Original cast of 'The Farm Show'. (Submitted photo)Original cast of 'The Farm Show'. (Submitted photo)
Midwestern

Art Meets Farm During Alice Munro Festival

There will be a few film presentations as part of this year's Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story in North Huron.

Two films document, revisit and interpret the 1972 collaborative theatre production of "The Farm Show," which became a landmark in the arts and cultural life of Huron County.

The first film, "The Clinton Special: A Film about the Farm Show", is a 1974 documentary about the arrival in Clinton and surrounding areas, in the summer of 1972, of the Toronto Theatre Passe Muraille Company.

The theatre company spent the summer living in the farming community in order to make a play out of the stories and events of the people of this region.

It will be screened June 2 at the Blyth Memorial Hall.

"The Drawer Boy: From Stage to Screen" will also be shown and is a new film adaptation of "The Farm Show" and will be shown June 3 in Blyth.

The 2017 Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story will also include two more films on June 3 at the Wingham Town Hall Theatre.

"Al Purdy Was Here" is a portrait of an artist driven to become a great Canadian poet at a time when the category barely existed.

The film features performances by artists including Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Gord Downie, Gordon Pinsent and Margaret Atwood.

The film’s director, Brian D. Johnson, will introduce and discuss the film following the screening.

Filmmaker Rachel Thompson will screen her 2017 documentary "Theatre Beyond Walls," which tells the story of a man and a theatre company that provoked a cultural movement in Canada in the 1970s.

For more information on programming and tickets to this year’s Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story, June 2-4, including author readings, writer master classes and author panels, visit alicemunrofestival.ca

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