1990: Vancouver writer Peggy Thompson and director Peg Campbell win a Genie for their comedy In Search of the Last Good Man. Thompson decides the timing is right to begin writing her own first dramatic feature. She sets the film in the ’60s on one of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, where she herself had spent most of her life.

The story begins when a hip young schoolteacher arrives from Quebec in her vw van, guitar in tow, and the whole island falls in love with her. Trouble brews, however, when the father of one of her students begins having an affair with the teacher and his daughter finds out. She then resorts to black magic in an attempt to make things return to the way they were before.

Like most writers working without a deadline, it took about three years to complete.

Winter 1990: Telefilm Canada and B.C. Film contribute funding for development. The National Film Board offers goods and services.

Summer 1991: McGowan, who has been attached to the project in an advisory role, comes on board as producer – her first dramatic feature – on the condition they also bring in Alexandra Raffe (I’ve Heard The Mermaids Singing) as executive producer.

Fall 1991: McGowan begins the daily grind of dialing for dollars to every distributor in the country. There’s lots of ‘interest’ but no cash commitment.

Fall 1991: After six months of sending drafts of the script to Raffe, she joins the project.

Winter 1991: Raffe shows the script to Sheila McCarthy. She agrees to a feature role.

Spring 1992: Thompson and McGowan begin their search for a director. Their first choice, Vancouver-based Sandy Wilson, is interested and agrees to do the film, but bows out due to a commitment to Harmony Cats. Through Raffe’s contacts in Toronto, the name Paul Shapiro (Hockey Night), a Canadian living in l.a., comes up. His skills with children and strong visual style clinch the deal.

Spring 1992: Still no distribution deal. ‘We came to the horrible realization that everyone was about to disappear to Cannes, and then the even worse realization hit us that when they came back they would have spent all their money,’ says Thompson.

So a week before Cannes they book appointments with all the Canadian distributors and hop on a plane to Toronto. Just before leaving, John Taylor, director of operations for Telefilm in b.c., calls and suggests Malofilm, which, given its recent purchase of Nova in Calgary, is now interested in picking up more Western films.

They arrive at Malofilm’s office in Toronto to meet with Jim Murphy.

June 1992: Malofilm picks up Canadian distribution rights for $200,000 and applications are rushed off to the funding agencies.

July 1992: They begin scouting for locations. On Galiano Island they discover Connie Kennedy, identical twin sister of Kathleen Kennedy, Stephen Speilberg’s producer. Connie used to work in the film industry in the U.S. but is now living on the island.

The ‘Connie Kennedy factor’ seals the deal for Galiano, and Kennedy comes on board as locations manager.

July 1992: Although no money has come in yet, they dispatch the art department to Galiano to begin working. ‘We had 13 people on staff and already we were heavily into the rrsps and stressing out, but we knew we had to keep moving forward if we were going to shoot it that year,’ says Thompson.

August 1992: The funding agencies commit for a total budget of $1.8 million.

Malofilm bails out the production by kicking in another $200,000 for foreign distribution rights when the project is confronted with a staggering shortfall in financing from the nfb.

Production designer David Roberts, who has been location scouting since February, has moved to the island. He calculates that by the time they began production, the art department had had dinner at and borrowed something from every household on the island.

Summer 1992: Casting is still up in the air. Shapiro insists that Canadian actor R.H.Thomson is the only actor in Canada who can play the role of the uptight, demented school principal. Both McGowan and Thompson are dubious: ‘But Paul, this is a comedy?’

For the role of the young teacher, they sign Michele-Barbara Pelletier. Only problem is she’s still in school and has never been cast in a film before. Robert Clothiers (Beachcombers) had been cast in a principal role, but five days into shooting he pulls out due to a scheduling problem. Shapiro suggests Paul Soles (This Is The Law). He accepts.

Oct. 23, 1992: Principal photography begins.

Production proves to be even more challenging. Deer rutting season forces their cars off the road at night and into the ditch. It rains so much the roads start to collapse. Thompson, McGowan and Kennedy add road repair to their credits. Power failures are a daily occurrence.

November 30, 1992: Remarkably, principal photography wraps on time and on budget.

Mid-February 1993: Fine cut completed.

Editor Susan Shipton of Toronto, who cut Atom Egoyan’s The Adjuster and David Wellington’s I Love a Man in Uniform, has limited experience cutting comedies. It proves a challenge until she realizes cutting comedy is like doing horror movies: ‘You go boo with the jokes.’

April 1993: The sound edit takes place at Paule Sharpe Studios in Vancouver, with Gael MacLean as supervising editor. Even though there’s still no money, MacLean is able to bring together a top-notch sound crew. Anke Bakker creates phenomenal sound effects for the black magic spells.

Dialogue editing by Alison Grace and Ellen Gran presents enormous challeges due to background generator noise.

June 1993: Final mix is completed.

August 1993: The Lotus Eaters is accepted into competition at the Montreal World Film Festival, and is invited to participate in the Perspective Canada series at the Toronto Festival of Festivals and the Vancouver International Film Festival.

September 1993: The film screens at the Festival of Festivals.