The Far Shore

The Far Shore is a Canadian drama film, directed by Joyce Wieland and released in 1976. Wieland's first commercial narrative feature film after years of making experimental short films, the film is a romantic drama which borrows elements from the life and death of painter Tom Thomson. It premiered at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, before having its Canadian premiere at the Canadian Film Institute's Ottawa 76 festival in August. Plot Eulalie (Celine Lomez), a Québécois woman in a loveless marriage to wealthy industrialist Ross Turner (Lawrence Benedict), begins an affair with painter Tom McLeod (Frank Moore). Production Wieland wrote the initial outline of the film in 1969, after viewing a retrospective show of Thomson and the Group of Seven. The film was originally titled True Patriot Love. After failing to receive a grant from the Canadian Film Development Corporation, she shelved the project for a time, although some of the drawings that she made to accompany the script outline were included in her gallery shows. She began writing the screenplay in earnest in 1972, hiring television writer Bryan Barney to assist. During this time, she also drew a large number of storyboards to illustrate her vision for the film. Shooting for the film occurred from 18 November to 6 December 1974, and from 7 June to 25 June 1975, on a budget of $435,000, with $200,000 coming from the CFDC.