Board Member Biographies
Francine Pelletier
Francine Pelletier has worked as a journalist for over 30 years, both in print and for electronic media, in French as well as in English.
Her career spans co-founding and acting as editor-in-chief of the women’s monthly magazine La Vie en rose (1980-86) to social and political commentary in a weekly column in Montreal’s largest French daily, La Presse (1987-93), as well as on Peter Gzowsky’s Morningside (1988-92) on CBC radio, CTV’s Sunday Edition (1990-93) and PBS’ The Editors (1990-91).
She spent two years as Quebec city correspondent for Radio-Canada's Le Point (1993-95) and five years (1995-2000) as co-host of CBC’s flagship current affairs program, the fifth estate.
In 2001, Pelletier begun a new career as an independent documentary filmmaker and screenwriter.
Francine Pelletier Mission statement:
My motivations for joining the board are simple: since becoming a documentarian 9 years, I have gone from vaguely irritated to genuinely angry about what's happening to documentary filmmaking in this country. I feel the need to do something about it. I also welcome the idea of breaking the isolation one feels as a documentary filmmaker.
While my activist abilities are perhaps a little rusty, I enjoy analyzing situations and devising strategies and can hold my own, I think, in terms of communications.
Fundraising, on the other hand, is not something I relish (does anyone?) but can put my shoulder to the wheel au besoin.
Finally, I have a good understanding of what's happening in Quebec as well as having considerable ties to Toronto and being attuned to the situation in the rest of the country.
I am a board member of Les Films du 3 mars, the most important independent distribution organization in Quebec, as well as a member of Réalisatrices Equitables, a Quebec association of women film directors fighting to keep women in the film business on par with their male counterparts (an uphill battle) and, of course, Doc Québec where, I'm happy to say, the beginnings of a visibility campaign is underway.
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