Draft:Margaret Perry

For the American Librarian and actress see Margaret Perry

Margaret Perry
Born	Margaret Rice 1905 Upper Mills, New Brunswick, Canada
Died	1998 Halifax, NS
Years active	1942-1969
Known for	Creating films promoting Nova Scotia as a tourist destination

Margaret Perry, (1905 - 1998) is a Canadian filmmaker who spent her career working in both federal and provincial film agencies. Perry was the director of the Nova Scotia Film Bureau where she created and oversaw the production of over fifty promotional films that depicted Nova Scotia as a tourist destination.

Early Life

Born Margret Rice, 1905, in Upper Mills New Brunswick, she married her husband Stanley Calvin Perry in 1934, he was the Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Geology at the University of New Brunswick. On November 19th,1936 Stanley Calvin Perry died in a motor vehicle accident leaving Perry widowed and pregnant. After her husband’s death Perry began exploring filmmaking and photography.

Early Career

Margaret Perry’s first film-related job was as a rural circuit projectionist in New Brunswick. From 1940 to 1942 Perry would receive shipments of film from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and would drive around the province with a 16mm projector and a speaker showing these films to local residence at community gatherings in schools and church halls. Perry created personal film projects in her free time, one of these projects was viewed by her MP, Leonard O’Brien. O’Brian then told NFB Commissioner John Grierson Board about Perry. Grierson invited Perry to Ottawa where she worked at the NFB from 1942 to 1945. Perry was the only employee from Atlantic Canada and was one of the boards first two woman cinematographers.

Filmmaking Career

Margaret Perry's equipment on display at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry

In 1945 Perry moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia and became the director of the Nova Scotia Film Bureau. Between 1945 and 1969 Perry created over fifty films promoting Nova Scotia as a tourist destination, an industrial and agricultural center, and a complex site of cultural heritage. These short films were shot on 16mm Kodachrome and Ektachrome film stock, using various Ciné-Kodak motion picture cameras. Some of Perry's equipment is on display at the Nova Scotia Museum of Industry. These short films focused on a variety of subjects, some of which were suggested to Perry by various government departments and others that reflect her own personal interests. Her work shows off both government initiatives and ideas at the time as well as her own interests such as nature, the process of how things are made, community cooperation, and aspects of everyday life. Much of Perry's work is considered controversial today. Her perspective as an outsider to the cultures she was documenting combined with her goal of creating tourism for Nova Scotia often idealized and exaggerated certain aspects of her films. "Until about 1925 Scottish immigrants were either portrayed as uncivilized, quarrelsome and litigious or, by the late nineteenth century, were increasingly ignored as irrelevant...Yet, paradoxically, by the 1930s, Nova Scotia Premier Angus L. MacDonald had begun promoting his province's 'tartan' heritage — a process that continues to this day." Perry's films idealize and present the idea of the quaint folk culture of Nova Scotia's Scottish population. First Nations people are largely absent from Perry’s work, when they were mentioned or portrayed, they often "unintentionally follow the dominant stereotypes of First Nations as depicted over the course of North American history, portrayed simultaneously as virtuous and as savage".Until 1959 Perry was the Nova Scotia Film Bureau's only filmmaker on staff and handled all aspects of production. Perry served as camera operator, cinematographer, script writer, sound editor as well as any other role she needed filled. She continued to work as a director and producer until her retirement in 1969.

After Retirement

After her retirement from the Nova Scotia Film Bureau in 1969, Margaret Perry remained in Halifax until her death in 1998. Perry never remarried after her husbands death and had one child, Stan Perry, who was named after her late husband. Perry's son often told stories of Perry's time at the Nova Scotia Film Bureau to his daughter, Perry's granddaughter, Leanna Griffith.

Films

Perry made over fifty films promoting Nova Scotia's tourism industry, they were recorded on 16mm Kodachrome and Ektachrome film stock, in colour with sound. All films listed are viewable online

• Craftsmen at Work (1945) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 36

• Appleland (1946) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 13
• Land from the Sea (1946) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 63
• Feathered Fortune (1947) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 43
• Happy Valley (1947) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 52
• Battling "Blue-Fins" (1947) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 138
• Fisherman of the Atlantic (1948) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 44
• Marketing Shows the Way (1948) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 76
• Nova Scotia Holiday (1948) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 86
• "Otter Trawling" (1948) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 95
• Lime for the Land's Sake (1949) producer, director, writer, editor, Library and Archives Canada film number 1949.0012
• This Is Nova Scotia (1949) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 119
• Blessing on the Woods, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 20
• Bluenose Holiday, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 26
• Free From Care, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 41
• Vegetables Deluxe (1950) producer, director, writer, editor, Library and Archives Canada film number 1950.0055
• Grass in June and January (1950) producer, director, writer, editor, Library and Archives Canada film number 1950.0066
• Tides of Fundy, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 72
• Old New Scotland, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 89
• Orison, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 94
• The Royal Province, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 103
• Spring Fever, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 115
• Agriculture Goes to College, producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 1854
• The LaHave (1951) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 65
• Sails On The Sea (1951) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 112
• Salt Water Angling (1953) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 113
• Sea For Yourself (1953) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 114
• Grounds For Fishing (1955) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 51
• Summer Escape (1955) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 53
• The Talented Hands (1955) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 116

• Tidal Workshop (1955) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 122

• Bluefin Rodeo (1956) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 24
• Identity (1956) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 59
• Road to the Keltic (1956) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 105
• Citadel City (1957) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 37
• Land For Living (1957) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 64
• Marine Highway (1957) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 75
• Glooscap Country (1958) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 48
• Lobsters Unlimited (1958) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 66
• Roads To Reading (1958) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 107
• Nova Scotia Saga (1959) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 87
• Wildlife Rendezvous (1959) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 129
• The Cape Islander (1960) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 34
• New Nova Scotia (1961) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 80
• Nova Scotia By-Ways (1961) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 85
• The Highland Heart of Nova Scotia (1962) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 56
• Artists (1968) producer, director, writer, editor, Nova Scotia Information Services film number Fc 15