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]

  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.