Gerry Rogers — Director / Producer
Internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker Gerry Rogers loves, loves making movies! She has over 20 films to her credit and as many awards. Her latest films My Left Breast, an intimate, starkly honest and surprisingly humorous portrayal of her struggle with breast cancer won over 20 international awards including 2 Geminis and Gold at Hot Docs
Pleasant Street, a curious and intimate story of community, love and living with dying, won the Rex Tasker NFB Award for Best Documentary and the Empire Theatre Award for Best Direction. It also won a special jury prize at the Nickel Independent Film Festival. Rogers released her latest film Ferron: girl on a road, a tribute to lesbian singer/songwriter icon Ferron in 2009.
Gerry’s film career began in 1982 at the National Film Board’s Studio D in Montreal. In 1992 she returned to her native Newfoundland and founded Augusta Productions. Her directorial credits include the NFB/CBC co-production After The Montreal Massacre, the internationally award winning Vienna Tribunal and Kathleen Shannon: on film, feminism, and other dreams. Among the many films she has produced is the internationally award winning To a Safer Place. Gerry’s most recent films include, “R” Rated, a 3 minute comedy starring Andy Jones and Ferron: girl on a road, a film on folksinger/songwriter icon Ferron.
Rogers is currently in post production on From Her Majesty’s Pen, shot in Canada’s oldest men’s penitentiary and in development with, Women on the Edge, an alternative drama with female prisoners.
Internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker and activist Gerry Rogers was born in Corner Brook.
After completing a BSW at MUN she worked with the St. John’s Status of Women Council where she helped found the first Transition House for women and children victims of domestic violence.
Gerry’s film career began in 1982 at the National Film Board’s Studio D in Montreal where she was Program Producer of the Federal Women’s Film Program, a film production, distribution and training program for women filmmakers. In 1992 she returned to Newfoundland and founded Augusta Productions.
Gerry has more than 20 films to her credit and over 40 international awards. Among these are the multi-award winning film “My Left Breast” (for which she won two Geminis) and the films “Pleasant Street,” “FERRON: girl on a road” and “After the Montreal Massacre.” Rogers is currently in post-production on “From Her Majesty’s Pen,” shot in Canada’s oldest men’s penitentiary.
Gerry travels extensively giving lectures and workshops on documentary filmmaking, status of women, and human rights issues. She has been featured in numerous papers and magazines, “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” “The Vicki Gabereau Show,” on CBC Radio with Shelagh Rogers, among others.
Gerry is also known for her health advocacy, especially her leadership role in drawing public attention to the need for the Cameron Inquiry on the botched ER/PR pathology tests for women with breast cancer in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Gerry lives in St. John’s with her partner, businesswoman Peg Norman. Canadian Film Centre Biography
Gerry Rogers is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and politician. She began her career with the National Film Board, and left in 1992 to form her own production company, Augusta Productions. Her best-known film, My Left Breast, documented her battle with breast cancer and was released in 2000.
Openly lesbian, Rogers is the partner of social worker and politician Peg Norman.[1]
Rogers was elected to the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly in the 2011 provincial election, representing the district of St. John’s Centre as a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party.[2] She is the first openly gay politician ever elected to the provincial legislature.[3]
In honour of her role as a significant builder of LGBT culture and history in Canada, a portrait of Rogers by artist Claire Priddle was added to the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives‘ National Portrait Collection in 2003.[4]
Elora Women's Film Society 