''Chautauqua Girl'' is a Canadian romantic drama television film, which was broadcast by
CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...
in 1984.
Gerald Pratley
Gerald Arthur Pratley (September 3, 1923 – March 14, 2011) was a Canadian film critic and historian. Piers Handling"Gerald Arthur Pratley" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', September 18, 2011. A longtime film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Cor ...
, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 41. Written by Jeannine Locke and directed by Rob Iscove, the film is set in 1921 and stars
Janet-Laine Green
Janet-Laine Green (born December 31, 1951) is a Canadian actress, director, producer and teacher, active for over 25 years. Best known for her roles in '' She's the Mayor'', '' Seeing Things'' and '' This is Wonderland'', this Toronto-based film ...
as Sally Driscoll, a woman who is touring Western Canada as a representative of the travelling
Chautauqua
Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Cha ...
organization; arriving in the small town of Fairville,
Alberta
Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
, she finds the town unprepared for the upcoming event but meets and falls in love with Neil McCallum ( Terence Kelly), a widowed farmer who is running as a
United Farmers of Alberta
The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is an association of Alberta farmers that has served different roles in its 100-year history – as a lobby group, a successful political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. As a political party, it forme ...
candidate in the imminent
1921 Alberta general election
The 1921 Alberta general election was held on July 18, 1921, to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly. The Liberal government is replaced by the United Farmers of Alberta. It was one of only five times that Alberta has changed gov ...
.
The cast also includes
Jackie Burroughs
Jacqueline Burroughs (2 February 1939 – 22 September 2010) was a British-born Canadian actress. Burroughs starred in over 100 films and television shows over her career, including ''Heavy Metal (film), Heavy Metal'', ''The Care Bears Movie'', ...
as Mrs. Ferguson, a pioneer woman in the community whose hard life has made her much older in appearance and spirit than her actual age.Rick Groen, "Plot gossamer thin, tone consistently rich: Chautauqua Girl charming". ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'', January 7, 1984.
The film was shot in Alberta, primarily around Blackie and at
Heritage Park Historical Village
Heritage Park Historical Village is a living history museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on of parkland on the banks of the Glenmore Reservoir, in the city's southwestern quadrant. The Historical Village part of the park is open 7 days a week (10- ...
in
Calgary
Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
. It was broadcast by CBC Television on January 8, 1984.
Response
The film was positively reviewed by critics.
Rick Groen of ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' called it a thinly-plotted but charming film, writing that "in a film built on atmosphere, perhaps the principal architects are director Rob Iscove and cinematographer Vic Sarin. Sarin's work is nothing short of superb, so vivid that it even survives the compression onto the small screen. In his adroit hands, amber waves of grain go far beyond the visually cliched. From close-up to long-shot, the sight consistently echoes the sense - the pinched and burnished faces of men tied too closely to the land, the nocturnal lamp of the community hall the only reprieve in a sea of blackness. And when the Chautauqua - another light in another darkness - finally arrives, it's Iscove who really goes to town, artfully weaving the touring performers into the ongoing performance, the show into the show. Again, the co-operative theme is reinforced, and apparent isolation becomes total integration. Total indeed, for in the end the viewer himself is emotionally drawn in, swept back by television to a time before television, before the mixed blessing of the mass media turned that shining beacon into a blinding glare."
Mike Boone of the ''
Montreal Gazette
''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
It is the only English-language daily newspape ...
'' praised the performances of Green, Kelly and Burroughs, writing that "the romance of ''Chautauqua Girl'' will doubtless set hearts to fluttering in television land, but the film is infinitely richer and more complex than your standard boy-meets-girl romantic fluff". He concluded that "the CBC drama department bombed earlier this season with the dreadful ''Vanderburg'' miniseries. ''Chautauqua Girl'' puts the network back on course toward offering viewers quality drama that is distinctively Canadian in style and theme. We can all be proud of what our national network has done here. ''Chautauqua Girl'' should not be missed."
The film won the
ACTRA Award
The ACTRA Awards are Canadian accolades presented since 1972 to celebrate excellence in cinema, television and radio industries.14th ACTRA Awards in 1985. Green was also nominated for Best Television Actress, and Locke was nominated for Best Television Drama Writing.Charles Hanley, "Chautauqua Girl has three chances for a Nellie: ACTRA names award nominees". ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...