LitFilm 2024: Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word is Power Screening & Talkback

Documentary, dir. by Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont
Canadian, 2019, 93 min

The film explores Atwood’s “backstory,” her early days in the Canadian wilderness and as a poet. The filmmakers explore Atwood's landmark novels, including her latest, The Testaments, the highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, asking what makes them so good, so resonant. At the same time an array of friends, family, and, of course, directly Atwood herself share stories about this singular career and life, including her most important relationship. This film will be followed by a conversation led by Tessa Stuart with directors Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont.

Nancy Lang was an exhibiting artist for 15 years before turning to film, where she combines her love of art with history. She has led the research and co-produced four documentaries and a documentary series: West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson (2012), Painted Land: In Search of The Group of Seven (2014), Where The Universe Sings: The Spiritual Journey of Lawren Harris (2016), and In The Making (8 X 1/2 hrs.) (2018). West Wind was honored with five awards, including the Directors’ Guild of Canada Award for Best Documentary. Lang’s work on Painted Land received the Canadian Screen Academy’s Barbara Sears Award for Best Editorial Research. For her work on Atwood, Lang was nominated for the 2021 Canadian Screen Academy’s Barbara Sears Award for Best Visual Research.

 

Filmmaker, journalist, writer, Peter Raymont has produced and directed over 100 films and TV series during his 53-year career. His documentary feature, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire was honoured with the 2007 Emmy for Best Documentary and the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival. Raymont’s films are often provocative investigations of “hidden worlds” in politics, the media, and big business. Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr (2016) was nominated for an Emmy and received three Canadian Screen Awards. Raymont was an Executive Producer, along with Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer of Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band. He was the Executive Producer of, Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On which won the 2023 International Emmy for Best Arts Documentary and Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children, which premiered at 2022 Hot Docs International Film Festival. Plastic People is his most recent documentary feature, which had its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Festival.

Tessa Stuart is a senior writer at Rolling Stone, where she covers national affairs. Before joining Rolling Stone to report on the 2016 election, Tessa was a staff writer at both the Village Voice and BuzzFeed, and a Voice Media Fellow at LA Weekly. Her work has also appeared in The California Sunday Magazine, Audubon Magazine, and Boston Magazine.

 

 

 

 

All screenings are free but require reservations. Times subject to change. For the full LitFilm roster, go here.