The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia – Take 5
Screening Dates
  • January 14, 2019 8:40

Veteran Vancouver filmmaker Ron Kelly had been a key contributor to local TV drama and documentary during his time at CBC Vancouver in the 1950s before directing his first fiction feature in 1967. Montreal-born Alexandra Stewart stars as Caroline, a young woman torn between anglophone Vancouver and francophone Quebec—and torn between her lovers in each place. Kelly’s beautifully mounted film, co-written with George Roberson, is both an allegory on Canada’s Two Solitudes and a self-conscious homage to Truffaut’s Jules et Jim. Co-produced by the CBC and NFB, it went substantially over budget, leading to an uproar in the Canadian Senate, where one honourable member denounced the film as indecent, immoral and repulsive.” Denis Gillson’s colour cinematography won a Canadian Film Award. (Kelly’s lyrical documentary Summer Afternoon, from 1956, screens in this evening’s first program.)