Cléo Sallis-Parchet, a PhD student in Cinema and Media Studies at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) has curated a new exhibition at TIFF that highlights the groundbreaking 1973 Women & Film International Festival. The exhibition, titled A Feminist Lens, showcases rare archival materials from the festival, which have been hidden for nearly 50 years.
Held in Toronto, the 1973 festival was a pioneering event that showcased films made by women, including directors like Agnès Varda, Alice Guy-Blaché and Alanis Obomsawin. Despite its significance, the festival remained largely unknown until recently.
Sallis-Parchet credits her time at AMPD in shaping her approach to creating this exhibition. “I stumbled upon a box of old tapes donated by Suzanne Depoe, a co-founder of the festival,” Sallis-Parchet explains. “At the time, I was training in media preservation, learning how to digitize various formats of videotapes. This box revealed an incredibly rich archive of media and ephemera documenting a ground-breaking event and tour across the country.”
Over the next two years, Sallis-Parchet worked to digitize, restore and curate the materials, including Super 8 films, open-reel video, photos, newspaper clippings and more. Her efforts were supported by Archive/Counter-Archive and her PhD supervisor, Dr. Janine Marchessault. This work is part of her broader research on feminist film history and media preservation.
“The archival process has allowed me to discover an important feminist legacy that unfortunately still remains overlooked in public, academic and historical knowledge,” says Sallis-Parchet. “By engaging with these materials, I’ve been able to transform and reawaken lost history.”
For students interested in curating, archival work, or feminist media studies, Cléo advises, “Get hands-on experience. Whether through research or internships, the more you engage with the materials, the more you’ll learn. Archival work is about being patient and curious—it’s about discovering hidden stories that deserve to be told.”
For more information and showtimes, visit TIFF.net.