Al Purdy Was Here
Purdy was clearly doing something right with the pen
Most documentaries that examine a little- known artistic figure leave one feeling: Well, now I know him/ her a little better. Brian D. Johnson’s Al Purdy Was Here presents such an indelible image of the man that you may end up chastised: Why didn’t I know him better?
For the uninitiated (i.e, most of us, this critic included), Al Purdy was a Canadian poet who lived from 1918 to 2000. Born in Wooler, Ont., not far from Belleville, he spent time in Vancouver and in the Air Force, bashing out what even his admirers think are pretty bad poems. ( The University of Saskatchewan has about a thousand of them, unpublished and probably best left that way.)
But eventually, life took its toll, and his writing started to become very good indeed. Johnson, a former film critic with Maclean’s magazine, talks to such fans as Margaret Atwood, George Bowering and Dennis Lee. Musicians Gord Downie, Sarah Harmer, Bruce Cockburn, Felicity Williams and others have been moved to song by Purdy’s works.
Purdy and his wife, Eurithe (a spry 90 in the film), eventually moved to Ontario’s Prince Edward County, where they built an A- frame cabin out of architectural odds and ends — ceiling from an old gym, wall from a train station, insulation courtesy of the Moose Jaw Times- Herald — that became something of a gathering place for writers. Johnson’s film chronicles recent efforts to save the modest dwelling and turn it into a haven for a new generation of poets, with an in-residence program.
There are a few gaps in the portrayal. No one, least of all Eurithe, seems willing to talk too much about the man’s brief marriage to Ila Bachelor, nor its issue, Brian Purdy, now a poet in Halifax. ( The film does include a brief interview with the younger Purdy, however.)
Purdy may not have been the most fastidious family man, but with fans like Charles Bukowski, he was clearly doing something right with the pen. This documentary may even inspire you — if not to write, then at least to read some of what Purdy left behind.
Al Purdy Was Here opens Dec. 2 in Winnipeg, Dec. 4 in Toronto, and Jan. 28 in Vancouver.