Rat Life and Diet in North America

Rat Life and Diet in North America
Directed byJoyce Wieland
Written byJoyce Wieland
Produced byJoyce Wieland
CinematographyJoyce Wieland
Edited byJoyce Wieland
Release date
  • 1968 (1968)
Running time
14 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Rat Life and Diet in North America is a Canadian short film, directed by Joyce Wieland and released in 1968.[1] A satirical allegory for the political climate of the 1960s, the film centres on a group of gerbils who are being held as political prisoners by a cat, until eventually escaping to Canada and taking up organic farming.[2]

It was Wieland's first film to explicitly engage themes of Canadian nationalism,[3] reflecting her belief that Canada was the world's last remaining hope for the creation of a peaceful utopian society.[4]

Distribution

The film premiered in November 1968 at Canadian Artists '68, an open art competition staged by the Art Gallery of Ontario.[5]

It was broadcast by CBC Television in 1969, in an episode of the New Film Makers series.[6] It has been frequently exhibited in retrospective shows, both of Wieland's own work,[7] and of the overall history of Canadian film.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Rat Life and Diet in North America". Canadian Film Encyclopedia.
  2. ^ "Joyce thinks Canada, is last hope for rats and people". The Globe and Mail, March 8, 1969.
  3. ^ Holmes-Moss, Kristy A. 2006. "Negotiating the Nation: "Expanding" the Work of Joyce Wieland. Canadian Journal of Film Studies XV (2): 20.
  4. ^ "Canada world's last hope 'for a Utopia'". Ottawa Citizen, March 10, 1969.
  5. ^ Manny Farber, "Films at Canadian Artists 68"]. Artscanada, Vol. 26, No. 1 (February 1969). pp. 28-29.
  6. ^ "Rat Life Featured On Canadian Film". Calgary Herald, May 23, 1969.
  7. ^ John Bentley Mays, "AGO retrospective enshrines the myth Surrounding Wieland"]. The Globe and Mail, April 18, 1987.
  8. ^ "What Is Canadian Film?" The Globe and Mail, February 10, 1996.


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