We are kicking off our fall series by going back to 1965 and screening Canada’s OG queer film: a 4K restoration of David Secter’s truly pioneering Winter Kept Us Warm!

Made for $8,000 with a cast that entirely worked for free, Winter Kept Us Warm was shot via guerrilla filmmaking tactics mostly on the downtown campus of the University of Toronto, where Secter was a student at the time. It was a major breakthrough for its depiction of queer characters as fully dimensional, and even became the first English-language Canadian film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival. 

David Cronenberg, who was a classmate of Secter’s at the time, has cited the film as a major influence on him, saying: “I can’t say that the University of Toronto led me to horror, but why it did do was lead me to cinema… Winter Kept Us Warmis the most influential film of my life in a weird way.”

With *many* special guests joining us both in person and virtually (more on that to come), save September 29th to come down to Paradise and kick off a fall series that will be very anniversary heavy. You can also pick up a copy of this gorgeous poster by Amy Noseworthy, which perfectly encapsulates the mood of this extremely special film. Tickets here!