Cinema
Winter Kept Us Warm
David Secter · 1965
Synopsis
University of Toronto. Peter Saarinen, a shy first-year student of Finnish origin from a small mining town, waits tables in the dining hall, where Doug Harris, a popular and self-assured student, mocks him. Doug apologises in the library, where Peter is borrowing The Waste Land, and a friendship begins: the first snow, a Finnish record, the discovery of the campus and the city. Peter wins the lead role in a play, and Bev, Doug's girlfriend, feels left out.
Context
Filming took place on campus, in 16 mm and in black and white, for eight thousand dollars, from a screenplay by Secter, Ian Porter and John Clute; the title comes from a line by Eliot. Secter spoke to the actors about the subject only in veiled terms, and Joy Fielding, who played Bev, was shocked when she discovered it. Relations between men were then a crime in Canada; a partial decriminalisation came only in 1969. Forgotten, the film was rediscovered in the eighties thanks to Thomas Waugh.
Who it is for
Eighty-one minutes, in black and white; its director described it as a student film in every respect. It should be watched for what it suggests.
Prizes and reception
Presented at the Critics' Week at Cannes in 1966, the first English-language Canadian film shown at the festival; regarded as the first gay film in Canada.
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