
Rhonda Buckley
Production
Biography
Rhonda Buckley is a Newfoundland filmmaker who makes films with a feminist point of view. Buckley is the writer of feature films Sparkle and Shine, Take Hold, Heart Troubles and Joan and Sadie (Telefilm Canada). Buckley is an award-winning filmmaker of the short films; Surrounded by Water (FIN, YFF, SJIWFF, FeFF), Terranova Matadora (Hot Docs 2016), Avon Ladies Rural Style and Elfreda. Surrounded by Water, on music legend Joan Morrissey, was shortlisted for best dramatic short at the Yorkton Film Festival. Terranova Matadora (BravoFact), based on a Newfoundland woman bullfighter screened at Hot Docs 2016 and Avon Ladies Rural Style also screened nationally. Rhonda created art installations for over 10 years with exhibitions in Vancouver, New York, San Francisco, and Scotland including: Barred, King of the Castle, Peep Show and TV Talk Show Live, funded by Canada Council for the Arts. Rhonda curated an extensive exhibition for The Rooms in 2010, James Andersen: 50 Years of Taking Pictures that was co-produced with Catharyn Andersen and the Nunatsiavut Government based on James Andersen’s film collection from the 1950’s in Makkovik, Labrador.
Known For

After being released from prison, Billy Skinner returns to his low-income neighbourhood feeling like a fish out of water; the area has changed dramatically, and what was once a predominantly white neighbourhood is now mostly occupied by refugee families.
Skeet

An aging convict serving out a life sentence alone on a distant planet is forced to confront his past when a new prisoner shows up and pushes him to remember his life on earth.
The Silent Planet

Two teenage boys escape an unhappy home, embarking on a perilous journey of self-discovery that takes them deep into the Newfoundland wilderness.
Hold Fast

Life on the Rock never seemed easy, but for Mitsy it is especially rough. The teenager has been abandoned by her mother, a particularly unfit parent prone to both the bottle and the sex trade. She is left to be brought up by her mercurial grandmother Bride, who is well-meaning but oppressively suffocating. Mitsy's dreams for the future hinge on her desire to be a hairdresser, but her current emotional well-being revolves around a wee dog named Sparky, an unwanted canine misfit to whom she becomes hopelessly attached. After Bride agrees to let Mitsy take the dog in as a pet, the teen tries desperately to create a happy, safe place for Sparky to thrive.
Crackie

Haunted by nightmares and visions, Vera abandons her life in Iceland to chase the ghost of her disappeared father to the coast of Newfoundland. After settling in a remote fishing village, she finds herself drawn to Jack, a seal hunter leaving town with his failing boat and superstitious crew.
Hangashore

Documentary about the two big resources in the North Atlantic, fish and oil, and the impact of their exploitation on the environment in various countries on both sides of the Atlantic.
Atlantic
In the early 1980s, 13-year-old Beatrice Gravel's comfortable world—family, school, and church—fractures when her mother moves out to 'self actualize', leaving Beatrice and her younger sister Chloe with their devastated father. As Beatrice doubles down on a plan to 'fix' her family, she barrels through bullies, friendship blowups, a make-out party, and a kleptomaniac babysitter—forcing her to decide who she wants to be when she can’t get what she wants.
Purgatory

Thirty-year-old Keith Kavanagh (Joel Thomas Hynes) ekes his way through life in a small town. A hard-drinking hooligan, he keeps his ragged collection of poetry a closely guarded secret... as secret as his regret for the shattered relationship with his father. When Keith meets the darkly exotic Natasha (Mylène Savoie), his life is changed forever.
Down to the Dirt

Two human skulls in a Scottish museum spark a forensic investigation into the tragic disappearance of the Beothuk people of Newfoundland. The clues help solve a kidnapping, murder, and cover-up that took place 200 years ago in the remote interior of the island.
Stealing Mary: Last of the Red Indians
A tale of two longtime losers looking for love.
Diamonds in a Bucket

Joan Morrissey lit up a room. She was a lounge singer six nights a week and raised her six children. She sold over 50,000 records and when a record company sent her a cheque for $38.00 she took them to court.
Surrounded by Water

James Andersen: Over 50 Years of Taking Pictures is a culmination of photos, films that are brought to life with Andersen's own words. The James Andersen collection documents over 50 years of community life in and around Makkovik, Labrador. The stories that accompany "Uncle Jim's" work explain why for over 50 years he has never been without a camera as he documented daily rituals and life. Andersen does not shy away from telling these stories but shares them with conviction and with a voice that honours each event's importance; the church being rebuilt, fish being caught, and stories of sickness and death are each told with the same reverence.
James Andersen: Over 50 Years of Taking Pictures
The Real Matriarch takes a look at the politics, life and professions of four prominent women from Newfoundland and Labrador: Lois Brown, Barbara Doran, Edythe Goodridge, and Mrs. Sarah Sexton. Media clips and interviews showcase their vivacious personalities; entertaining, shocking at times, endearing, and ultimately great storytellers. Their work with women's groups, aids patients, artists, filmmakers, and community groups is acknowledged nationally and internationally. Spanning four generations and while raising children they have held their battles wildly and never stepped down, always leaving a boardroom or a dining room in laughter.
The Real Matriarch

An exploration of music in the life, and writing, of James Joyce. Two Newfoundland actors, a Toronto opera singer and a New York Joycean scholar travel to Dublin and join forces with a group of Irish musicians to tell the story of music in the life, and writing, of the great Irish writer James Joyce.
Bloomsday Cabaret

Vocation is a documentary on artists who knew from a very early age they wanted to be an artist. A decision that for them was instinctual and some may even say it is 'a calling' based on faith and perhaps even fate alone. Artists Andy Jones, Deepa Mehta, Marie Brassard, Christopher Pratt, Brad Peyton and Bif Naked are committed to creating work in theatre, literature, music, film and performance based on an innate desire to succeed while working in the precarious profession of art.
Vocation
A young girl named Pearl tries to help her father navigate the world of online dating.
Spoiled
The King family is from Badger's Quay near Greenspond, Newfoundland with over 40 family relatives still living there. The entire community has a population of only 400. Actor/musician Greg King takes us on tour of his family homes, and to meet his father and sister, who work at the hospital where they were all born. They tell of the importance of family and the irony of feeling worldly while connected to a small community in central Newfoundland.
People Who Stay

Nora is consumed with solving the murder of a young woman, Elfreda, that happened in her hometown of Harbour Grace in 1870. The murder has become a symbol for Nora of how long injustice has persisted for women, including in today's society. As a professor of gender inequality, she witnesses the milestones women have made over centuries that are now being obliterated. Nora returns to Newfoundland and from her research finds an article in the Express newspaper of 1870 describing the horrific murder of Elfreda Pike, a sixteen-year-old girl who was found stabbed. Supported by her colleague Vivian and a new friend Zoe, Nora decides to write a book and continues to hunt down details that will solve Elfreda's murder and give her a voice 150 years later. Nora's book launch of Elfreda discloses a historic letter she reads from a Constable Furey, who headed the investigation, and shockingly confesses on his deathbed 50 years later that he was the man who killed Elfreda Pike.
Elfreda

Lily Belle (Renée Hackett) enters the Last Love Letter contest at the post office and a co-worker Ephram Amore (Andy Jones) catches her tampering with the mail to change her luck and find true love.
Last Love Letter

A look at Canadian bullfighter Carolyn Hayward.