Thu, Nov 17 / 7 pm
Introduced by Shereen Jerrett and John Kozak.
Winnipeg writer, actress and filmmaker Donna Lewis passed away a few months ago. She had a very wry sense of humour and great comic timing. As an actress, her intuitive sense of drama was clearly evident in the many Winnipeg stage plays and independent films she created in the Winnipeg community in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Out of respect for her work we have assembled an evening of her finest performances and filmmakers Shereen Jerrett and John Kozak will say a few words at the beginning about their memories of collaborating with her.
Dory / Directed by John Kozak, 1990, Canada, 48 min / An award winner at the Yorkton Film Festival for Best Script as well as a BEST PERFORMANCE award shared Roscoe Handford and Donna Lewis. In an isolated farmhouse on a sweltering summer night two sisters are locked in a battle of wills. Tension, frustration, anger and hatred seeth between Robin and Dory (Donna Lewis) as the mystery behind their struggle builds to a climax.
Root Canal / Directed by John Kozak and Donna Lewis, 1989, Canada, 1:30 min / One of Donna’s funniest performances was in this wordless short. A very bored looking nurse sits in the reception area of a dentist’s office listening to the screams of a man undergoing root canal. Donna does it all with simple roll of her eyes in this example of priceless comedic acting.
The Waltz / Directed by Shereen Jerrett, 1985, Canada, 5 min / Donna Lewis portrays a dispirited dance partner who longs to be anywhere else but on the dance floor in this classic adaptation of a Dorothy Parker short story.
Constars / Directed by Donna Lewis & Lori Weidenhammer, 2003,Canada, 7 min / To create Constars, Donna and Lori improvised for over three hours in a hotel room with several suitcases of costumes and makeup. Their goal was to “find” as many characters as they could, wearing each other’s clothes, eyeglasses, wigs, etc. This improvisation was videotaped by Matt Smith and captured so that it plays back in compressed time, giving it a “fast forward” look. They edited stills of the personas into the video and in this way Constars was born.
