Calamity is an empowering story of determination, resilience and resourcefulness inspired by the frontier legend, Calamity Jane. French director Rémi Chayé tells the tale in bold, bright, hand-drawn animation. The Oregon Trail in 1863 is full of danger, hardship and challenge. When her mother dies during the journey, twelve-year-old Martha Jane Cannary has to help care for her younger siblings. Then Martha’s father is critically injured by their horse, and she has to manage with the reluctant help of other members of the wagon train. Martha secretly teaches herself to lasso, ride, and drive the wagon. After struggling to work in her skirts, she trades them in for a pair of pants and cuts her hair, shocking the rest of the community. When she is accused of assisting in the theft of the settlers’ precious possessions, she runs away in pursuit of the real thief. Mistaken for a boy, she finds it easier to navigate the people and challenges she encounters as her male persona. Calamity won the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film at the 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. (TK)

What we know about Calamity Jane