One of the goals of IFFO is to acknowledge and present Ottawa’s rich and varied history as a production centre in Canada. From the early 1920s to 1956 (when the National Film Board of Canada left Ottawa for Montreal), Ottawa really was the capital of cinema in Canada, not just the capital of Canada.

This year, we honour one of Ottawa’s most important private sector film companies, the legendary Crawley Films, which produced hundreds of films during its 50 years of existence (1939-1989). While producing mostly sponsored films and documentaries, Crawley Films also got involved in feature film production. Its first, and decidedly one of its quirkiest and kinkiest, was Amanita Pestilens, the strange comedy-fantasy tale of a man who becomes obsessed with a certain kind of mushroom invading his immaculate lawn. His fixation and the psychedelic power of the fungi cause him to neglect his family and fight with his neighbours.

Filmed in Montreal, Ottawa, and Harrington Lake, it is the first feature film shot in colour in Canada and was shot simultaneously in English and French. Amanita also features the first significant screen appearance of a young, radiant future movie star, Geneviève Bujold. This pristine digitally restored version of this rarely screened film is provided courtesy of Library and Archives Canada. Special thanks also to Crawley Films Ltd, Bill Stevens.

-Tom McSorley