MARGARET & EVERGON: SYNOPSIS
In 1999, the celebrated Montreal photographer Evergon took a remarkable series of nude portraits of his own mother, then 80 years old: black and white images that embodied not the infirmities of old age, but a timeless strength, dignity, even majesty. The photographs were instantly recognized as a singular achievement, and a major contribution to the photographer’s body of work.
In 2007 Margaret Lunt abandoned her long-time home in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and moved to Montreal to live with her son. It was shortly afterwards that filmmaker Donald Winkler embarked on a film project that would probe what lay behind that series of photographs, uncovering a poignant family history, a woman’s determination to be her own person, and a remarkable and inspiring relationship between mother and son.
Margaret had two gay sons, one of whom died of Aids. In the small community where she lived, in the 1950s, she came to be a comfort and support not only to her own offspring, but to an entire gay community. What the film reveals are the complex and intimate links between Margaret’s life and family history, and her determination to collaborate with her son in the unorthodox way she did. The film concludes with the celebration of Margaret’s ninetieth birthday.
