Age: 47
female
Sarah Ellen Polley OC (born January 8, 1979) is a Canadian filmmaker, political activist and retired actress. She first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. This subsequently led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996). She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Guinevere (1999), Go (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Splice (2009), and Mr. Nobody (2009). Polley made her feature film directorial debut with Away from Her (2006), for which she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Polley's second film, Take This Waltz (2011), premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, followed by her first documentary film, Stories We Tell (2012). She also wrote the miniseries Alias Grace, based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. In 2022, Polley wrote and directed the film Women Talking, based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sarah Polley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
"Écho" is a powerful and deeply moving biopic chronicling the vibrant life and untimely passing of André Paiement, the Franco-Ontarian playwright and musician who became a cultural beacon for his community. Set against the backdrop of 1970s Canada, Écho explores André's journey from his small-town roots in Northern Ontario to his rise as a trailblazing artist, founding Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario and shaping the Franco-Ontarian music scene with the legendary band CANO (Coopérative des artistes du Nouvel-Ontario). The film captures the passion, struggles, and resilience of a young man determined to give voice to his people in a country where his language and culture were often marginalized. At the heart of the story is André’s relentless drive to celebrate and preserve the Franco-Ontarian identity through art. His groundbreaking plays and songs resonate with themes of belonging, resistance, and hope, all while weaving in the beauty and hardship of life in Northern Ontario. But his brilliance was accompanied by personal struggles, culminating in his tragic death at just 27.
