Shelagh Carter
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Shelagh Jane Carter (best known as Shelagh Carter, and occasionally referred to as Shelagh Carter-Loewen) is a Canadian director, producer, screenwriter, actress and retired theatre and film professor at the
University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW, or U of W) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It offers undergraduate programs in art, business, economics, education, science and applied health as well as graduate progra ...
, known initially for her short films ''Night Travellers'', ''Canoe'', and ''Rifting/Blue'', and her feature films ''
Passionflower ''Passiflora'', known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae. ''Passiflora'' species are widely cultivated for their striking flowers, fla ...
'', '' Before Anything You Say'' and '' Into Invisible Light''. A Lifetime Member of the
Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...
and a graduate of the
Canadian Film Centre The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded in 1988 by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally launched as a film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for ...
's Directors Lab in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, she is also a recipient of the award, Women in the Director's Chair Career Advancement Module 2010, in collaboration with Women in Film Festival
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, among many other honours. She is a member of the Winnipeg Film Group and chair of their Board.


Early life

Growing up in
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
in the 1950s and 1960s, Shelagh Carter had a troubled relationship with her mother Barbara (Babs) Carter, which many years later served as the basis of her first feature film ''
Passionflower ''Passiflora'', known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae. ''Passiflora'' species are widely cultivated for their striking flowers, fla ...
''. There is a family history of mental illness going back to Carter's grandmother. In interviews, Carter asserted that ''Passionflower'' was her own story, that her experience of her mother is "85 to 95 percent" of what is seen on the screen:
A lot of women at the time, an era of being perfect, staying in the home, repressed their anger from not being able to express themselves. The mental health industry at the time made women the problem and treated them with electroshock therapy.
It is not clear what form of mental illness Barbara Carter had: "Terms were thrown around, schizophrenic, manic-depressive. People today would say bipolar, but I don't even know if that was my mother." Carter recalled the first time she saw how her mother "broke down", "pounding on the floor", the nine-year-old Carter in her pyjamas. Shelagh Carter's father, Dennis H. Carter, "was a product of the notably progressive faculty of architecture" at the
University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...
, where he "thrived", and, in 1967, co-founded the architectural firm of Smith Carter Katelnikoff, a firm "at the centre of Winnipeg's architectural renewal". As Winnipeg built with design meant to reflect the times, Dennis Carter was behind the lens of his 8mm camera, shooting reels and reels of film: "I have very fond memories of sitting at a dining room table with him when I was a very little girl with him editing the Super 8." Her father, however, was often at a loss when it came to her mother's moods, not knowing what to do; the young Carter became a "daddy's girl": "He thought he was being a great dad, but it set up this competition. What would happen is everything my mum would attempt would never get finished. But I was drawing and winning these prizes at school but it seemed if I showed her something, she would dismiss it." When Carter was eighteen years old, when she was "really struggling" with her mother, a teacher pulled her out of class one day and took her to see a film, which happened to be
John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes (December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American filmmaker and actor. He began as an actor in film and television before helping to pioneer modern American independent cinema as a writer and director, often self- ...
' ''
A Woman Under the Influence ''A Woman Under the Influence'' is a 1974 American drama film written and directed by John Cassavetes, and starring his wife Gena Rowlands and close friend Peter Falk. Rowlands plays a housewife whose unusual behavior leads to conflict with her ...
'':
And I'm looking up at the screen ... and I think, "My God, that's my mother." And people started to ''laugh'' behind me, they began to ''laugh'' at her. And ... I swear to God, I was up over those seats, I was gonna deck them, I was so mad. My teacher was pulling me off of them. And it was at that moment, at 18, that I realized that I loved my mother.
Later, she elaborated: "That's when I knew I really loved my mother and I was beginning to see that it was an illness and it wasn't her."


Education

Carter moved to New York City after graduating with a degree in interior design from the
University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...
in 1976. At some point, Carter's interests realigned towards the stage, and she studied acting in Los Angeles and New York. In 1995, Carter attended the
Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...
's School of Drama (
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
), which had begun offering a
Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...
degree a year earlier. Carter graduated with an MFA in Directing in 1998, a member of the second graduating class.


Career in theatre and film

On her return to Canada in 1998, Carter founded Casting in Stone Inc., to provide
casting director In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra to land the role of a character in a script, screenp ...
services in film and television. The same year, Carter began an academic career at the
University of Winnipeg The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg, UW, or U of W) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It offers undergraduate programs in art, business, economics, education, science and applied health as well as graduate progra ...
in the Theatre and Film Department. She has said that it was not planned; it just "happened" to her.


