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TORONTO — Intent on capturing the broad scope and deep impact of gender discrimination in the military, filmmaker Melanie Charbonneau focused on the little things.
Harassment often plays out in small but constant humiliations, says the Quebec director, and she hopes that by examining that, her film “Out Standing” will get under an audience’s skin.
The drama is based on the memoir of Canada’s first female infantry officer, Sandra Perron, who wrote about facing sexism from male colleagues throughout her training, even as she rose to the top of her class.
For much of the movie, Perron silently bears one indignity after another, which Charbonneau suggests required a toughness all the same.
“I wanted to show that this silence can also be a form of courage. That’s what struck me in Sandra’s story, is that her silence was so strong and heavy but also loud; it showed resilience,” Charbonneau said during a round of interviews at the recent Toronto International Film Festival alongside Perron and star Nina Kiri.
“We’re always trying to find a heroic story and she’s a different kind of hero, but we need to hear that kind of story.”
Perron said she expects the film will resonate with female soldiers past and present but she also hoped men see the film, and “decide to be champions of women.”
“Because in the world that we live, still today, coming forth with stories like this still attracts a lot of adversity and controversy,” said Perron, who retired after 19 years of service that included peacekeeping missions in the former Yugoslavia.
Perron became Canada’s first female infantry officer in 1990, and was the first female member of the Royal 22e Régiment, also known as the “Van Doos.”
After retiring, she served as a consultant for firms including General Motors and Bombardier Aerospace. In 2017, she released her book, “Out Standing in the Field: A Memoir by Canada’s First Female Infantry Officer,” which laid bare the institutional barriers she faced.
But well before the book, Perron unwittingly sparked scrutiny over alleged abuse in the military when a leaked photo from a training exercise showed her tied to a tree, beaten and slumped over in the snow.
Perron eventually left the military but Charbonneau’s film posits that it was less because of the events leading up to that shocking photo and more to do with the near-constant barrage of indignities she faced. They included degrading comments, sabotaged exercises, the suppression of key information she needed to complete tasks and a firm glass ceiling.
“We talk in the film about the ‘drop by drop’ — the harassment, the micro-aggressions. It’s really hard to explain, even when you hear women that have been harassed on trial, they try to explain all those little moments that kind of drag them (down) and attack them,” said Charbonneau.
“It needs to be said, it needs to be felt also. What I wanted to (do) with the film is that you’re feeling it as Sandra is going through them and after that, you totally understand what a lot of women are trying to explain but that the world is not understanding.”
As Perron, Kiri was tasked with silently conveying an internal storm of emotions as her character is subjected to one attack after another. Kiri said she understood why women may not speak out when bullied.
“(It’s) not because you don’t want to or can’t, but because it impedes your survival in the situation,” Kiri said.
“A lot of women are put in situations where the strategy to move forward and be able to actually make something out of the situation is to go through it…in order to get to the other side. That’s what you had to do,” she said, turning to look at Perron, seated beside her.
Charbonneau said the military has been very supportive of her efforts to adapt Perron’s memoir, allowing her to shoot on actual training grounds — in this case at Valcartier military base near Quebec City — as well as include real soldiers as extras.
Perron called it “pretty spectacular” that the military was so willing to help, recalling a conversation about the film with Gen. Wayne Eyre, who was chief of defence staff at the time.
“I said to him, ‘You know, this isn’t going to be your best recruiting video ever. It’s a pretty tough story.’ But he said, ‘We have to keep talking about this. It’s important.'”
Perron now runs a retreat centre called the Pepper Pod to help women transition out of the military or RCMP into civilian life.
“We talk about those stories, we talk about abuse and women’s bodies,” said Perron.
“And we talk about career progression and the setbacks that women have to endure still today because they take leave for child care. We talk about PTSD and how that is different for women versus men…. Listen, we still have a lot of progress to make. I’m confident that the military is getting there. Sometimes they just don’t know what they don’t know.”
Perron said the military is an old institution that is now moving at lightspeed to develop its culture, equipment and defence systems. She said greater diversity would help speed that growth: “We can’t just be recruiting the same way that we were recruiting 50 years ago or even during my time.”
She also urged vigilance in the face of increased rhetoric in the United States over what women can and can’t do in the military.
“This is a good time for our voices to be heard, not just on screen, but behind the scenes.”
“Out Standing” hits theatres Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2025.
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press
