Embedded Files
Key Credits
Key Credits
Director/screenplay: Penny McCann
Director of photography: Nena Toth
Original music: John M. Seck
Editor: Rob Thompson
Art Director: Shuca Chalifour
Production designer: Lynn Cox
Sound design: Wayne Bartlett, John M. Seck
Producers: Penny McCann, Eric Walker, Caroline Langill
Cast:
Tracy Wright
Steven Bush
John Koensgen
James Allodi
Mary Ellis
Julia Doran
Patrick McCarthy
The Fires of Joanna
1998/drama/42:19/16mm on HD
Distributor: CFMDC
Set against the bleak landscape of Depression-era Eastern Ontario, this film tells the story of Joanna McVeigh and her struggle to endure a harsh and unforgiving life. Epileptic since childhood and past the age of marriage, Joanna lives alone on a run-down farm with Frank, her alcoholic father. Bound by a promise to her dying mother and haunted by a dark and shameful childhood secret, Joanna illuminates her loneliness with secret imaginings and the pleasure of her one great gift, the ability to set fires with her mind.
Joanna's desire to break free from the confines of her lonely existence leads her to forsake her promise and embark on a strange journey of self-discovery. A disquieting tale of guilt and redemption.
Available on demand on VUCAVU
Julia Doran as Young Joanna. Photo credit: Eric Walker
Funded by:
Canada Council for the Arts
Ontario Arts Council
National Film Board of Canada Filmmakers' Assistance Program
Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton
ACTRA
Corel Endowment Fund for the Arts
“...an assured, accomplished film of considerable sensitivity and intelligence.”
Take One: Film and Television in Canada
“...this beautiful fictional document of recent history unfolds deliberately like a slow burn, arousing in its gorgeous lingering shots of the human form and of the muted autumnal colours of a landscape on the edge of kindling.”
St. John's International Women's Film and Video Festival
SCREENINGS
SCREENINGS
Women Make Waves Festival (Taipei, Taiwan)
St. John's International Women's Film & Video Festival (St. John’s, Newfoundland)
Canadian Film Institute (Ottawa, Ontario)
Local Heroes International Screen Festival (Edmonton, Alberta)
Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival (Victoria, B.C.)
Vogue Cinema (Sackville, New Brunswick)
New Brunswick Filmmakers' Cooperative (Fredericton, New Brunswick)
School of Art and Culture, Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario)
Collections:
National Archives of Canada Film, Video and Sound collection
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