Gudrun Parker

They often worked as a team on films and in 1963, they established a production company, Parker Film Associates. Although she left the NFB in 1956 to focus on raising her first child Julie, Parker remained active in the filmmaking industry. Her husband travelled to locations and filmed for their production company while she stayed at home producing, editing, and eventually working as a film studies teacher at Vanier College. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 2005. Parker was of Icelandic descent; her parents came from the north of Iceland and immigrated to Canada.

• Honorific Suffix — OC • Birth Name — Gudrun Johanna Bjerring • Born — 16 March 1920 • Birthplace — Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada • Died — 15 November 2022 • Place of death — Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • Other Names — Gudrun Bjerring • Known for — Filmmaking, teaching • Occupation — Filmmaker, teacher • Children — 2 • Education — University of Winnipeg

Parker attended the University of Winnipeg (then called United College). After graduating, she worked on the hotels and rails beat as a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. She met documentary filmmaker John Grierson, who was travelling across the country recruiting workers for the NFB. Grierson was impressed with her and interviewed her for a job with the NFB. Parker later said that she did not even know the film board existed when she was offered the job. Parker travelled from Winnipeg to Ottawa to begin working with the NFB in March 1942. While fellow filmmakers Judith Crawley and Laura Boulton came to the NFB as freelancers, Gudrun Bjerring Parker was hired as a permanent employee. In his memoir of the early days of the film board, scriptwriter Graham McInnes described Parker as "a very quiet, extremely persistent worker with an outwardly sweet and accommodating approach which masked a truly tremendous tenacity." After six months working as an assistant in the cutting room, Parker asked to direct her own film. She secured the funding for the film herself, asking for sponsorship from the Department of National Health and Welfare. Cinematographer Judith Crawley filmed and Parker directed the production, which was called Vitamins A, B, C. The film educated viewers about maintaining nutrition with wartime shortages and featured a great deal of footage of children. She later worked with Graham McInnes on a film called A Friend for Supper. According to McInnes the slogan "a friend for supper," was Parker's idea, a way of encouraging Canadian children not to waste food by imagining they were having a 'friend' — a child refugee — over for a meal with them. McInnes was dubious because he thought this notion would encourage children to eat more instead of less but his "misgivings were without foundation," he later wrote. "She shot the film as planned. Despite the equivocal logic it was an instant and continuing success with children — and with adults." This success was the beginning of Parker's long involvement with children and education through film. Her next film, Before They Are Six (1943) also dealt with children, as well as women's challenges during wartime. This film details the efforts of women to establish daycares for their children while they went to work at munitions factories.

Parker died on November 15, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta, at the age of 102.

• Vitamins A, B, C and D (1943) Producer/Director/Writer/Editor • Before they are Six (1943) Producer/Director/Writer/Editor • The People's Bank (1944) Producer/Director/Writer/Editor • A Friend For Supper (1944) Director/Writer • Listen to the Prairies (1946) Producer/Director/Writer/Editor • The Policeman (1946) Producer/Director/Writer/Editor • New Chapters (1947) Producer/Director • The Postman (1947) Producer • The Home Town Paper (1948) Producer • Maps We Live By (1948) Producer/Director/Writer/Editor • Who Will Teach Your Child? (1948) Producer/Writer/Editor • Children's Concert (1949) Producer/Director/Writer/Editor • Family Circles (1949) Producer/Writer • Opera School (1951) Director/Editor • Royal Journey (1951) Director • A Musician in the Family (1953) Director/Editor • One Man's Opinion (1953) Director/Writer • The Majority Vote (1953) Director/Writer • The Honest Truth (1953) Director/Writer • The Stratford Adventure (1954) Director/Writer • Who's Running Things? (1955) Director/Writer • Having Your Say (1955) Director/Writer • Getting What You're After (1955) Director/Writer • The Public's Business (1955) Director/Writer • Community Responsibilities (1955) Director/Writer • Leaving it to the Experts (1955) Producer/Director/Writer • Seeing is Believing (1956) Producer/Director/Writer • The Story Behind the News (1956) Director/Writer • Getting on the Bandwagon (1956) Director/Writer • Making a Decision in the Family (1957) Writer • Being Different (1957) Writer • Choosing a Leader (1957) Writer • Popular Psychology (1957) Writer • Four Teachers (1961) Writer