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I'VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING

4K RESTORATION

By Patricia ROZEMA

FILM ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL - as SALES All rights, World

LGBT - Completed 1987

I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING is Patricia Rozema’s award-winning debut feature film – a charming, whimsical story about a waifish daydreamer with artistic aspirations – that won the Best First Feature award at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes in 1987.

- Year of production
- 1987
- Genres
- LGBT, Female director
- Countries
- CANADA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 91 mn
- Director(s)
- Patricia ROZEMA
- Cast
- Sheila MCCARTHY, Paule BAILLARGON, Ann-Marie MACDONALD
- Producer(s)
- Patricia ROZEMA, Alexandra RAFFÉ
- Synopsis
- I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING is a quietly amusing and fresh tale told from the point of view of Polly (Sheila McCarthy), a self-admitted "organizationally impaired" temporary secretary. In her videotaped confession, she tells us how she got caught up in a voyeuristic fascination for her new boss, the beautiful and ambitious Curator (Paule Baillargeon) of the Church Gallery, an art gallery in downtown Toronto. Polly, innocent beyond her years, witnesses many things quite beyond her ken: pseudo intellectual "art talk" and the sexual relationship between the Curator and a young woman named Mary (Ann-Marie McDonald).
  
  Polly responds to her discoveries through her hobby of amateur photography. After expeditions around the city, snapping pictures of her various new obsessions, she develops her pictures in her bachelorette bathroom. In the little red womb of her bathroom, she spaces off and slips into the black and white worlds inside, worlds where she can fly, walk on water and hear mermaids singing.
  
  The film is regarded as an important milestone in queer cinema and a classic of the Toronto New Wave. The film was named one of 150 essential works in Canadian cinema history in a poll conducted by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2016 and has received a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes