sources differ on the year of this film: Ed. Kuhn, Annette; Radstone, Susannah. (1990). "Patricia Gruben." In The Women's Companion to International Film (pp. 182-183). London: Virago Press states Low Visibility (1985). McHugh, Kathleen. (1990, April). The films of Patricia Gruben Subjectivity of Space. Retrieved from Jump Cut: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC35folder/PatriciaGruben.html and Critchlow, Jane; Véronneau, Pierre. (1990). An Unexpected Emergence. Massachusetts Review, Inc., 213-226 states Low Visibility (1984).
  15. Leydon, Joe. (1993) Ley Lines. Variety Movie Reviews, 11-11.
  16. Four sources differ on the year in which Patricia Gruben began teaching at Simon Fraser University: Jones, Megan. (2015, June 29). SFU professor Patricia Gruben wins Woman of the Year Award. Retrieved from The Peak:http://www.the-peak.ca/2015/06/sfu-professor-patricia-gruben-wins-woman-of-the-year-award/ and Women in Film and Television Vancouver . (n.d.). 2015 Spotlight Award Winners. Retrieved from Women in Film and Television Vancouver: http://www.womeninfilm.ca/2015_Spotlight_Awards.html state that she began in 1982. Ed. Kuhn, Annette; Radstone, Susannah. (1990). "Patricia Gruben." In The Women's Companion to International Film (pp. 182-183). London: Virago Press and Brennan, Sandra R. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben Full Biography. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/198536/Patricia-Gruben/biography state that she began in 1984.
  17. Lederman, Marsha. (2013, November 19). Celebrated B.C. screenwriting program Praxis to fold. Retrieved from The Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/celebrated-bc-screenwriting-program-praxis-to-fold/article15508306/
  18. Simon Fraser University. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from Simon Fraser University: https://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/instructors/e-h/patricia-gruben.html
  19. Daryl Duke Foundation. (n.d.). Daryl Duke Prize. Retrieved from Daryl Duke Prize: http://daryldukeprize.ca/
  20. Women in Film and Television Vancouver. (n.d.). Mission and History. Retrieved from Women in Film and Television Vancouver: http://www.womeninfilm.ca/Mission_Statement.html
  21. This list was made with the following sources: Brennan, Sandra R. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben Full Biography. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/198536/Patricia-Gruben/biography McHugh, Kathleen. (1990, April). The films of Patricia Gruben Subjectivity of Space. Retrieved from Jump Cut: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC35folder/PatriciaGruben.html Women in Film and Television Vancouver. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from Women in Film and Television Vancouver: http://www.womeninfilm.ca/cgi/page.cgi/_membership.html/186-Patricia-Gruben Critchlow, Jane; Véronneau, Pierre. (1990). An Unexpected Emergence. Massachusetts Review, Inc., 213-226. Film Indexes Online. (2013-2015). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from Film Indexes Online. Ed. Kuhn, Annette; Radstone, Susannah. (1990). "Patricia Gruben." In The Women's Companion to International Film (pp. 182-183). London: Virago Press. Leydon, Joe. (1993). Ley Lines. Variety Movie Reviews, 11-11. Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from CFMDC: http://www.cfmdc.org/user/8956
  22. One sources differs on the year for this film: Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. (n.d.). Patricia Gruben. Retrieved from CFMDC: states Sifted Evidence (1981)
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