Norma Bailey facts for kids

Norma Bailey (born in 1949, Gimli, Manitoba, Canada) is a talented Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer, producer, and director known for making movies that often feature strong female characters and explore important social topics. Norma Bailey has directed many films in both English and French, covering different styles like fiction and documentaries. Her amazing work in the film industry has earned her many awards. She was even named to the Order of Manitoba in 2010, which is a high honor in her home province.

Norma Bailey's Film Career

Norma Bailey started her journey in film after graduating from the University of Manitoba. She began as a production assistant on a film called Rabid. Later, she joined the National Film Board of Canada, a famous organization that makes films. Her first short film, The Performer (1980), was part of the Canada Vignettes series. It won a special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which is a huge international film event!

Since then, Norma Bailey has had a long and successful career. She has written, produced, and directed many short films, documentaries, feature films, and TV dramas. Some of her well-known works include The Sheldon Kennedy Story for CTV and Cowboys and Indians: The Killing of J. J. Harper for CBC. She also directed the Genie Award-winning film Bordertown Café in 1992, which was based on a play. Norma Bailey also helped produce Daughters of the Country, an important series about the lives of Indigenous women in Canada.

Exploring Important Themes in Film

Norma Bailey's films often explore big ideas and important social issues. She is known for creating movies that make you think.

Strong Female Characters

As a female Canadian director and producer, Norma Bailey stands out. Her films often focus on characters who are strong, independent, and thoughtful women. This is important because, in movies and TV, women are sometimes shown in very limited or stereotypical ways.

Bailey's unique style, showing powerful female characters, can be seen in films like Nose and Tina (1980), The Wake (1986), and Ikwe (1986). By showing women as ambitious and independent, she helps change how female characters are usually seen on screen. This is a way of pushing back against old-fashioned ideas about women in film.

Norma Bailey wants to show women in a more realistic way. She aims to give female characters a stronger voice and perspective in her films. A great example of this is her 1986 film The Wake, which was part of The Daughters of the Country series.

The Wake and Real-Life Women

The Wake is set in rural Alberta in the 1980s. It tells the story of Joan, a Métis woman, and her relationship with a police officer named Jim. The film shows Joan's experiences as a Métis person and how cultural differences can affect people. Norma Bailey wanted to show Indigenous women in a new way. She created a main character who was strong, independent, and relatable, even with her flaws.

In the film, Joan is a single mother who also cares for other children. She doesn't fit the perfect idea of a mother often seen in movies. Joan makes mistakes, which makes her character more real. This shows that motherhood can be difficult and imperfect, which is normal for many women. Joan's character also shows that women are more than just mothers; they are strong individuals who want to love and be loved.

The Wake is a romance, drama, and western film. These types of movies often have white characters as the main heroes. But Bailey changes this by making Joan, a Métis woman, the main character we care about most. Indigenous women are not often seen in movies and TV, and when they are, it's sometimes with negative stereotypes. However, Bailey shows that Indigenous women can be fully developed and relatable characters. Joan in The Wake is even shown as being morally stronger than the white male characters.

Norma Bailey made many of her films that focused on women's experiences in the 1980s. This was a time of big social change, where people were talking about fairness for women and also looking at issues like racism and classism within social movements. Bailey's films from this time show these changing ideas. She worked hard to create respectful stories about Indigenous people and to challenge unfair ideas about race, gender, and social class in her films.

Telling Indigenous Stories

Norma Bailey has directed many films that tell stories from different perspectives, including the experiences of Indigenous people in Canada. She avoids showing Indigenous people with the harmful stereotypes often seen in older movies. Instead, her films show understanding for the challenges Indigenous people, especially Indigenous women, have faced due to colonization.

For example, in her 1986 film The Wake, Bailey doesn't judge the Indigenous female characters for their mistakes. Instead, she focuses on the unfair actions of the white men who cause problems for these women. Another important film that shows the connection between colonization and unfair treatment, and the need for social change, is Ikwe (1986).

Ikwe and Cultural Journeys

Ikwe is another film from the Daughters of the Country series, produced by Norma Bailey in 1986. The film is set in 1770 and follows a young Ojibwa girl named Ikwe. She marries a Scottish fur trader named Angus and leaves her home and tribe to live with him. Even though this marriage might help her tribe, Ikwe faces a difficult life. She and Angus struggle to blend their cultures and create a peaceful home for themselves and their children.

The film explores the relationship between Indigenous people and European settlers during the fur trade. It shows the challenges faced by Indigenous women who were sometimes part of trade agreements. Bailey shows the settler characters as opinionated and sometimes rude, hinting at the difficult history and mistreatment that Indigenous peoples and cultures would later face.

Through Ikwe, we see the dangers that came with these early interactions, especially for the children of mixed cultures. Ikwe struggles to fit into the European ways of being a woman, wife, and mother. In many Indigenous cultures, men and women had equal and respected roles. But European society had stricter roles, where men were seen as superior, limiting women's rights.

Norma Bailey challenged many old ideas through Ikwe. She offered viewers a different view of history and its impact, focusing on an Indigenous perspective. Bailey also worked to include Indigenous people in her films. Ikwe used real Indigenous actors to play Indigenous characters, which was not common in the 1980s. By doing this, Bailey showed the importance of real Indigenous representation in movies. She also used non-professional actors and encouraged them to be true to their Indigenous culture and language. This helped create accurate historical stories from non-colonial viewpoints.

Even today, it's rare for a non-Indigenous filmmaker like Norma Bailey to use actual Indigenous languages to make characters more authentic. Through Ikwe, Bailey created a powerful film about the relationships formed during the fur trade, showing only the experiences of an Indigenous woman. The performances in Ikwe bring a deeper understanding to Canadian and Indigenous history. They highlight the strength, power, and dignity of Indigenous peoples and cultures that have faced challenges from colonial systems.

Even though Norma Bailey is not Indigenous herself, she works hard in many of her 1980s films to show Indigenous strength against unfair colonial systems. She respectfully avoids judging colonialism in her films. Instead, she highlights the power of Indigenous people and how important their representation in movies is for social change. Through Ikwe, Norma Bailey shows history from the perspective of those who were oppressed. This helps spread messages of Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous women's strength. Because of this, Norma Bailey is seen as an ally in movements for decolonization and Indigenous women's rights.

Filmography

Awards and Recognitions

Norma Bailey has received many awards for her work in film and television.

American Indian Film Festival Awards

Canadian Screen Awards

Cannes Film Festival Awards

Directors Guild of Canada Awards

Gemini Awards

Bijou Awards