Oct 8, 2025
Roll the 16mm Film, Joyce Wieland Style
Wieland’s experimental films shine on cinema screens this fall in Toronto
Joyce Wieland. “The Far Shore,” 1976. Courtesy of the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), Toronto.
This fall, movie lovers in Toronto will have the chance to experience the film legacy of Joyce Wieland. 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 coincides with Joyce Wieland: Heart On, a major retrospective exhibition currently on view at the AGO.
Acclaimed as both an artist and filmmaker, Wieland (1930-1998) was a leading figure in North American experimental cinema. During her time in New York City’s avant-garde scene in the 1960s, she established her reputation as an experimental filmmaker – all while producing paintings, assemblages and textiles. In her filmmaking, Wieland explored a wide array of cinematic modes of expression, from short political films to full-length features and essay films.
Passionate about the film medium, Wieland made all her films predominantly in 16mm. She created her own style and reinvented her approach with each film. Much like other areas in her artistic practice, Wieland’s experimental films were conceived through a feminist and ecological lens. The materiality of filmmaking often inspired how Wieland approached working with other materials.
Joyce Wieland, Handtinting (film print), 1967. Film, 16mm, colour, silent, 6 min. Joyce Wieland fonds, Cinémathèque Québécoise. Photo Stéphanie Côté, Courtesy of Cinémathèque Québécoise
The AGO worked together with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Cinémathèque québébcoise to restore five of Wieland’s 16mm films as high-definition digital files. This provided the ability for the films to be shown in gallery settings, such as in AGO’s Heart On exhibition, and to be preserved and available for many years to come as moving image art.
This film series is curated by Jim Shedden, Curator, Special Projects and Director, Publishing and Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the AGO. Through this series, both curators aimed to celebrate Wieland's films as films, screening them in theatre settings where they were originally meant to be seen and how Wieland would have experienced them.
In the line-up is Wieland’s most ambitious film project, The Far Shore (1976), a 105-minute film that reinterprets the figure of artist Tom Thomson, a personal hero of Wieland’s. The main protagonist is Eulalie, a strong female character who challenges societal expectations. Her story is told through the subversive lens of a melodrama full of pathos and reflection.
In her first feature-length film La raison avant la passion / Reason over Passion (1969), Wieland reveals the vastness of her “home” through cinematic landscapes. The 80-minute film reflects on Pierre Trudeau’s claim to value reason over passion. Shot from a train crossing Canada east to west, it combines landscape footage, clips from Trudeau’s 1968 leadership campaign, and 537 superimposed nonsensical anagrams of the phrase “Reason over Passion.”
Print courtesy of the AGO. Image courtesy of the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), Toronto.
In Heart On, Wieland’s experimental films, Sailboat (1967), Water Sark (1965), Handtinting (1967), and Rat Life and Diet in North America (1968), are shown alongside each other, and for the first time with her filmic paintings. In addition, a 33-minute film excerpt from Pierre Vallières (1972) is projected onto a wall, showing the mouth of the Québec revolutionary, Pierre Vallières, up close, as he talks about Mont Laurier, Quebec history, race, and women's liberation.
All five films in the exhibition are also part of the film series line-up. Spotlighting the parallels between her visual arts and cinematic practice, the exhibition creates a space where visitors can encounter the many ways Wieland expressed herself across media– from canvas to 16mm film strips.
Joyce Wieland: Heart On is on view now through January 2026 on Level 5 at the AGO. The exhibition is curated by Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the AGO and Anne Grace, Curator of Modern Art at the MMFA. It is co-organized by the AGO and MMFA.
Jigs and Reels: The Complete Films of Joyce Wieland is presented by the AGO, TIFF Cinematheque and AD HOC. For more on this film series, ago.ca/exhibitions/joyce-wieland-heart#jigs-and-reels-the-films-of-joyce-wieland.
Screening Schedule:
- The Camera and the Body: Early short films (1963-1967), screening October 20 at 7 pm, Innis Town Hall
- Varieties of Film Form (1967-1969), screening October 22 at 6:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox
- Camaraderie, screening October 29 at 6:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox
- Reason Over Passion, screening November 5 at 6:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox
- Artist on Fire, screening November 10 at 7 pm, Innis Town Hall
- The Far Shore, screening November 19 at 6:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox
