Education
Boston University; McGill University.
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Beverly Shaffer
Edit ProfileCareer
She joined the NFB’s newly created women"s studio, Studio Doctorate, in 1975 after her proposal for a series of short documentaries about children was approved by Studio Doctorate head Kathleen Shannon. To a Safer Place (1987) was an uplifting story of an incest survivor in her thirties who succeeded in building a fulfilling life after years of abuse. She also directed Just a Wedding (1999), a docudrama sequel to I’ll Find a Way.
Her last film for the NFB was Mr.
Mergler"s Gift.
Born in Montreal in 1945, Shaffer graduated from McGill University in 1967, with a Bachelor of Arts in comparative religion and philosophy. She taught high school for two years before doing a Master"s degree in filmmaking at Boston University.
Upon graduation in 1971, she worked at WGBH-television as a production assistant, researcher and associate producer on science and public affairs programs.
Achievements
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Shaffer spent the bulk of her professional career with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), directing short documentaries and dramas, including I"ll Find a Way, a documentary about a young girl with spina bifida which won the 1977 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Shaffer won more than thirty international awards in her twenty-five years with the National Film Board. The ten films in her Children of Canada series included the Oscar-winner I’ll Find a Way.
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Born
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Nationality
Canada