Join us on Thursday September 3, 7:00 pm for a special screening of James Reaney: Listening to the Wind at London Public Library, Central Branch. This event is part of #Jamie2026, our year-long celebration of James Reaney’s centenary.

Directed in 1996 by Mark McCurdy of Lockwood Films [1], the film is both a biography and an exploration of James Reaney and his work, and features interviews with James Reaney as well as with many who knew him and worked with him: Western University colleagues Richard Stingle and Stan Dragland, director Keith Turnbull and actor Jerry Franken, director Marti Maraden, composer John Beckwith, and historian and former Listeners’ Workshop member Hilary Neary.

In a 1995 interview in the London Free Press, James Reaney said that he wrote The Donnelly Trilogy because “We have to search for the pivotal stories that constitute our own myths and legends. Your country and your community dies if you don’t tell tales about its heart and soul.”[2]

Nancy Johnson, the film’s producer, will be on hand to answer questions about the making of the film.

Where: London Public Library Central Branch, 251 Dundas Street, London, Ontario.

When: Thursday September 3 at 7 pm to 8:30 pm.

Admission is free. For more information, see https://www.lpl.ca/events/james-reaney-listening-wind-film-screening

Notes

[1] For more about Lockwood Films (1974-2007), which was an independent producer of films and audio visual materials for educational and promotional purposes in London, Ontario, see the Western Archives Finding Aid for Lockwood Films fonds, AFC 227. Producers of some 100 films, their documentary subjects include a film on artist Greg Curnoe from 1985 and Doctor Woman: The Life and Times of Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw from 1978.

[2] See “Reaney’s life and work captured on video” by Joe Matyas, London Free Press, 1995.