The Bay of Love and Sorrows

Set in the late summer of 1973, The Bay of Love and Sorrows, adapted from the novel by David Adams Richards, tells the story of the son of a well-to-do judge, who returns home after years of travelling to settle near the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. Played by Jonathan Scarfe, Michael Skid is a charming rich boy who sets out to spread the gospel of communal ideals, something he has learned and adopted as his own while in India. He moves into a dilapidated farmhouse with his camera and begins documenting the area’s less fortunate people. Micheal’s new ideas are well received by the tough and beautiful Madonna, played by Joanne Kelly, her younger brother Silver and the innocent Carrie, daughter of the gas station owner, who is engaged to a conservative farmer, Tom Donnerel, who is less than positive and so humiliates Michael. Embarrassed, and seeking acceptance, Michael befriends an ex-con, Everette Hatch, masterfully played by Peter Outerbridge, who sees an opportunity and exploits Michael’s ideas to his own advantage. Through his naivete, Michael pulls down an entire community of struggling, rural characters who cannot “run to Daddy” when Everette turns violent after a botched drug deal. Shot in Cocagne, New Brunswick, south of the Miramachi, The Bay of Love and Sorrows is a desperate and bleak story set against a stunningly beautiful landscape.

Also see: Then as Now, Now as Then: Tim Southam’s The Bay of Love and Sorrows