Meet Clarke
 | I remember coming to Toronto at the age of
thirteen to see Nobody Waved Goodbye (National Film Board of Canada, 1964). The
technical roughness, improvisational quality, vitality and inventiveness of this
film so impressed me, I decided then and there to make my own
films. | |
 | When I was fifteen, I made a half-hour drama
about adolescence called On Nothing Days. It won second prize
at the NFB's Amateur Filmmaker's Competition in 1967 and was shown on the
CBC. | |
 | In 1970, I shot my first feature, The Only Thing You Know. The actors and crew contributed to the film's conception. Instead of working from a script, we improvised scenes around a loose story. This dictated that we shoot in a documentary style, often using a hand-held camera. The Only Thing You Know won two Canadian Film Awards including Best Actress. | |
 | After the release of The Only Thing You Know I worked as a freelance director, cinematographer, and editor. I also began to teach film production in a variety of settings. | |
 | In the summer of 1986, I was invited to direct some episodes of a new television series called Degrassi Jr. High. The series achieved considerable critical and commercial success, winning many awards including two consecutive International Emmys. | |
 | My second theatrical feature, Taking
Care, was inspired by events at the Hospital for Sick Children in the
mid-eighties. It won the CFTA Best Feature Award and a Genie nomination for Best
Actress. | |
 | In 1987, I directed Target, one of the first fully interactive movies. This project was jointly funded by IBM's central office and the President's Council on Drug Abuse in the U.S. In 1989 I won a Cindy award from the Association of Visual Communicators in Los Angeles for directing Target. | |
 | I started teaching at
Queen's in 1988 and completed an alternative documentary feature, Dance
on The Edge, in 1995. This film was invited to the International Film
Festival in Figueria da Foz, Portugal. It is an extension of a larger project on
emerging cultural forms that is part of my current interests. | |
 | Recently I have been experimenting with interactive multimedia (current interests). Moviemaker, an instructional CD-ROM for the third year production course at Queen's, is currently in the testing stage. I designed the prototype for a first year course in Canadian Politics. I also have published articles on Canadian film, documentary and interactive media. | |