Reason Over Passion

Reason Over Passion
Directed byJoyce Wieland
Written byJoyce Wieland
Produced byJoyce Wieland
CinematographyJoyce Wieland
Edited byJoyce Wieland
Distributed byCanadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre
Release date
  • June 28, 1969 (1969-06-28)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Reason Over Passion (French: La raison avant la passion) is a Canadian experimental film, directed by Joyce Wieland and released in 1969.[1] A reflection on Pierre Trudeau's famous public statement that he valued reason over passion in his approach to governing Canada, the film deconstructs the concept by blending news footage of Trudeau at the 1968 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election with tracking shots of the Canadian landscape, as the letters in the subtitle "reason over passion" rearrange and scramble into 537 nonsensical anagrams over the course of the film.[2]

The film was also indirectly linked to a quilting project that Wieland first exhibited in 1968, which included quilts stitched with both the English "Reason Over Passion" and French "La Raison Avant La Passion" mottos.[3]

  1. ^ Jacob Siskind, "Joyce Wieland's Reason Over Passion at Loyola Experimental Film Festival". Montreal Gazette, July 4, 1969.
  2. ^ Barrie Hale, "A pure new film of a pure land". Toronto Star, July 19, 1969.
  3. ^ Johanne Sloan, "Reason Over Passion 1968". Art Canada Institute.