The Annual Hurtig Lecture on the Future of Canada

A prairie girl, Anne Wheeler studied Mathematics, and Music at the U. of A. and worked as a computer programmer and high school teacher, before joining a film collective in
the early seventies. Filmwest was focused on making films about western Canada – the issues and stories that made our history unique. In 1979 she wrote and made A War Story, a feature documentary based on her father’s war diaries written when he was a doctor in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp. By the eighties Anne was writing and directing fictional drama including Loyalties, Bye Bye Blues, The Diviners, The War Between Us, Better than Chocolate, and The Horses of McBride. Proudly Canadian, her work has been fuelled by true stories of every day heroes facing adversity – TAKEN BY THE MUSE is her first collection of short stories. She continues to work as a writer, director, mentor and teacher.