Nov 6, 2025
Joyce Wieland’s Revisionist Take on Tom Thomson
Watch Wieland’s only commercially released feature film on November 19 at TIFF Lightbox
Joyce Wieland. The Far Shore, 1976. Offset lithograph, Overall: 73.7 x 53.3 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Norcen Energy Resources Limited, 1986. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. 86/76
Joyce Wieland was a prolific multidisciplinary artist, whose work included textiles, collage, painting, print, drawing and experimental film. Much of the acclaim and attention she garnered early in her practice came by way of her films. In 1971, Wieland began writing the script for what would become the only commercially released feature-length film she would ever make: The Far Shore (1976).
This revisionist take on the life of Tom Thomson, told through the eyes of his lover, is screening on November 19 at TIFF Lightbox as part of the retrospective film series Jigs and Reels: The Complete Films of Joyce Wieland.
The Far Shore is set in 1919 Toronto and follows protagonist Eulalie de Chicoutimi (Celine Lomez) who recently relocated from Quebec. Unfulfilled in her marriage to wealthy engineer and entrepreneur Ross Turner (Lawrence Benedict), Eulalie becomes enamoured with a local painter named Tom McLeod (Frank Moore), the fictional surrogate of Tom Thomson. They engage in a torrid love affair that ultimately becomes the catalyst for their untimely deaths.
Joyce Wieland. “The Far Shore,” 1976. Courtesy of the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), Toronto.
Unique among Wieland’s body of work, this feature film took several years for her to complete. She first revealed elements of an early script for The Far Shore as part of her 1971 exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, under its original title, True Patriot Love: A Canadian Love, technology, Leadership and Art Story… A Movie By Joyce Wieland. After onboarding filmmaker and activist Judy Steed as a fundraiser and film producer, Pierre Lamy, Wieland was able to continue to develop the script and begin creating storyboards. Finally, with the help of writer Brian Barney, she completed the screenplay, then hired Richard Leiterman as her cinematographer before production began. Principle filming of The Far Shore was completed in 1975.
Like much of Wieland’s work, The Far Shore interrogates and subverts common notions of national identity through a feminist lens, and this time using the conventions of melodrama. The film attempts to complicate our collective national understanding of Thomson, and the Group of Seven at large, by introducing his character to a complex and imperfect romance. “Wieland’s fictional Character Eulalie is sent into the past to rescue Tom Thomson, in a sense,” says author Johanne Sloan in her 2010 book Joyce Wieland’s The Far Shore. “Wieland’s film encourages us to ask questions regarding the ritualistic outpouring of national affection for Tom Thomson.”
Newspaper clipping featuring Judy Steed and Joyce Wieland working on The Far Shore, Toronto Sun, 1974. Courtesy of Judy Steed
Jigs and Reels: The Complete Films of Joyce Wieland is a retrospective film series presented by the AGO, TIFF Cinematheque and AD HOC. Running through October and November at Innis Town Hall and the TIFF Lightbox, the film series complements Joyce Wieland: Heart On, a major retrospective exhibition currently on view at the AGO. Curated by Jim Shedden, Curator, Special Projects and Director, Publishing and Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the AGO, the series aims to celebrate Wieland's films by screening them in theatre settings where they were originally meant to be seen.
Watch The Far Shore, screening on November 19 at TIFF Lightbox. On November 10, you can also Wieland’s 1987 film Artists on Fire, screening at Innis Town Hall. The exhibition Joyce Wieland: Heart On is on view now until January 4, 2026, on Level 5 of the AGO.
Supporting Sponsor
Power Corporation of Canada - tier 2
Lead Support
Volunteers of the AGO
Generous Support
Jamie & Patsy Anderson
The Birks Family Foundation
Dr. Ronald M. Haynes
Rosamond Ivey
J.S. McLean Fund
Women’s Art Initiative
