Evelyn Spice Cherry

Evelyn Spice Cherry (née Evelyn Spice) was a Canadian documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. She is best known for her work as the head of the Agricultural Films Unit at the National Film Board of Canada and as a member of the British Documentary Film Movement.

Early life Evelyn Spice was born in 1904 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. She began her career teaching public school. In 1929, she graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism and started working at the Regina Leader-Post as the society columnist.

Spice moved to London, England in 1931, where she began working at the Government Post Film Unit. She worked under John Grierson, whom she would later go on to work with at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in Canada. While working at the GPO, Spice met and worked with members of the British Documentary Film Movement. She became the only Canadian and the only woman in the movement.

Career Work at the National Film Commission/Board In 1941, Grierson invited Cherry and her husband to join the newly formed National Film Commission, later renamed the National Film Board. Cherry was placed in charge of the agricultural film unit, where she made films about farm life and food production. Nonetheless, her work was highly influential and Cherry is regarded as a pioneer in the Canadian female documentary filmmaker movement. Cherry made 128 films at the NFB during her 10-year tenure. Similarly, her film Children First (1944) spoke to the importance of organized consumption and assures the audience that sharing guarantees that “there will be enough to go around.” These “waste not, want not” messages were abundant in NFB films throughout the 1940s, but would go on to cost Cherry and many others at the NFB their jobs after the war, as post-World War II communist paranoia surrounded the NFB and other government agencies.

The "Red Scare" Cherry left the National Film Board during the "Red Scare" — an epidemic fear that communist operatives had infiltrated branches of Canadian government offices and institutions after the Second World War. These fears were somewhat bolstered when Igor Gouzenko, a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada, defected to Canada and brought with him evidence of espionage. Among the evidence was a document that read "Freda to the Professor through Grierson." This document was thought to be implicating John Grierson, the man who hired Cherry at the NFB, and his former secretary Freda. As such, Cherry and her husband, along with many others from the NFB, were let go and John Grierson's contract as NFB commissioner was not renewed.

Although Cherry herself was never directly linked to any communist activities, the government saw potential communist themes in her work, before and during her time at the NFB. As head of the Agricultural Films Unit, many of her films portrayed the working class in an exemplary light. |source =

Life after the NFB After leaving the National Film Board, Cherry retired from filmmaking, albeit temporarily, returning to her earlier work as a teacher. Cherry and her husband raised a family together and, in 1960, the couple got back into film making in Saskatchewan to form Cherry Films Ltd, where they made more socially and environmentally conscious films. Lawrence died in 1966. Cherry finally retired from filmmaking in 1985, when she moved to British Columbia. She died in Victoria in 1990. Year Credited As New Horizons 1943 Director Windbreaks on the Prairies 1943 Director/Writer/Editor/Producer Children First 1944 Director Soil for Tomorrow 1945 Director Farm Electrification 1946 Director/Producer Wings of Mercy 1947 Director/Producer

Archives There is an Evelyn and Lawrence Cherry fonds at Library and Archives Canada. The archival reference number is R5268, former archival reference MG31-D173. The fonds covers the date range 1860 to 1988. It consists of 9.11 meters of textual records, 876 photographs and a number of other media records.