| Winter Kept Us Warm | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | David Secter |
| Written by | David Secter, Ian Porter, John Clute |
| Produced by | David Secter |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Fresco, Ernest T. L. Meershoek |
| Edited by | Michael Foytényi |
| Music by | Paul Hoffert |
| Distributed by | Filmmakers Distribution Center |
Release date |
|
Running time | 81 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | CAD 8,000 |
Winter Kept Us Warm is a Canadian romantic drama film, released in 1965. The title comes from the fifth line of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.
An independent film written, directed, and funded by David Secter, it occupies a unique place in the history of Canadian cinema as the first English-language Canadian film screened at the Cannes Film Festival.[1] The film was screened at the 1966 festival during the Semaine de la critique, a special non-competitive portion of the festival at which works of new filmmakers are shown.[2] Its debut was as the opening film of the Commonwealth Film Festival in Cardiff, Wales on September 27, 1965.[3]
The film stars John Labow as Doug Harris and Henry Tarvainen as Peter Saarinen, two very different students at the University of Toronto, who develop a complex quasi-romantic friendship, and Joy Tepperman and Janet Amos as their girlfriends Bev and Sandra.[4] The film's gay subtext was carefully coded by Secter, who wrote the film based on his own experience falling in love with a male fellow student, but feared that a more explicitly gay film would not attract an audience. Even some of the film's cast have claimed in interviews that they did not know at the time that the film was actually about homosexuality.[5]
- ^ "Queer pioneer". Montreal Mirror, January 3, 2002.
- ^ Martin Knelman, "He shoots The Offering in July". The Globe and Mail, May 19, 1966.
- ^ David Secter, "Lack of experience helps: How to make a do-it-yourself movie without money". The Globe and Mail, November 17, 1965.
- ^ Thomas Waugh, "Uncovering a forgotten Canadian gay film–from 1965". The Body Politic, May 1982. p. 36.
- ^ Geoff Pevere, "David Secter, the Varsity visionary: How a low-budget student movie went to Cannes and influenced a generation of Toronto filmmakers". Toronto Star, June 25, 2011.