It is the 1960s at the University of Toronto. Doug is a well-liked senior with an equally popular girlfriend. Peter is a shy Finnish freshman who is new to the big city. The two become best friends and begin doing all sorts of activities together — until Doug starts viewing their relationship differently.

We are kicking off our fall series by going back to 1965 and screening Canada’s OG queer film: a 4K restoration of David Secter’s truly pioneering WINTER KEPT US WARM!

Made for $8,000 with a cast that entirely worked for free, WINTER was shot via guerrilla filmmaking tactics mostly on the downtown campus of the University of Toronto, where Secter was a student at the time. It was a major breakthrough for its depiction of queer characters as fully dimensional, and even became the first English-language Canadian film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival.

David Cronenberg, who was a classmate of Secter’s at the time, has cited the film as a major influence on him, saying: “I can’t say that the University of Toronto led me to horror, but why it did do was lead me to cinema… WINTER KEPT US WARM is the most influential film of my life in a weird way.” -PETER KNEGT

Featuring post-screening Q&A with cast and crew. 

Doors Open 30 Minutes Before Showtime.