Gudrun Parker

Gudrun Johanna Bjerring Parker (March 16, 1920 – November 15, 2022) was a Canadian filmmaker, writer, and producer. She worked on films with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) during the Second World War and in the early 1950s. Parker wrote the script for The Stratford Adventure, which was nominated for an academy award, and directed part of Royal Journey, which won a BAFTA. She married fellow NFB filmmaker Morten Parker. They often worked as a team on films and in 1963, they established a production company, Parker Film Associates.

Although she left the NFB in 1956 to focus on raising her first child Julie, Parker remained active in the filmmaking industry. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 2005.

Parker was of Icelandic descent; her parents came from the north of Iceland and immigrated to Canada.

Career Parker attended the University of Winnipeg (then called United College). After graduating, she worked on the hotels and rails beat as a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. She met documentary filmmaker John Grierson, who was travelling across the country recruiting workers for the NFB. Grierson was impressed with her and interviewed her for a job with the NFB. Parker later said that she did not even know the film board existed when she was offered the job.

Parker travelled from Winnipeg to Ottawa to begin working with the NFB in March 1942. In his memoir of the early days of the film board, scriptwriter Graham McInnes described Parker as "a very quiet, extremely persistent worker with an outwardly sweet and accommodating approach which masked a truly tremendous tenacity."

After six months working as an assistant in the cutting room, Parker asked to direct her own film. She secured the funding for the film herself, asking for sponsorship from the Department of National Health and Welfare. Cinematographer Judith Crawley filmed and Parker directed the production, which was called Vitamins A, B, C. The film educated viewers about maintaining nutrition with wartime shortages and featured a great deal of footage of children.

Postwar films In 1944, Parker became the head of the NFB Educational Unit, continuing her focus on children. In Being Different a young boy must deal with the derision of his classmates after he takes an interest in the local butterfly society. According to Canadian Studies scholar Judith Hammill, "the subtext has all kinds of implications about the social formation of masculinity." Her award-winning Opera School (1951) profiles a young opera singer at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Parker also wrote the script for The Stratford Adventure (1954), a documentary about the creation of the Stratford Festival. Parker was slated to direct that film but she was pregnant at the time so her husband, filmmaker Morten Parker stepped in. The Stratford Adventure was a critical success and earned the NFB an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature.

Other honours: Who Will Teach Your Child: Canadian Film Award (CFA) for theatrical short (1949). Family Circles: CFA for non-theatrical short (1950). Royal Journey: CFA for best feature film, and a BAFTA (1952). Opera School: CFA for theatrical short (1952). The Stratford Adventure: nominated for an Academy Award (1953). A City Sings: nominated for the Cannes Short Film of the Year (1946).