Judith Crawley

Judith Crawley (April 12, 1914 - September 16, 1986) was a Canadian director, writer, editor, and cinematoghraper, and co-founder of Crawley Films. She was known as "the First Lady of Canadian Film".

Early Life
Judith was born to a prominent Ottawa family. She went to the Ottawa Ladies' College, and then McGill University, earning a B.A. in English and Economics.

Career
After meeting through the National Film Society, Judith married Budge Crawley and suggested that they spend their honeymoon shooting a film about L’Île d’Orléans, a community in rural Quebec where their historical practices had not changed for centuries, influenced by the work of Franco-Canadian Rhodes Scholar and folklore expert, Marius Barbeau. Judith scripted and edited the piece. Starting out as a script supervisor, Judith also worked at Crawley Films as a director, writer, editor, cinematographer, and a lab technician as time went on.

Judith also did freelance work for the National Film Board as a freelance camera operator and occasional director from 1941 to 1943. One of the films she directed at the request of John Grierson, Four New Apple Dishes (1940), was the first Canadian colour film ever made. For Crawley Films, she wrote, directed and edited the award-winning “Ages and Stages” series of instructional child-rearing films, which included The Terrible Twos and the Trusting Threes (1951) and From Sociable Six to Nosy Nine(1954). The series featured Judith’s own children and won her two Canadian Film Awards. At its peak, Crawley Films was earning $1 to $2 million per year[citation needed] and rivalled the NFB in when it came to producing sponsored films. In 1965, the Crawleys divorced, though Judith remained involved with the company until she began her own production company with her daughter, Jenny, in 1967. Still, she contributed to several projects at Crawley Films, such as the Academy Award®-winning feature documentaryThe Man Who Skied down Everest (1974), for which she wrote the script. Many attribute the fall of Crawley Films to Judith's absence, characterizing her role at Crawley Films as one where she provided "practical guidance and organizational savvy" . Without Judith, Budge made many films that were fairly expensive with low cost return. In 1982, he was forced to sell the company's extensive holdings for the sum of one dollar to Atkinson Film Arts.

In her later life, Judith served as the presidenf of the Canadian Film Institute from 1979 to 1982. Throughout her career, she won a total of four Canadian Film Awards for her films. Shortly before her death in 1986, she recieved the Air Canada Genie Award for outstanding contribution to the Canadian Film Industry.

Personal Life
Judith met Budge Crawley through the National Film Society. They were married on October 1, 1938. After working together for almost 30 years, they separated when Budge left Judy for his second wife, Lenore. For several years following, however, Budge and Judy continued to reside together, and Budge split his time living with Judy in Ottawa and Lenore in Toronto.

Legacy
Crawley Films played a key role in establishing filmmaking infrastructure in Canada. Barbara Wade Rose wrote that “Judy’s talents and sense of direction had garnered the firm numerous awards and, just as important, a lot of revenue, while Budge’s work tended to be higher risk. More than one Crawley Films employee believed that Judy’s films had kept the company in business through its first decades”.

While Judith's contribution to Canadian Film is sometimes overshadowed in favour of Budge's, Judith in her own right made a significant contribution to film in Canada and helped to build the infrastructure for the Canadian film industry.

Filmography

 * 1938: Ile d'Orléans (writer, editor)*
 * 1939: Canadian Power (writer, editor, co-producer)*
 * 1941: Ottawa on the River (writer, editor)*
 * 1939: A Study of Spring Wild Flowers (co-director)*
 * 1940: Four New Apple Dishes (director, co-writer, co-producer)*
 * 1941: Canadian Landscape (editor) (?)
 * 1941: Who Sheds His Blood? (director) (?)
 * 1942: La Cité de Notre-Dame (editor) (?)


 * 1943: New Scotland (cinematographer) (?)
 * 1944: Four Seasons (co-cinematographer)*
 * 1944: Montréal (writer) (?)
 * 1944: West Wind (cinematographer; editor) (?)
 * 1947: Know Your Baby (director; writer; editor; actor) (?)
 * 1947: Spring on a Quebec Farm (cinematographer) (?)
 * 1947: Summer on a Quebec Farm (cinematographer) (?)
 * 1947: Winter on a Quebec Farm (cinematographer) (?)
 * 1948: Creative Hands series (director; writer; editor) (?)
 * 1948: L'Isle aux vacances (director) (?)
 * 1948: Why Won't Tommy Eat? (director; writer; editor) (?)
 * 1949: He Acts His Age, Ages and Stages series (director) (?)
 * 1950: Child Development series (director; writer) (?)
 * 1951: The Terrible Twos and the Trusting Threes, Ages and Stages series (director) (?)
 * 1953: Food For Freddy (director; writer) (?)
 * 1953: The Frustrating Fours and the Fascinating Fives, Ages and Stages series (director) (?)
 * 1954: From Sociable Six to Noisy Nine, Ages and Stages series (director) (?)
 * 1956: Dangerous Journey, 1956 (writer) (?)
 * 1956: From Ten to Twelve, Ages and Stages series, 1956 (producer) (?)
 * 1956: Picture Making By Teenagers (writer) (?)
 * 1957: Beaver Dam (writer; producer) (?)
 * 1957: The Teens, Ages and Stages series (writer) (?)
 * 1958: Legend of the Raven (writer; producer) (?)
 * 1958: Craftsmen of Canada (writer) (?)
 * 1960: Canadian Diamonds/Diamants du Canada (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: Ka Ke Ki Ku (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: The Land of Jacques Cartier/Toutes Isles (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: On the Sea/Les Goélettes (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: Soirée at St. Hilarion/En revenant de St-Hilarion, 1960 (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: Three Seasons/La Pitoune (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: Turlutte/La Rivière du Gouffre (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: White-Whale Hunters of Anse-Aux-Basques/L'Anse-aux-Basques (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1960: Winter Crossing at L'Isle-Aux-Coudres/La Traverse d'hiver à l'Isle-aux-Coudres (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1962: Top of a Continent (director; writer) (?)
 * 1962: Quality of a Nation (writer; producer) (?)
 * 1962: Saguenay (writer) (?)
 * 1963: The Jean Richard/Le Jean-Richard (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1963: Whalehead/Tête-à-la-Baleine (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1963: Winter Sealing at La Tabatière/L'Anse Tabatière (writer; English version) (?)
 * 1966: Growing Up Safely (writer) (?)
 * 1967: Global Village (writer) (?)
 * 1966: Motion (writer) (?)
 * 1972: The Perpetual Harvest (writer)
 * 1975: The Man who Skied Down Everest (writer)*
 * 1976: The Narwhals Came (writer)
 * 1977: Evidence of Progress (writer)
 * 1978: Song of Seasons (writer)
 * 1978-1979: There's No Place Like Home series (writer)
 * 1979: Developing Tomorrow's Energy (writer)
 * 1979: The Food Connection (producer)
 * 1979: Two-Way Window (writer)
 * 1984: Dialogue and Definitions for the Third World, (producer)
 * 1984: A Path of Their Own: CUSO in Papua, New Guinea (producer)
 * 1984: To Sense the Wonder (writer)
 * 1985: Farm Energy Management (writer; producer; executive producer)
 * 1985: The Start of a Lifetime (director)

Legend:


 * = a film collaboration with Budge Crawley and/or Crawley Films

(?) = unknown whether the film was done with Crawley Films but done during the time period of Judith's employment there.