QUEEN OF THE MIST tells, in narrative poetry, the story of Annie Edson Taylor—the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and a forgotten American heroine. A 63 year-old teacher facing unemployment and poverty in 1901, Taylor decided to take up the challenge P.T. Barnum had issued and send herself over the Falls as her one hope to reverse her fortunes. Had Taylor been a man or a young beauty, she might have found the fame and fortune she hoped for. Instead, she was ignored and derided, robbed and abandoned by her managers, impersonated by an actress, and eclipsed by Bobby Leach—who was the first man to go over Niagara Falls (ten years after her feat). She died in poverty at the age of 83.
QUEEN OF THE MIST presents the events of Annie’s life through impressionistic re-enactments, layered with archival materials. It imaginatively portrays Annie Taylor’s daring feat and the ordeals she suffered in the years that followed it. It brings to light a courageous early 20th century woman whose story has been lost to history.
Directed and edited by Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe, QUEEN OF THE MIST was made at the invitation of and in collaboration with the poet, Joan Murray—and is based on her narrative poems from the book of the same name. Excerpts from these poems, which creatively dramatize Taylor’s life, are read by Ms. Murray. Mary Foskett plays Annie Edson Taylor, supported by a cast of 40 actors and extras. Sound design is by Jonathan Duckett. Ms. Hamilton Metcalfe and Ms. Murray are Co-Executive Producers.
The book, Queen of the Mist, was conceived and written by Ms. Murray who learned of Taylor during her two years in Niagara Falls as New York State Council on the Arts’ Writer in Residence. Murray received three residencies to Yaddo and two to the MacDowell Colony to write and revise the book—which was chosen by Joyce Carol Oates as Runner-up for Poetry Society of America’s Manuscript in Progress Award. Ms. Murray was nominated for a Rona Jaffee Foundation Award based on the book.
Winner, FIRST PRIZE, NARRATIVE, New Arts Program Video
Festival, Pennsylvania,1997
Winner, DIRECTOR’S CITATION AWARD, Black
Maria Film and Video Festival, 1997
29:00 minutes © 1996
color/sound; Beta SP; 3/4", VHS (NTSC)
Distribution: hamiltro productions (USA)
STILLS available for exhibition publicity...
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Please view: 25-second EXCERPT in which Annie Edson Taylor, having lost all means of gainful employment, contemplates throwing herself into the Saginaw River (the beginnings of her idea to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel). (1.3 MB) |
QUEEN OF THE MIST was funded by grants from
The New York State Council on the Arts
and The Niagara Council of the Arts.
Production support was also provided by
Lockport Community Television, The Experimental Television Center, Ltd, PBS affiliate, WMHT,
and the Communications, Film & Video Department of The City
College of New York
What People Have Said about QUEEN OF THE MIST...
“Metcalfe uses a rich variety of means from docudrama to archival material to recreate a forgotten moment in history. Based on narrative poems by Joan Murray this resembles an experimental historical novel about the life of a real person, like Susan Sontag’s Volcano Lover in which the life of that person functions as a spine for asides and reflections about many things including the limitations of life in the 19th century for unmarried women or how one of the greatest cruelties then and today is how the years make older women increasingly invisible. This is also a cautionary tale about seeking fame. If Taylor had been younger, or a man, she might have made money from her feat, but Hamilton Metcalfe shows how this ordinary woman who sets out to become a heroine becomes an anti-heroine, a sad creature who dies in poverty at age 83.”
- Ann-Sargent Wooster
New Arts Program Video Festival Program Notes, 1997
“I was haunted by the story...it felt so personal and deeply disturbing.”
- Don Yannacito, Programmer, Rocky Mountain Film Center
“...the text is beautiful and the story compelling.”
- Esther Robinson, Producer, Alive TV
“...all women should have a chance to see this film!”
- Bernice Coe, Coe Film Associates
feminist and post-feminist cinema, American heros and heroines in cinema
narrative in documentary film and video
literature in film, literature in video, poetry in film & video
daredevils and stunters of Niagara Falls