Bonnie Sherr Klein

Topics

Presentations

Disability
 
Healthcare
 
Documentary Film-making
 
Women’s Issues
 
The Role of Media
 
Peace and Justice

Summary Profile

Bonnie Sherr Klein began her career as a freelance documentary filmmaker in New York in the 1960's after obtaining an MA in Communications at Stanford University. She immigrated to Canada in 1967, and began a long career of activist filmmaking with the National Film Board of Canada, where she was a key member of the innovative Challenge for Change Programme and later the historic women's unit, Studio D. Her award-winning films include the series Organizing For Change: The Alinsky Approach; VTR-ST. Jacques (the first experiment in community video); Speaking Our Peace: A Film about Women, Peace, and Power; and the infamous theatrical feature documentary Not a Love Story: A Film about Pornography.

In 1987, at the age of 46, Bonnie had a catastrophic stroke caused by a congenital malformation in her brainstem. She became locked-in, quadriplegic, respirator-dependent, and experienced panic attacks. She spent more than six months in hospital, and another three years in formal rehabilitation. Bonnie now walks short distances with two forearm crutches, and moves through the world on Gladys, her motorized scooter, or a low-slung red tricycle.

When she recognized that people's curiosity was borne of their personal fear of disability, Bonnie created several CBC radio features based on the intimate journals of her stroke experience. She then wrote the best-seller Slow Dance: A Story of Stroke, Love, and Disability,in collaboration with Persimmon Blackbridge.

Bonnie's life with disability is informed and enriched by the movement for disability rights. Ever a believer in the power of art to change people's lives, she co-founded the Society for Disability Arts and Culture, which produced Canada's landmark KickstART! Festivals of Disability Art and Culture.

Bonnie returned to filmmaking and the NFB 17 years after her stroke to make Shameless: The Art of Disability, a collaborative and intimate film about 5 disability artists who challenge the stereotype of disability as tragedy.

Bonnie has received numerous awards, including an honorary Doctor of Laws; the Governor-General's Persons Award; the Crystal Special Jury Award; and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award. She and Michael live on the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver. They have two children, Seth and Naomi, and one grandchild, Zoe Anne Klein-Johnson.

Client Testimonial:

"Bonnie is a truly remarkable woman. She has an incredible presence in front of a group, whether she is telling her story to the students or introducing her film to an audience. She is smart, funny, charming and eloquent. She is knowledgeable and professional yet moves her audience in a most powerful way. She is able to convey the physical and emotional difficulties that she endured and describe her slow but amazing recovery, against all odds, with warmth, humor, insight and strength. She helps the medical students understand that a patient, whatever the level of illness or disability, is a person and should not be treated as an object or an illness or a case. She helps them understand the pitfalls of giving a hopeless prognosis to a patient. After being told that after a year or two there could be no further improvement in her motor function, Bonnie talks about her progress year by year, which continued for more than 10 years."

University of British Columbia