Bonnie Sherr Klein


Bonnie Sherr Klein is a feminist filmmaker, author and disability rights activist.

Early life and education

Bonnie Sherr Klein was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1941 to working class Jewish parents. She attended public schools until high school, when she then attended Akiba Hebrew Academy. It was at this Jewish high school where she learned about Tikkun Olam, a social justice ideology that instills a “responsibility to make the world a more tolerant, peaceful and compassionate place.” Klein participated in a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter during her time in high school. She received a bachelor's degree in American studies at Barnard College, and became more active in the Civil Rights and anti-nuclear movements. After a year of teaching high school, she was admitted to Stanford University for their MA program in theatre. There, she attended a presentation by Claude Jutra and Marcel Carrière from the National Film Board of Canada. It inspired her to switched her major from theatre to film. Her thesis film, For All My Students, was completed under the supervision of visiting professor George C. Stoney, and was funded by the US Department of Education.
Upon graduation, she was invited to New York to work on some of Stoney's film projects, and gained experience as a freelance editor.
She and her husband, Michael Klein, immigrated to Montreal in 1967 as resisters to the Vietnam War. Soon after, she began to work with the NFB.

Career

hired Klein to work at the NFB's Challenge For Change program. One year later, he resigned and she recommended her mentor, Stoney, who led the program till 1970.
In the Challenge for Change program, Klein co-directed Organizing for Power: The Alinsky Approach, a five-part film series on community organizer Saul Alinsky. With Dorothy Todd Hénaut, she produced the first citizens' community video project, VTR St-Jacques. They provided equipment and training to residents of one of Montreal's poorest neighbourhoods to facilitate community dialogue and organizing. A short documentary was also produced by Klein and Hénaut. Other projects with Challenge for Change include Citizen's Medicine and Little Burgundy.
In 1970, Klein moved to Rochester, New York, and, based on the Challenge for Change model, established Portable Channel, “a community-access media and documentary centre” that was aligned with the guerilla television movement and funded by the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1975, she was invited by her Challenge for Change colleague, Kathleen Shannon, to join the newly formed Studio D, the women's unit of the NFB.
As the only government-funded feminist film production agency in the world, Studio D was committed to making films not just about women or by women, but also about social issues from women's point of view. Klein, an avowed feminist, was one of the first film directors assigned to the studio by the NFB. However, due to shortage of funds for the studio and internal politics, she spent a lot of time organizing training programs, developing film series, and advocating for feminist film productions. “Studio D was a total integration of film and the movement. We were inspired by and inspired the movement,” she recalls. “It was really heady. Intellectually it was incredibly stimulating. Every idea was a new idea. Discovering the patriarchy behind every corner. The whole movement about violence against women was unheard of. It was just a soup that was constantly bubbling.”
In 1981, Klein made what is probably her best-known film, '. It went on to become one of the most popular and commercially successful films the NFB ever made.
In 1987, Klein suffered a catastrophic stroke caused by a congenital malformation in her brainstem. She became locked-in, quadriplegic, respirator-dependent, and experienced panic attacks. She spent more than six months in hospital and another three years in formal rehabilitation. She went on permanent disability pension from the NFB and began her work in disability activism, as told in her memoir which she co-authored with writer and artist Persimmon Blackbridge. She writes, speaks, consults, and counsels on issues of disability; in particular access, health care, and representation. In 1998, she co-founded, and they held their first festival in 2001.
Klein's most recent film is '. She is featured in the film, along with poet and writer Catherine Frazee, humourist David Roche, dancer and choreographer Geoff McMurchy, and Persimmon Blackbridge. Vancouver musician Veda Hille contributed music for the film.

Honours

Klein received a lifetime achievement award from Women in Film and Television Toronto and a Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. She was named a YWCA Woman of Distinction in 1996. In 2012, she was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. In his remarks, the Governor General of Canada said, "Bonnie Sherr Klein has used her talents to shed light on social issues and to give voice to the voiceless."
She received two honorary Doctor of Law degrees from Ryerson University in 2003 and from University of British Columbia in 2014.

Personal life

Klein and her husband, Michael, immigrated to Canada in 1967 as resisters to the Vietnam War. The pair have two children, Seth Klein, former director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and author and activist Naomi Klein. She is a proud grandmother of three.
Klein now uses a walker for short distances and moves through the world on Gladys III, her motorized scooter, and a low-slung red tricycle.

Praise and criticism

Klein's film was instrumental in launching a fierce public debate on pornography across Canada. In 2015, the Toronto International Film Festival screened it as part of their Open Vault series and stated "it remains both timely and essential viewing today."
She has been described as "a radical icon" and "a groundbreaking filmmaker" by Point of View Magazine.
Reflecting on his time at the NFB, George C. Stoney noted "The two women who persuaded us to launch our first community videotape project were no ordinary film-makers. Dorothy Hénaut and Bonnie Klein brought to the task a philosophy about democratic participation that shaped every aspect of the work, from the way to run training classes to the way editorial decisions are made. It is largely their concept, their way of working, which guides social animators, teachers and community leaders generally who are now applying Challenge for Change techniques across Canada."

Filmography