Mum's the Word (film)

Mum's the Word
FrenchMaman et Ève
Directed byPaul Carrière
Produced byDanièle Caloz
Jacques Ménard
CinematographyFrançois Beauchemin
Martin Leclerc
Edited byCathy Gulkin
Music byJohn Lang
Production
companies
Release date
  • September 10, 1996 (1996-09-10) (MWFF)
Running time
54 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

Mum's the Word (French: Maman et Ève) is a Canadian documentary short film, directed by Paul Carrière and released on September 10, 1996.[1] The film centres on Rachel, Suzanne, Jeannine and Paulette, four Franco-Ontarian women in their mid-40s in Sudbury, Ontario, who, after marrying and raising children, are in the process of coming out as lesbian.[2]

The film won the Genie Award for Best Short Documentary Film at the 17th Genie Awards.[3]

The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in August 1996, and was screened at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival and the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival in September.[4]

The film received a 20th anniversary screening at Sudbury's Queer North Film Festival in 2017.[1][2] Paulette Gagnon, the development director of the city's Place des Arts project and the only one of the four women whose full name is known on the record, participated in media interviews to promote the screening;[1] she also appeared in a smaller capacity in the 1999 documentary film The Pinco Triangle. Gagnon died in October 2017, several months after the film screening,[5] and the film was screened again at the Junction North International Documentary Film Festival in November 2017 as a memorial tribute to Gagnon.[6]

  1. ^ a b c "20 years after Maman et Eve: looking back on coming out in the Nickel City" Archived 2018-03-22 at the Wayback Machine. CBC Sudbury, June 13, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Tourné à Sudbury, le documentaire Maman et Ève célèbre ses 20 ans" Archived 2018-05-02 at the Wayback Machine. Le Matin du Nord, June 13, 2017.
  3. ^ "1996 Genie Award winners". Toronto Star, December 1, 1996.
  4. ^ Nathalie Stephens, "Maman et Ève : Quatre courageuses Sapphos". Liaison (89), November 1996. pp. 6–7.
  5. ^ "Paulette Gagnon, development director of The Place des Arts, dead at 62" Archived 2018-07-18 at the Wayback Machine. CBC Sudbury, October 12, 2017.
  6. ^ "Sudbury doc festival bringing 'hot, hot films'" Archived 2019-02-27 at the Wayback Machine. Sudbury Star, November 8, 2017.