March 17, 1997.
by Michah Rynor

Somewhere in an attic, a basement, an archive or the home of a private collector the surviving films of the late Nell Shipman could be hiding and Professor Kay Armatage of cinema studies is looking for them.

Shipman has all but vanished from Canadian history books; now Armatage is rectifying this with an in-depth biography of this fallen star. Even the most up-to-date encyclopedias rarely mention her: but make no mistake, Shipman was a bonafide Canadian-born movie star and director who found her way from Victoria, British Columbia, to Hollywood in the early 1900s.

"Nell is in a funny position," says Armatage. "Because she produced and released so many of her films in the United States, Canadians know almost nothing about her. And because she's a Canadian, American scholars dont pay much attention to her."

For Armatage, an internationally known expert on film and a professor of womens studies, the search for Nell is a given. "Nell was an independent woman, a Canadian and here she was making movies when Hollywood was just getting started. It's a natural fit for me."

Born in 1892 Shipman ran the gamut from fame to destitution. Avaudeville hoofer and singer at 13, she grew up to be one of the most successful and productive female film directors of the silent era. She died in 1970.

Her life story had all but disappeared until 15 years ago when a University of Boise professor began researching Idaho artists. During a conference a man approached him with an old canister of film found in his grandmothers attic. It turned out to be one of Shipmans long-lost movies and the search was on. Sadly, only three feature films and three shorts have been found out of the dozens she made during her long career.

Shipman specialized in wilderness potboilers: the young woman battling the elements, taming everything from grizzly bears to villains while finding true love and happiness. Her biggest success came with the 1919 release of Back to Gods Country, set in the unforgiving Canadian tundra.

Many factors conspired to ruin Shipman the arrival of talkies, the disappearance of the independent theatres that showed her work and the refusal of the cinematographers union to allow women members until 1975. In fact the films that Shipman wrote, produced, directed and starred in are now so scarce that her request to enter a senior citizens home for showbiz veterans was turned down when the administrators couldn't find any official documentation proving she had ever been a filmmaker.

Armatage has been spending the last year gathering what information remains on Shipman -- much of it from the University of Boise -- and bringing it back to her office at Innis College. Here Jennifer Little and Joseph Bishay -- working through a humanities 299 Y research opportunies program that pairs second-year students with faculty projects -- have designed a Nell Shipman Web site where Armatage can disseminate and share her findings. Armatage is transforming her detective work into a book as well, with the help of a three-year SSHRC grant.

In some ways the lives of Nell and Kay are very similar. "Film was in her blood," says Armatage, "and despite the odds, she never gave up planning that next project."