Off-site: I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing

Please note: this is an off-site, ticketed screening at the Academy Museum. Tickets are available on the Academy Museum website.

I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing

Canada, 1987

Supported by government funding thanks in part to an endorsement from David Cronenberg, Patricia Rozema’s feature debut centers on Polly Vandersma (Sheila McCarthy), a Girl Friday for the curator of a private art gallery in Toronto. Through a video diary and Polly’s literal flights of fancy that unfold in her mind’s eye, Rozema’s delicate and distinct world-building reveals Polly’s purity of soul, sexual awakening, and ultimate growth. Offsetting her film’s deep psychological and spiritual meaning with a lightheartedness, Rozema has said about Mermaids: “It’s about the artist in all of us. And the discovery of sexual difference. It’s also about some serious ’80s shoulder pads.”

DCP, color, 83 min. Director: Patricia Rozema. Screenwriter: Patricia Rozema. With: Sheila McCarthy, Paule Baillargeon, Ann-Marie MacDonald.

Watch a trailer: