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Year of production : 2018

Director(s) : Nancy LANG, Peter RAYMONT
Producer(s) : Nancy LANG, Peter RAYMONT

Margaret Atwood has never been more relevant than she is today. Readers are turning to her work as they face the rise of authoritarian politics, rapidly evolving technologies, and the slow-motion disaster of climate change. Her poetry and books are about survival, but they are also survival tools in and of themselves.

The recent success of the television adaptation of her novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, has made Atwood a household name. Almost 2 million fans wake up to Atwood's early morning posts on Twitter.

Who is the woman and writer behind these stories? How does she always seem to know what the future holds?

With exclusive access over a twelve-month period, this documentary follows Atwood as she jets with partner Graeme Gibson to speaking engagements around the world. She is enthusiastically welcomed by crowds of all ages: college students in Chicago and Boston; bird enthusiasts in Vancouver, opera festival fans in Cooperstown, New York.

Atwood visits the set of The Handmaid’s Tale, where she meets lead actor Elisabeth Moss and Ane Crabtree, costume designer of the iconic red robes that are turning up at feminist protests around the world.

The film also delves into Atwood’s youth in the Canadian wilderness; her early days as a poet at Harvard; meeting her partner Graeme Gibson; their political activism; and the writing of The Handmaid’s Tale.

The film explores Atwood's major works, elucidating the personal and societal factors that inform her stories. She has just completed The Testaments, a highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. She has said that this latest novel is inspired by “the world we’ve been living in.”