Tea in the Garden

Directed by Warren Collins and Joyce Wieland

Canada, 1958 (experimental, 4 minutes, black and white)

Film Description:
"After graduating from high school and obtaining part-time work in the graphic arts industry, [Joyce] Wieland was given a permanent position with Graphic Arts, an animation company run by George Dunning. Here, she met other young Toronto painters (including Michael Snow, whom she would later marry) and with them made film parodies of work assignments like Salada tea commercials. One example is Tea in the Garden (1958) where Wieland plays a Lillian Gish–like heroine."
-- Canadian Film Encyclopedia (source)

(sources)

Quote by the Director

"I made Tea in the Garden [...] with the secretary at Graphics [Graphic Associates]. A friend of mine who also worked at Graphics, George Gingrass, is the villain, and I'm the Lillian Gish character. There are a couple dozen of those films that we all worked on. [...] We'd often have extra film left in the animation camera, or there would be outdated stock from the documentaries. The animation director of photography had his own Bolex, and we would get an idea, go out at noon hour or after work, and start making films."
-- Joyce Wieland (source)

Quote about Tea in the Garden

"[Joyce Wieland's] filmography begins with Tea in the Garden (1958), as a co-production with [Warren] Collins, and A Salt in the Garden (1959), co-produced with [Michael] Snow. (The dates 1958 and 1959 are misleading in that the films were actually shot in 1953 and 1954, while the group was working at Graphic Associates; however, the films were completed those few years later when soundtracks and titles were added.)"
-- Iris Nowell (source)