Margaret Artwood Encounters on CBC
by Staff
(November 1, 2019 – Toronto, ON) CBC and White Pine Pictures have announced the world broadcast premiere of a new original documentary titled Margaret Atwood Encounters on CBC Docs POV on Thursday, November 14 at 9 pm (9:30 NT). The documentary will also be available via the free CBC Gem streaming service as of Tuesday, November 19. As we mentioned in the documentary’s page on Northernstars, White Pine edited a number of different versions of Margaret Atwood: A Word, after a Word, after a Word is Power, including a feature-length film that will screen next week in Toronto, Hamilton and Windsor Ontario. Produced and Directed by Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont, the documentary features new interviews with Margaret Atwood, Graeme Gibson, Elisabeth Moss, Sarah Polley, Charles Pachter, Adrienne Clarkson, Susan Swan, and others. A particularly nice touch is having Atwood’s poetry and prose read by Tatiana Maslany.
It has been 35 years since a Canadian documentary about Margaret Atwood exclusively was produced. On the cusp of her 80th birthday later this month, Margaret Atwood Encounters, like the longer documentary, takes an exclusive look at one of Canada’s best known writers. The recent success of the television adaptation of her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has made her a household name. Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont followed Atwood to speaking engagements around the world, to the set of the Emmy® Award-winning television adaptation, The Handmaid’s Tale, on a family trip to Iceland, and to the bird observatory established with her partner Graeme Gibson, on Pelee Island, Ontario.
During these travels, Atwood was finishing her latest novel, The Testaments, a much-anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. The film offers a glimpse into the writer’s practice, as Atwood writes while travelling on boats, on planes, and on the road – whenever she can grab a moment in her busy life.
The film touches on Atwood’s early years, growing up in the Canadian wilderness, her days as a poet at Harvard, meeting her partner Graeme Gibson, and what inspired her to write The Handmaid’s Tale more than 30 years ago.
Atwood’s major works are explored by friends, family, colleagues and Atwood herself. Highlights include: The Handmaids Tale (1985), and scenes from the Emmy® Award-winning TV adaptation of the novel; The Edible Woman (1969); Power Politics (1971); Surfacing (1972); Alias Grace (1996); and the MaddAddam Trilogy (2003, 2009, 2013). Her books reveal the personal and societal factors that inform her stories.
Thirty-five colleagues, friends, and family members were interviewed for the film. The documentary includes a treasure trove of archival photography and footage.
Margaret Atwood Encounters airs on CBC Docs POV on Thursday, November 14 at 9 pm (9:30 NT). This version of the documentary will also be available via the free CBC Gem streaming service as of Tuesday, November 19.
Also see: Margaret Atwood: A Word, after a Word, after a Word is Power.
