The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche

Last updated
The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche
Directed by Maya Gallus
Written byMaya Gallus
Produced byMaya Gallus
Starring Deborah Hay
Jordyn Negri
Severn Thompson
Cinematography Stan Barua
Edited byRoslyn Kalloo
Production
company
Red Queen Productions
Distributed by National Film Board of Canada
Release date
  • April 29, 2012 (2012-04-29)
Running time
52 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche is a 2012 Canadian biographical docudrama film written and directed by Maya Gallus. [1] The film explores the private personal life of Canadian writer Mazo de la Roche, using a mixture of archival materials, interviews and dramatic reenactments, centering in large part on the unresolved question of whether de la Roche's longtime Boston marriage with Caroline Clement was a lesbian relationship in modern terms. [2]

The dramatic reenactments star Severn Thompson as de la Roche, and Deborah Hay as Clement.

The film premiered at the 2012 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, [3] but was distributed principally as a television broadcast on Bravo rather than theatrically. [4] It later received a repeat screening at the 2017 festival, as part of a program of biographical documentary films about significant women in history. [5]

The film received three Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards in 2014, for Best Editorial Research (Gallus), Best Visual Research (Erin Chisholm) and Best Photography in a Documentary Program or Series (Stan Barua). [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazo de la Roche</span> Canadian writer (1879–1961)

Mazo de la Roche was a Canadian writer who was the author of the Jalna novels, one of the most popular series of books of her time.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simcha Jacobovici</span> Canadian film director

Simcha Jacobovici is a Canadian-Israeli journalist, documentary filmmaker and New York Times best-selling author.

Maureen Judge is a Canadian Screen Awards (CSA) winning filmmaker and television producer. Much of her work is documentary and explores themes of love, betrayal and acceptance in the context of the modern family, with the most recent films focusing on the dreams and challenges of contemporary youth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Screen Awards</span> Canadian media awards

The Canadian Screen Awards are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media productions. Given annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the awards recognize excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liz Marshall</span> Canadian film director

Liz Marshall is a Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Since the 1990s, she has directed and produced independent projects and been part of film and television teams, creating broadcast, theatrical, campaign and cross-platform documentaries shot around the world. Marshall's feature length documentaries largely focus on social justice and environmental themes through strong characters. She is known for The Ghosts in Our Machine and for Water on the Table, for which she also produced impact and engagement campaigns, and attended many global events as a public speaker. Water on the Table features water rights activist, author and public figure Maude Barlow. The Ghosts in Our Machine features animal rights activist, photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Queen Productions</span>

Red Queen Productions is a Toronto-based, Canadian cinema company founded by filmmakers Maya Gallus and Justine Pimlott, dedicated to creating films about women, social issues, culture and the arts. Their films have screened internationally at Sheffield Doc/Fest, Dok Leipzig, SEOUL International Women’s Film Festival, Women Make Waves (Taiwan), This Human World Film Festival (Vienna), Singapore International Film Festival, Frameline Film Festival, Outfest (LA) and Newfest, among others, and have been broadcast around the world. Their work has won numerous awards, including a Gemini Award for Best Direction for Girl Inside.

Maya Gallus is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, and co-founder of Red Queen Productions with Justine Pimlott. Her films have been screened at international film festivals, including Toronto International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, SEOUL International Women’s Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, This Human World Film Festival (Vienna) and Women Make Waves (Taiwan), among others. Her work has also screened at the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Donostia Kultura, San Sebastián and Canada House UK, as well as theatrically in Tokyo, San Francisco, Key West and Toronto, and been broadcast around the world. She has won numerous awards, including a Gemini Award for Best Direction for Girl Inside, and has been featured in The Guardian, UK; Ms. (Magazine), Curve (Magazine), Bust (Magazine), Salon (Magazine), POV and The Walrus, among others. She is a Director/Writer alumna of the Canadian Film Centre and a participant in Women in the Director’s Chair. She will be honoured with a "Focus On" retrospective at the 2017 Hot Docs festival.

Justine Pimlott is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, and co-founder of Red Queen Productions with Maya Gallus. She began her career apprenticing as a sound recordist with Studio D, the women’s studio at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), in Montreal. As a documentary filmmaker, her work has won numerous awards, including Best Social Issue Documentary at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Best Canadian Film at Inside Out Film and Video Festival for Laugh in the Dark, which critic Thomas Waugh described, in The Romance of Transgression in Canada as "one of the most effective and affecting elegies in Canadian queer cinema." Her films have screened internationally at Sheffield Doc/Fest, SEOUL International Women’s Film Festival, Women Make Waves (Taiwan), This Human World Film Festival (Vienna), Singapore International Film Festival, among others, and have been broadcast around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Weinstein</span> Canadian film director

Larry Weinstein is a Canadian film director of theatrical and television documentaries, performance films, and dramas. The majority of his films centre on musical subjects and the depiction of the creative process, while his other subjects range from the horrors of war to the pleasures of football.

<i>A Moon of Nickel and Ice</i> 2017 Canadian film

A Moon of Nickel and Ice is a 2017 Canadian documentary film, directed by François Jacob. The film profiles history and culture of the isolated Russian mining city of Norilsk.

<i>Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.</i> 2018 film

Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. is a 2018 biographical documentary film about English rapper and artist M.I.A. Directed by Steve Loveridge, the film follows 22 years in the rapper's life, her rise to fame and her perspective on the controversies sparked over her music, public appearances and political activism.

First Stripes is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jean-François Caissy and released in 2018. The film profiles a group of Canadian Armed Forces recruits commencing basic training.

Hot Docs at Home is a Canadian television programming block, which premiered April 16, 2020 on CBC Television. Introduced as a special series during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the series aired several feature documentary films that had been scheduled to premiere at the 2020 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival before its postponement. The films aired on CBC Television at 8 p.m. EST on Thursdays and on the CBC's Documentary Channel later the same evening, and were made available for streaming on the CBC Gem platform.

Prayer for a Lost Mitten is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jean-François Lesage and released in 2020. The film centres on the lost and found office of the Montreal Metro system.

Geographies of Solitude is a Canadian documentary film by Jacquelyn Mills that was released in 2022. The film is guided by Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who lives on Nova Scotia's Sable Island, where she catalogues the island's wild Sable Island horses, and endeavours to preserve its unique ecosystem.

Bernie Langille Wants to Know What Happened to Bernie Langille is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Jackie Torrens and released in 2022. The film follows Bernie Langille, a man who is investigating the 1968 death of his namesake grandfather at CFB Gagetown under mysterious circumstances.

<i>The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution</i> 2018 Canadian film

The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Maya Gallus and released in 2018. The film profiles several women chefs, exploring the sexist double standards in the restaurant industry that get women sidelined, or stigmatized as "difficult", if they are as ambitious or assertive as their male peers.

Patty vs. Patty is a 2022 Canadian short documentary film, directed by Chris Strikes. The film recounts the true story of the "patty wars" of 1985, when restaurants in Toronto which served Jamaican patties had to fight a bureaucratic edict that they could not call their product a "patty", on the grounds that consumers might confuse them with hamburger patties, through a mixture of documentary footage and satirical dramatic reenactments performed by Star Trek: Discovery and Bite of a Mango actor Orville Cummings.

References

  1. Susan G. Cole, "The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche". Now , April 26, 2012.
  2. Robert Bell, "The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche: Maya Gallus". Exclaim! , May 4, 2012.
  3. Cassandra Szklarski, "Films about Franco's soap days, Fleury's childhood bound for Hot Docs: James Franco soap film set for Hot Docs". Canadian Press, March 20, 2012.
  4. Alex Strachan, "Daring the mighty Falls". Edmonton Journal , June 15, 2012.
  5. Kate Taylor, "At Hot Docs, a window into a problematic genre". The Globe and Mail , May 2, 2017.
  6. Manori Ravindran, "'Watermark,' 'My Prairie Home' up for Canadian Screen Awards". RealScreen , January 13, 2014.