Hello! My name is Emma and I'm fundraising for pre-production of "A Stone Diary," a new feature-length documentary about the Canadian poet Pat Lowther.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Pat's death, and what would have been her 90th year. Working closely with Pat's daughters Christine and Beth, and alongside a team of talented poets, artists, biographers and researchers, we are aiming to create a work that elevates Pat's poetic spirit above all.

THE STORY

Pat Lowther, 1935-1975, was a gifted poet from Vancouver who left behind a significant and pathbreaking body of work. At the age of 40, on the cusp of achieving international recognition, her life was tragically cut short when she was murdered by her husband. While her time on Earth was brief, her lifeforce persists, geologically, as a stone might. A Stone Diary reunites Pat with the collective memory of Canada, on the 50th anniversary of her death, and the year of her 90th birthday. The feature-length essay film probes Pat’s deep and sensitive connection to ecology and geology, as well as her subversive relationship with time.

Through an assembly of 16mm footage, the film weaves a textured map of images, surveying the landscapes she lovingly inhabited in Western Canada. Spellbinding portraits of the stones that adorn her sacred and formative places, from the Gulf Islands to the Lynn Creek riverbank, are scored by a delicate soundscape crafted from natural field recordings. A careful selection of narrated poems, integrated as voiceover, will circumnavigate a central point of understanding for Pat, which is: stone and bone are eternal, and we humans are just passing through. It feels correct to tell Pat’s story via stones, etching it into the mineral-based medium of celluloid, capturing the stones that populated her memory. Interviews with her family members, colleagues, friends, and scholars will offer key autobiographical details. Geologist and writer Marcia Bjornerud will expand on the significance of Pat's geo-centric worldview, and provide further context to situate Pat’s work in the realm of geology. With the help of these voices, the film will investigate the acute scientific and geological focus of Pat’s poetry, leading an inquiry into this fascinating part of her mind and work.

Today for the first time

I noticed how coarse

my skin has grown

but the stones shine

with their own light,

they grow smoother

and smoother

-Pat Lowther, A Stone Diary (1977)

THE TEAM

Our team consists of poets and artists who are all big fans of Pat's work~~~

Director, cinematographer: Emma Cosgrove

Emma is a Montreal-based artist and filmmaker. Her projects tend to nature's magic, construction and demolition, geology, and the life cycle of objects, employing poetry to compliment images often shot on 8 or 16mm film. She has worked as a cinematographer and director on countless music videos, short films, documentaries and commercial shoots. Her work has been shown on NoBudge, Eternal Family, Kinoskop Analog Film Festival, the International Festival of Films on Art (FiFA), Bogota Music Video Festival, Canada Shorts, and Sweden Film Awards.

Archive producer: Catherine Machado

Catherine Machado is an award-winning archive producer, researcher, and poet based in Montreal. Over the last decade, she's cleared material for major broadcasters such as Discovery ID, Discovery Science, Snapchat, T&E, Amazon & CBC and more. Last year, she oversaw the renewal of the permanent exhibit at the Juno Beach Centre in Normandy, France. Most recently, Machado worked on 'Mr. Dress Up: The Magic of Make-Believe' for Amazon & CBC, which won a People's Choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as 5 Canadian Screen Awards including the Barbara Sears Award for Best Visual Research and Best Editorial Research.

Creative director/artist biographer: Iva Čelebić

Iva is a Yugoslavian-Canadian artist and writer living in Tiohtià:ke, "Montréal." Her work is heliocentric; it aims to texture the inner landscape without dimming her reverence for the sun and nature's secrets. Her approach to language is surreal and grounded in the mundane, embracing tones of prophecy in order to investigate themes of silence, wildness, identity and displacement. She is the creator of small press Grapeseed Books and is the editor of The Sun Room, a traveller's companion journal. She is also an artist bio writer.

Sound: Kevin LaFleur

Kevin is a guitarist, pianist and composer based in Montreal. Interested in the ways that landforms and their organisms can guide music composition and improvisation, his practice draws on ways of observation and experimentation which are at home in natural spaces. Abstracting on his background in jazz and improvised music, he has developed an expansive sound, gathered from his work in live electronics, free improvisation, contemporary dance, and folk music.

HOW THE FUNDING WILL HELP

Donors will receive special thanks in the film credits and exclusive updates about the film, including a pre-screening invitation. All donations are received with infinite gratitude. Thank you for helping to bring this film to life.