Tanya Ballantyne (May 4, 1944 - June 18, 2015), also known later in her career as Tanya Ballantyne Tree, was a Canadian film director, [1] most noted for her 1967 documentary film The Things I Cannot Change . [2]
Created for the National Film Board of Canada, the film was broadcast by CBC Television on May 3, 1967, as an episode of the anthology series Festival , [3] and received a special mention from the jury at the 1967 Montreal International Film Festival. [4]
However, with the film having generated some controversy around whether it was exploitative of stars Kenneth and Gertrude Bailey, she opted to concentrate on raising her family with her then-husband Bruce Mackay, [5] and did not return to filmmaking until deciding in the 1980s to track down the Baileys to update their story in a new film, Courage to Change. [6] Having divorced from Mackay, she added Tree to her surname at this time, telling the press that she wanted to be known by a surname that she had chosen for herself, instead of being defined solely by the surnames of her father and ex-husband. [6]
She subsequently directed the documentary films Nurses Care: One Day at a Time, [7] Niagara Falls and Ted Allan: Minstrel Boy of the 20th Century, [8] before her death in 2015.