Join celebrated screenwriter and director Anne Wheeler as she travels south of Mombasa after calling off her wedding, attempts to gain acceptance in a male-dominated film collective, travels to India to visit friends who are devoted to a radical Master, and ultimately discovers her sense of purpose and passion close to home, sharing stories that would otherwise be lost about ordinary people living extraordinary lives.

STARFest facts

On October 13, Anne Wheeler guides us through a screening of her most famous film, Bye Bye Blues. Tonight, the celebrated filmmaker takes us through the serendipitous journey she took in the seventies, when she broke with tradition and found her own way to becoming a filmmaker and raconteur. Laced with humour and revelation, Anne Wheeler’s creative nonfiction stories capture her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field at the beginnings of filmmaking in Alberta in the 1970s.

“Such a career was not on the list of what a woman could be in the sixties. There was no film school or #metoo movement to suggest that my talent was worthy of attention; that it could provide a viable living; that I could be a visual artist, a writer, or a performer of any kind and not be a burden and a disappointment to my widowed mother. To follow my fancy would have been seen as a selfish thing to do.”

Taken by the Muse: On the Path to Becoming a Filmmaker is a must-read for anyone open to exploring the possibilities of who they are and what they might do with their lives – and for those who love a good story told with integrity and warmth. It was a finalist for the 2021 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize and a finalist for a High Plains Book Award.