Short film director

The first of Carter's own
short films A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
was ''The Darkling Plain'' (2002), which was recognized and honoured in cities across Canada, followed by the
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
narrative film ''Rifting/Blue'' (2005), the first of several collaborations with writer and University of Winnipeg colleague Deborah Schnitzer, and which won world festival recognition. Her third short, ''Night Travellers'' (2007), was a National Screen Institute Drama Prize winner in 2007. In 2008, The
Canadian Film Centre The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded in 1988 by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally launched as a film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for ...
in Toronto invited Carter to participate in an exclusive workshop intensive (the Directors Lab, Short Dramatic Film programme) to develop film projects along with a handful of other Canadian professionals; her project was chosen for development by the Centre with $250,000 in production support. With the support of the University of Winnipeg, Carter directed and completed her award-winning 35mm short '' One Night'' in the summer of 2009; it screened at several international film festivals. This was followed swiftly by two more collaborations with Deborah Schnitzer: ''Resolve'' (2009), a
dance film A dance film (also known as screen dance) is a movie in which dancing is used to reveal inspirational challenges and the central themes of the film, whether these themes be connected to narrative or story, states of being, or more experimental and ...
, and ''Canoe'' (2010), based on Schnitzer's novel ''Jane Dying Again'', an experimental narrative film which won world festival recognition. The same year, Carter was selected to attend the Women in the Director's Chair Career Advancement Module presented in collaboration with the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival.


Feature film director

Carter's first feature film originated during her time at the CFC, the autobiographical ''
Passionflower ''Passiflora'', known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae. ''Passiflora'' species are widely cultivated for their striking flowers, fla ...
'' (2011), and won film festival attention and honours. The film solidified her position as one of Canada's leading practitioners of
psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
.


3D film, move to Bangladesh, and ''Rana Plaza''

Carter directed another experimental short film, ''
Is It My Turn ''Is It My Turn'' (originally released as ''Spellbinding'') is a 2012 Canadian experimental digital 3D black and white dance film directed by Shelagh Carter. The film features an original score by Keri Latimer, dance performances by CindyMarie ...
'' (2012), a 3D black and white dance film, again winning festival recognition. Her feature projects were put on hiatus following the
Rana Plaza Collapse The Rana Plaza collapse (also referred to as the Savar building collapse) occurred on 24 April 2013, when the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed due to a Structural integrity and failure, structural failure. The search for sur ...
on 24 April 2013, when Carter's husband, Brad Loewen, was given the responsibility of implementing the
Accord Accord may refer to: Businesses and products * Honda Accord, a car manufactured by the Honda Motor Company * Accord (cigarette), a brand of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges * Accord (company), a former public services provider in south England * Accord ...
signed by Western clothing manufacturers upgrading the safety features of 1600 Bangladeshi garment factories; they both moved to
Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...
in December 2013 for an expected five-year term. This led to Carter producing a short documentary, ''Rana Plaza: Let Not the Hope Die'' (2014), commemorating the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, "to support his work". ''Is It My Turn'' was screened in Dhaka at the request of the Canadian High Commission in January 2015, with Carter in attendance. In August 2015, she was described as living there "part-time". As of July 2016, Loewen was still chief safety inspector for the project.


Return to feature films

Carter's second feature (and fourth collaboration with Schnitzer), '' Before Anything You Say'' (2017) is an experimental
domestic drama Domestic drama expresses and focuses on the realistic everyday lives of middle or lower classes in a certain society, generally referring to the post-Renaissance eras. According to the ''English Communications Syllabus'', domestic drama refers to ...
film about a couple struggling to maintain their love and marriage even as a life-altering decision threatens to tear them apart. The film is once more partly autobiographical, based on her feelings about her husband accepting the position which took him to Bangladesh: "he was gone and here I was, in the prairies, by myself, in the place he wanted to move to." The film toured mainly in Europe in 2017 and 2018, almost overlapping with the release of her third feature, and won a handful of awards ahead of its Canadian premiere at the Gimli Film Festival in 2018, where Carter was presented with an award by the
Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC; ) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assist ...
. Carter's third feature, '' Into Invisible Light'' (2018) is loosely based on characters from
Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...
's ''
Uncle Vanya ''Uncle Vanya'' ( rus, Дя́дя Ва́ня, r=Dyádya Ványa, p=ˈdʲædʲə ˈvanʲə) is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897, and first produced in 1899 by the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Konstan ...
'', specifically Yelena and Dr. Astrov. The story is about a recent
widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...
re-examining her life and her identity in the wake of her husband's death, unexpectedly crossing paths with an old flame from her past, inspired to take up writing years after having given it up. Carter's fourth feature film is the romantic comedy ''Love, Repeat'', which premiered in New York City on 17 December 2019.


