Peggy Thompson (screenwriter)

Last updated
Peggy Thompson
Born1952 (age 7071)
OccupationScreenwriter and professor
CitizenshipCanadian
Notable works
Website
www.peggythompson.ca

Peggy Thompson is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, playwright, and professor. She is known for her films The Lotus Eaters and Better Than Chocolate .

Contents

Career

Thompson's 1989 short film In Search of the Last Good Man won the Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the 11th Genie Awards in 1990. [1] She won the award for Best Screenplay at the 14th Genie Awards in 1993 for The Lotus Eaters . [2]

Thompson wrote the screenplay and co-produced the 2000 film, Better Than Chocolate. [3] She began conceiving the film in 1993, shortly after finishing The Lotus Eaters, while on a retreat with Better Than Chocolate's other producer, Sharon McGowan.The two dared each other to create a lesbian coming out comedy. [4] Thompson was committed to not having Better Than Chocolate be in "the tradition of the celluloid closet" and thus gave the lesbian characters in the film a happy ending. [5]

Her other credits include the films Saint Monica [6] and Bearded Ladies: The Photography of Rosamond Norbury, [7] the television series The Beachcombers , [8] Da Vinci's Inquest and Big Sound , and stage plays including Brides in Space [9] and The Last Will and Testament of Lolita. [10] She was also coauthor, with Saeko Usukawa, of two coffee table books on film history, Hard Boiled: Great Lines from Film Noir and Tall in the Saddle: Great Lines from Classic Westerns. [11]

Thompson is currently an associate professor of screenwriting at the University of British Columbia.

Personal life

Saeko Usukawa, an art book writer and editor with Douglas & McIntyre, was Thompson's partner from 1978 until her death in 2009. [12]

Related Research Articles

<i>Better Than Chocolate</i> 1999 Canadian romantic comedy film

Better Than Chocolate is a 1999 Canadian romantic comedy film shot in Vancouver and directed by Anne Wheeler.

<i>Love and Human Remains</i> 1994 Canadian film

Love and Human Remains is a 1993 Canadian film directed by Denys Arcand and based on Brad Fraser's stage play Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love. Fraser also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation. The film version follows the story line of the original play fairly closely: a gay man and his heterosexual, female roommate try to find love and sexual gratification in Edmonton, as a serial killer is loose in the city.

Rae Dawn Chong is a Canadian-American actress. She made her big screen debut appearing in the 1978 musical drama film Stony Island, and in 1981 starred in the fantasy film Quest for Fire, for which she received Genie Award for Best Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karyn Dwyer</span> Canadian actress

Karyn Dwyer was a Canadian actress, whose best known role was as Maggie in the 1999 film Better Than Chocolate.

Aren X. Tulchinsky, formerly known as Karen X. Tulchinsky, is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, anthologist and screenwriter from Vancouver, British Columbia.

The 14th Genie Awards were held on December 12, 1993 to honour Canadian films release in 1992. This year's event was dominated by two Vancouver productions: Paul Shapiro's The Lotus Eaters, and Sandy Wilson's Harmony Cats.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Motion Picture to the best Canadian film of the year.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents one or more annual awards for the Best Screenplay for a Canadian film. Originally presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, from 1980 until 2012 the award continued as part of the Genie Awards ceremony. As of 2013, it is presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.

Mette Bach is a Danish-Canadian author, teacher, screenwriter, and director. She was born in Denmark and grew up in North Delta. Bach attended Simon Fraser University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in English. She has an MFA from the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing Program.

The Lotus Eaters is a 1993 Canadian drama film, written by Peggy Thompson and directed by Paul Shapiro. The film stars R. H. Thomson and Sheila McCarthy as Hal and Diana Kingswood, a married couple living on Galiano Island in British Columbia in the 1960s with their two daughters, Cleo and Zoe.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Feature Length Documentary. First presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, it became part of the Genie Awards in 1980 and the contemporary Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.

Big Meat Eater is a Canadian comedy science fiction film, released in 1982.

Marya Delver is a Canadian actress. She is most noted for her role as Laurel in the 2001 film Last Wedding, for which she was a Genie Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress at the 22nd Genie Awards, and her recurring role as Officer Eglee in Sons of Anarchy.

Phil Savath was an American-born Canadian film and television writer and producer. He was most noted as a two-time Genie Award nominee for Best Screenplay, with nominations for Original Screenplay at the 4th Genie Awards in 1983 for Big Meat Eater and Adapted Screenplay at the 10th Genie Awards in 1989 for The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick.

Aloka Chandra McLean is a Canadian actress. She is most noted for her role in the film The Lotus Eaters, for which she received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actress at the 14th Genie Awards in 1993. The Lotus Eaters was her first film role; around the same time, she had her first stage role playing Helen Keller in a Vancouver production of The Miracle Worker.

Marine Life is a Canadian drama film, directed by Anne Wheeler and released in 2000. Based on the short story collection of the same name by Linda Svendsen, the film stars Cybill Shepherd as June, a jazz singer coping with feelings of failure in her career and her complicated relationships with her teenage daughter Adele and her boyfriend Robert.

Impolite is a Canadian mystery film, directed by David Hauka and released in 1992. The film stars Robert Wisden as Jack Yeats, a burned-out journalist who is investigating the death of wealthy businessman Naples O'Rorke.

In Search of the Last Good Man is a Canadian comedy-drama short film, directed by Peg Campbell and released in 1989. Cowritten with Peggy Thompson as a follow-up to their 1986 short film It's a Party!, the film blends live action and animation to depict a group of women in a coffee shop talking about their relationships with men.

Below the Belt is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert and released in 1999. The film stars Nathalie Toriel and Cara Pifko as Oona and Jill, two young lesbian amateur boxers who fall in love, and then discover that one of their mothers is also having an extramarital affair with another woman.

Thomas Burstyn, sometimes credited as Tom Burstyn, is a Canadian cinematographer and documentary filmmaker. He is most noted for his work on the 1995 film Magic in the Water, for which he won the Genie Award for Best Cinematography at the 16th Genie Awards. He was nominated in the same category on two other occasions, at the 10th Genie Awards in 1989 for The Tadpole and the Whale , and at the 14th Genie Awards in 1993 for The Lotus Eaters.

References

  1. "Jesus of Montreal in near sweep". Vancouver Sun , March 21, 1990.
  2. "Film about Glenn Gould wins four Genie Awards; Best director, picture honors for dramatic tale". Ottawa Citizen , December 13, 1993.
  3. "Romance given a gay twist". Vancouver Sun , August 27, 1999.
  4. Tulchinsky, Karen X (2000). "Making Chocolate". Herizons. 13 (4): 22 via ProQuest.
  5. Tulchinsky, Karen X. (2000). "Books into movies: Part 1". Lambda Book Report. Washington. 8 (6): 9–11 via ProQuest.
  6. "Ararat triumphs at Genies". Victoria Times-Colonist , February 14, 2003.
  7. "About Face; Documentary follows Vancouver photographer Rosamond Norbury as she plays with the boundaries of gender identity". Vancouver Sun , August 13, 2015.
  8. "Drama workshop helps develop creative skills". The Globe and Mail , June 6, 1985.
  9. "Feminist fantasy in space". Vancouver Sun , January 13, 1987.
  10. "Lolita grows up to get last laughs". Toronto Star , May 29, 1987.
  11. "Peggy Thompson: Better than chocolate. Healthier, too". Vancouver Sun , March 4, 2000.
  12. "A behind-the-scenes force guiding books onto shelves". The Globe and Mail , July 31, 2009.