Before #MeToo: The Story of a Feminist Media Revolution

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   It’s 1980. You’re with your all-woman video crew at International Women’s Day. Your Video Portapak weighs 18 pounds and takes 2 people to carry and operate. Apart from a TV station, you’re the only people – in a crowd of thousands - documenting this march on tape. These days, it’s almost impossible to imagine being the only person with a video camera at a major protest of any kind. But in 1980 you were not alone.  You were part of a huge network - of feminist video collectives, newspapers, radio shows, and publishers across Canada. This film is about the generation of feminist media activism that preceded the #MeToo movement. From Prince Rupert to Vancouver, from Nunavut to New Brunswick, feminist storytellers of the 1970’s and 80’s took hold of cutting-edge media technology to document everything from violence towards women to how to make a lamp from seal oil.The film will  also make connections with current generations of feminists, like Toronto’s South Asian Didihood Collective or Shameless Magazine , discussing collaboration, technology, race, ability and class, and the way forward for feminism in troubled times.

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Writer/Director: Marusya Bociurkiw

Running time: 75 mins.

Projected release date: 2022

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