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Rowland Wendy
Over the past several months, Wendy Rowland has shot a .38 revolver, a .45 semi-automatic, a shotgun, a .22 and air rifle, a tiny .25 calibre pistol, and a film. The purpose of all this shooting is PACKING HEAT, a throught-provoking documentary about women and guns, directed by Rowland and produced by Sally Bochner of the National Film Board of Canada.
Born and raised in the suburbs of Toronto, Rowland studied film at Queens University, where she completed several short films and graduated with an honours B.A. Cityscape, a film she co-directed, won the Best Film Award at Queens in 1988 and was named Best Short Documentary at the CBC Telefest. The film aired on CBC, in 1990.
After leaving Queen's, she worked as a researcher for documentary filmmaker Ron Mann on Twist and Dream Tower. During this time, she developed On Her Baldness. Directed and produced by Rowland, this documentary on bald women premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1991, was screened at festivals around the world, and aired on CBC in 1992.
Wendy Rowland returned to school in 1992, doing an MA in Cinema Studies at New York University. While completing her studies, she worked as an assistant editor on Heart of the Matter, a film about women and AIDS, and History of Romantic Comedy, a segment of the PBS series on the history of Cinema.
After graduating from NYU, Rowland worked with filmmaker Michael Moore (Roger & Me), where she started as an assistant editor on his irreverent TV series TV Nation. She continued to work with Moore, as assistant to the director, throughout the production of his first feature-length comedy, Canadian Bacon.
Rowland left New York for Montreal after being selected as one of four emerging filmmakers from across Canada to participate in the National Film Board of Canada's Fast Forward program. After completing PACKING HEAT she began work as an editor on Shereen Jerrett's Kid Nerd (also an NFB production) and is currently developing other projects of her own.
Wendy Roland does not, and will never own a gun.
