Wed - Fri, Dec 2 - 4 / 7 pm
Sat & Sun, Dec 5 & 6 / 3 pm
Wed, Dec 9 / 7 pm
Directed by Brian D. Johnson
2015, Canada, 90 min
Introduction by David Arnason, Professor in the Faculty of Arts, English, Film and Theatre at the University of Manitoba
A portrait of an artist driven to become a great Canadian poet at a time when the category barely existed. Twice winner of the Governor General’s Award, Al Purdy is a charismatic tower of contradictions: a “sensitive man” who whips out a poem in a bar fight; a factory worker who finds grace in an Arctic flower; a mentor to young writers who remained a stranger to sons. Born in Wooler, Ontario Al was a high-school dropout during the Great Depression and lived all over the country. After two decades of writing what he admits was bad poetry, he and his wife build an A-frame cabin on Roblin Lake in Ontario’s Prince Edward County which now offers a writer’s residency. The A-frame became a mecca for the early pioneers of Canadian literature – Margaret Laurence, Dennis Lee, Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. The film features interviews with literary giants and performances by artists Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Gord Downie, Sarah Harmer, Tanya Tagaq and Joseph Boyden.
