The Cinematheque

In Person: Anne Wheeler

Anne Wheeler’s powerful 1987 drama (her first fiction feature) is a highlight of a distinguished filmmaking career devoted to bringing authentic, socially conscious Canadian stories—and particularly women’s stories—to the screen. Framed as a psychological thriller, the film relates the growing friendship between two very different women in a small Alberta town. Lilly (Susan Wooldridge), a prim, upper-crust Englishwoman, is the lonely wife of the town’s new doctor (Kenneth Walsh). Rosanne (Tantoo Cardinal) is a local Métis single mother and barmaid. The eruption of male violence in both the ​“Native” and ​“white” communities causes each woman to question her personal loyalties and forges a bond between them. Wheeler’s film impresses with its potent sense of place and intelligent treatment of class, race, and gender. Print courtesy TIFF’s Film Reference Library.

preceded by

Black Soul
(Âme noire)
Canada 2000
Martine Chartrand
10 min. DCP

A beautiful exemplar of paint-on-glass animation, Haitian Canadian filmmaker Martine Chartrand’s award-winning, music-filled short traces the history of Black culture in North America through the stories told to a young Montreal boy by his grandmother.