National Canadian Film Day: I've Heard the Mermaids Singing

On National Canadian Film Day, we present a free screening of the recently restored I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, with director Patricia Rozema in attendance. Post-film Q&A with Rozema will be hosted by cleo journal.

About the Film

I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
CAN 1987 81min. PG
Directed by Patricia Rozema
Starring Sheila McCarthy, Ann-Marie MacDonald

Taking its title from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot, Patricia Rozema’s debut feature, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987), shares some of the heartache of the modernist poem--but with far more comic flourishes. The film stars a then-emerging Sheila McCarthy as an amateur photographer, Polly, who takes a post as a secretary at a hip art gallery in downtown Toronto. Narrating her days (and frequently her daydreams), Polly shares her rich and whimsical inner life with the audience, as she falls in love with her impossibly chic boss, Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon).

After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight (where it won the Prix de la Jeunesse and was runner-up for the Camera D’Or), the film was lauded for its combination of realism and fantasy, of longing and comedy--and Toronto audiences still enjoy spotting favourite locales from the Sunnyside Boardwalk to the Bloor Viaduct to Bay Street’s high rises. In 1993, the film was included in TIFF’s “Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time”, making Rozema the first women to have a film in these rankings. Since then, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing has been written about in numerous books on Canadian and Queer film, and has become a classic of our national cinema. - cleo journal

This event is produced with the generous support of Reel Canada and cleo journal.

Please note that since this Revue Film Society/Reel Canada event is free, it is our policy to overbook to ensure capacity. We will begin releasing unclaimed seats to the rush line 10 minutes before the start of the event. In case of a full house, your reservation may not guarantee admission. We recommend you arrive early! :)