Maud: Happy, creative despite the odds

When filmmaker and producer Mary Young Leckie was in Halifax some 20 years ago, working on a film about the Halifax explosion, she learned about the folk artist Maud Lewis (1903-1970) and thought her story had to be told.

It took 13 years, but, in 2016, Mary, the creative producer behind the project, and an international team brought the bio-pic Maudie to the screen.  Mary, a High Park neighbour, and three of Maud’s descendants will be joining us at the Revue Cinema on Sunday, April 28, 12:00 pm, to discuss the film, Maud’s story, her art and legacy.

Developing the narrative posed a challenge, Mary says, until a consultant suggested that in fact it was a love story – if an unusual one. Actors Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke are remarkable in their portrayals of Maud, crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, but with a passion to paint, and Everett, the inarticulate, surly fish peddler who posts a notice for someone to clean his one-room shack. Maud, seeing that ad as a way to escape a confined life in her aunt’s house, applies for the job and moves in. They eventually marry to avoid village gossip, and, over time, these two outcasts come to love and respect each other.

Over the years, she covered surfaces inside and outside the house with cheerful flowers, birds, animals and other designs, and she began selling her brightly coloured paintings to people who dropped by her home. Maud and her work were eventually to fuel new interest in folk art in Canada, and her nostalgic paintings, created despite pain and disability, have become part of Nova Scotia’s identity.

How close does the movie parallel Maud and Everett’s actual lives? How did family members learn they were descendants of Maud’s only child, sold secretly to adoptive parents by her brother?  What was the impact on them of seeing the movie, with their relative portrayed so vividly and sympathetically by an Oscar-nominated actor?We will hear from Mary; Tammy Boucher and Melissa Requil, Maud’s great granddaughters; and great, great granddaughter Robyn Meynard.

An Irish-Canadian co-production, directed by Aisling Walsh and filmed in Newfoundland, Maudie won multiple awards in Canada and Ireland. It has a 90 per cent ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

Watch the trailer.

Advance tickets: $15 suggested donation on Eventbrite.

Please note that this event starts at 12:00 pm, Sunday, April 28.