Year: 1980
Language: English and French
Format: 16mm Colour
Runtime: 72 min
Director: Sophie Bissonnette, Joyce Rock, Martin Duckworth
Producer: Arthur Lamothe
Writer: Sophie Bissonnette, Joyce Rock
Cinematographer: Jean-Charles Tremblay, Martin Duckworth, Leonard Gilday
Editor: Michel Arcand, Sophie Bissonnette
Sound: Glenn Hodgins, Aerlyn Weissmann, Joyce Rock
Music: Rachel Paiement
Production Company: Les Ateliers du Cinéma Québécois Inc.

This award-winning social documentary depicts the eight-and-a-half-month-long strike against INCO in 1978, seen through the eyes of the Sudbury women involved. Placing their activities firmly within a social and historical context, the film – which was shot during and after the strike – follows the activities of the women workers and wives in support of the strike. Observing the growth of the women’s organization and the struggles involved – both in terms of the strike and of becoming activists – the film captures the women after the strike as they must choose to revert to their previous roles or maintain an activist stance. A direct collaboration with the women it depicts, A Wives’ Tale has a warmth, intimacy and refreshing lack of dogmatism rare in political cinema.

By: Peter Morris