The Cinematheque

Guests in Attendance

Strathyre
Canada 1979
Colin Browne
25 min. 16mm

In Colin Browne’s confident and freewheeling first film, he and friend Colin Ritchie go in search of a homestead near Kamloops called Strathyre, looking for evidence of an event that occurred more than six decades earlier, on the last weekend of October 1914.

“Colin Browne’s wistful tribute to his family’s roots in the interior of British Columbia.” Harry Killas

—Intermission—

My American Cousin
Canada 1985
Sandy Wilson
89 min. DCP

Now a classic of our national cinema, writer-director Sandy Wilson’s charming film à clef is both an affecting coming-of-age tale and a witty meditation on Canadian-American cultural tensions. Sandy Wilcox (Margaret Langrick) is a preteen growing up in the 1950s in the Okanagan, where she’s bored and also tired of being treated like a child. Everything changes with the arrival of Butch (John Wildman), her dreamy, red-convertible-driving cousin from California, who seems to embody everything exciting Sandy’s been longing for. My American Cousin was a popular hit at home and abroad, and won six Genie Awards—for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actress (Langrick), Actor (Wildman), and Editing (Haida Paul). Arriving on the heels of The Grey Fox, it also solidified BC’s ascendance as an important filmmaking hub, and was a rallying cry for women directors everywhere.

“Everyone’s favourite summer movie! Sandy Wilson’s gently satirical coming-of-age film starts with one of the most famous opening lines in Canadian cinema—“Dear diary, nothing ever happens.” It then went on to win six Genies.” Harry Killas