The oil boom – late 1970’s Alberta. Peggy is trying to hold together a life that seems to be spinning out of control. Her marriage to a workaholic husband is unraveling, her son seems to be drifting deeper into the drug culture, and her best friend Lorraine has just committed suicide – and Peggy can hear Lorraine’s laughter down the back alley of her suburban home. On a journey of rebirth and understanding, she struggles to make sense of the choices she has made and find a way to reach her son before it’s too late.

 

 

Written by Doug Curtis
Directed by John Hudson
Featuring Duval Lang and Lynley Hall and Karen Johnson-Diamond

 

Praise for While My Mother Lay Dreaming

“I marvel at Doug Curtis’s While My Mother Lay Dreaming… His ability to render Calgary’s own eerily familiar past is simply exceptional.”

Jeff Kubik, FFWD

"A love-letter to those halcyon days just before the oil bubble burst...(and) a quirkily sentimental coming of age story. The best moments are wittily subversive forays into family dynamics...warring factions are finely observed, and brought to life with spot-on comedic aplomb."

Eva Marie Clarke, SEE

"Curtis has the scavenger's instinct for telling detail and a witty way with a line. Chris Wynter's soundscape is, literally, a blast. Heather Moore's costumes nail the grossities of the era."

The Edmonton Journal

"Eminently watchable...intricate, occasionally beautiful moments... There's still something special in feeling a touch of real life."

David Berry, Vue Weekly

"Curtis nails the youthful angst of these dazed and confused teens finding as much humour as pathos in their plights. The dialogue he gives them is so natural it almost feels improvised... While My Mother Lay Dreaming is essentially a screenplay, and one local film producers should be circling...Curtis may have intended to present a slice of history, but his observations are so universal he could just as easily be holding a mirror up to Calgary today."

Louis B. Hobson, Calgary Sun