Projects in development

Over the years, there have been reports of Carter working on various feature projects: a prairie noir film called ''The Shooting Party''; a psychological thriller called ''Skinner'', written by Rebecca Gibson, about a detective who works with child victims of Internet exploitation who begins to suspect abuse in her own family; a humanistic comedy called ''Dreaming of Tempests''; an allegory called ''La Jefa''; most recently, ''The Woman Who Swallowed West Hawk Lake'', a psychological thriller, is said to be in development.


Directing style and aesthetics

Carter's experiences as an actress in New York and Los Angeles led her to want to become an actor herself and to develop her own method of directing:
I discovered a lot of directors didn't know how to talk to actors. They were much more technically minded and they would talk to an actor … and I knew from my training as an actor that doesn't help an actor. It's a process ... You have to be able to help them get into character and not tell them "cry here."
Carter said in 2012 that she tries to achieve "truth on the screen": "I really want people to feel they are actually looking at a situation, it isn't ''cinema vérité'', but I hope it's truthful. Therefore you don't 'see' any acting." Carter says that she has been told her style of filmmaking is more akin to
European cinema Cinema of Europe refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Europe. The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the French Lumière brothers, who made the first public screening of a film on 28 December 18 ...
, in that she is willing to let the film take its time and focus on older characters, and suggests that Europeans "value older people in their lives" more than North Americans, although she says "we are getting better at it", perhaps because the
Baby Boomers Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that ...
are getting older.


Personal life

In an interview, Carter described leaving home for New York City as having "escaped" her family, but there was an incident in New York: "I was walking in Greenwich Village, 8th Street, and there was a moment when my body cut off, and I was suddenly in a silent movie. I knew then that I had to deal with my feelings." She underwent
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
. In her thirties, having returned from New York, she tried talking to her mother, who was "having a bad time again." She asked her mother if she loved her and her mother said: "Dear, it's so hard for me to talk about these things." Carter knew her mother did love her "ultimately", but, she said, "boy, we missed each other on some level." By the time of the release of ''Passionflower'', however, over the previous ten to fifteen years, her mother's mental health had become "much better" and Carter's parents "had some good time together." Looking back at her filmmaking career after the release of ''Before Anything You Say'', Carter said she realized that her films were all "in some way" about
betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Of ...
and abandonment, and that this was "something really deep in me from my own childhood, coming up in different forms." Carter's husband Brad Loewen and stepson Erik Friesen appear in a few of her films as a main cast member (''Rifting/Blue'') or an
extra Extra, Xtra, or The Extra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * The Extra (1962 film), ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * The Extra (2005 film), ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * Extra (newspaper), ...
(''Passionflower''). Sheila O'Malley has been friends with Carter since their time together as students at
The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...
. Carter has tended to work with many of the same collaborators and crew over several films, developing close bonds. For example, she has been collaborating with Deborah Schnitzer since ''Rifting/Blue'' (2005). She thinks of cinematographer Ousama Rawi, who first worked with Carter on ''One Night'', as "a great mentor". Carter resides in West St Paul, Manitoba, north of
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
. She took an early retirement from her position at the University of Winnipeg "to concentrate all her energies on filmmaking" in May 2019.


Filmography


Short film director, 2002–2010

*''The Darkling Plain'' (2002) *''Rifting/Blue'' (2005) *''Night Travellers'' (2007) *'' One Night'' (2009) *''Resolve'' (2009) *''Canoe'' (2010)


Feature film director, 2011–

*''
Passionflower ''Passiflora'', known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae. ''Passiflora'' species are widely cultivated for their striking flowers, fla ...
'' (2011) *''
Is It My Turn ''Is It My Turn'' (originally released as ''Spellbinding'') is a 2012 Canadian experimental digital 3D black and white dance film directed by Shelagh Carter. The film features an original score by Keri Latimer, dance performances by CindyMarie ...
'' (2012) • short dance film *''Rana Plaza: Let Not the Hope Die'' (2014) • short documentary *'' Before Anything You Say'' (2017) *'' Into Invisible Light'' (2018) *''Love, Repeat'' (2019)


Notes


References


External links


Shelagh Carter
on IMDb {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Shelagh Film directors from Manitoba Canadian women film directors Film producers from Manitoba Canadian women film producers Canadian film actresses Year of birth missing (living people) Living people