Directed by Mary Stephen
By the age of 25, the peripatetic Mary Stephen had already circled the globe: born in British Hong Kong, immersed in cinephilia during her studies at Montreal’s Concordia University (then Loyola), Stephen went on to establish herself in the film industry upon relocating to Paris, where she would become a vital collaborator of Éric Rohmer, first working as an editor on his 1981 "The Aviator’s Wife" (in which she appears briefly) and last on his final film, 2007’s "The Romance of Astrea and Celadon". Still much in-demand for her prowess at cutting today, Stephen is also a director in her own right, and Metrograph here screens some of her newly restored finest works in that capacity.
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Labyrinthe
Directed by Mary Stephen | 5 mins | 1973
Two identically dressed women, one white, one Asian, negotiate winding, maze-like corridors. This experimental, oneiric work dating from Stephen’s time in Canada plays as a cinematic meditation on cross-cultural identity, an exploration of the psychologica... -
The Great Canadian Puberty Rite
Directed by Mary Stephen | 20 mins | 1974
This lyrical film diary chronicles a westward “pilgrimage” Stephen made, together with her partner John Cressey, at the end of her studies in Montreal, in the summer of ’74. As she contemplates the impetus for the journey, her camera surveys a variety of ... -
A Very Easy Death
Directed by Mary Stephen | 8 mins | 1975
Mary Stephen’s metaphor-rich, deeply compassionate contemplation of her mother’s death and its aftermath, which takes its title from the 1964 book by Simone de Beauvoir. -
The Memory of Water
Directed by Mary Stephen | 20 mins | 2018
Breezy but poignant, this beautifully constructed short contemplates the hardiness of cultural roots from two vantage points: the first, belonging to a filmmaker who returns to her native Hong Kong after decades abroad in order to teach; the second, belon...
