In her promotional videos and photographs for the upcoming film Unintentional Mother, Mary Galloway comes across as an energetic ingénue with a smile that never stops. But behind the smile is a ferociously ambitious woman writing, producing, acting, and now directing her own path through an industry she says is unfriendly to both women and aboriginals.
Galloway is Whistler Film Festival’s 2016 “Talent to Watch” honouree and Whistler isn’t the only place watching. She received the 2016 Kevin Spacey Foundation Artist of Choice Award — the first Canadian ever to receive the $10,000 prize.
Galloway’s recent success is the result of years of hard work and dedication. As a member of the Cowichan tribe of the Coast Salish peoples going through the public school system in Qualicum, B.C., she would imagine herself as a character in her favourite films. She dreamt of being on camera herself one day, but wasn’t sure she could ever achieve her dream.
Galloway moved to Vancouver with her high school sweetheart when she was 21. She went to an open casting call for an extras agency thinking it might be fun to be in the background of a movie. Mary met Philip Granger, head of the acting department from New Image College of Fine Arts and he sold her on the idea of acting school.
As a child, Galloway loved watching movies. Her favourite films were “chick flicks,” including “anything with Drew Barrymore.” But she says she doesn’t want to make films like that today: “I try to write stories about women who are doing things other than falling in love,” she says.
During a lecture by Kyra Zagorsky, Galloway had an epiphany: all the films she enjoyed in her youth were “brainwashing” her into believing that she needed a man to be complete. Although the chick flicks of the ‘90s still hold a special place in her heart, Galloway is determined that her female characters won’t fall into this same stereotype. After her epiphany, she realized she wasn’t “madly in love” with the guy she’d been with for six years. Although “he was a nice guy and nothing went wrong,” she broke it off.
Not content with waiting for parts to come to her, Galloway used the skills she picked up at New Image to write, produce, and star in Ariel Unraveling — a film about a girl trapped in a basement for ten years, with only The Little Mermaid to teach her about the outside world. Following the success of Ariel Unraveling, Galloway jumped into Unintentional Mother as writer, producer, star and first-time director.
New Image’s 2000-hour, 65-week program leaves little time for anything but school. Finishing the program was only the first step in what Galloway described as a very long start to a career. The first few years were unrewarding. “Half the time, all the effort you put in never gets seen because you’re doing indie and student films and the money just runs out and they never finish the films.” When it does work out, she says it’s rewarding, but all the last-minute, zero-dollars work is exhausting.
For Galloway everything changed with Ariel Unraveling. “It was the first time putting my own writing into the world.” Ariel gave Galloway the opportunity to work with Patrick Sabongui, who co-produced, and Carmen Moore, who became Galloway’s acting mentor. She originally wrote Ariel for Crazy8s and placed in the top 40 but failed to advance to the top twelve. Galloway felt “a little defeated after that.” But, unwilling to give up on her dream, she kept pushing and won a BravoFACT pitch contest at the Victoria Film Festival.
Galloway thinks of herself as an actress first, not a producer or director. She wrote Unintentional Mother — the story of an aboriginal nanny in the ‘70s — so she could play the lead. “I write so I can act.”
Unintentional Mother is her directorial debut and she stars as a girl who “must choose between running from her abusive father or staying as a devoted nanny.”
Why the ‘70s? Galloway explained that for her directorial debut, she wanted to work with the “look” of that decade. Without giving away any spoilers, she says, “If it was set in present day, [Anna’s character] would be less believable.” Galloway adds that Anna’s father is a residential school survivor and, in an earlier draft of the film, one of his redeeming qualities was that he had protected Anna from the residential schools.
Galloway intends to hit every possible film festival with Unintentional Mother. She hopes Unintentional Mother leads to a feature film. Listening to how passionate she is about the film, it’s hard to believe Unintentional Mother could be anything but a huge success for her.
Galloway shyly shared an anecdote that New Image instructors tell their students: “Be like Mary Galloway.” No surprise there, since Galloway graduated with a 98% average, never missed a class and always finished assignments on time. But after graduation, how does a new actor or actress be like Mary Galloway? Her advice: always keep an ear to the ground, apply for every award, attend networking events, screenings, and as many film festivals as possible and make a note in your phone of every award, prize, or event you hear about so you can research them later.
Growing up, Galloway says she never believed in herself. Everything changed when she moved to Vancouver and made a choice to pursue her dream. She hopes that can be an inspiration to youth, especially youth in aboriginal communities. When asked what her future holds, Galloway mentioned a desire to do motivational speaking. She’d like to go to Aboriginal schools and youth groups and encourage kids to follow their own dreams.
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