Our Lady of the Snow is a political ghost story by filmmaker Tom Gilroy that surrounds a convent for retired nuns and its 16-year-old breakfast cook. A strange phenomenon causes visions in the characters that prompt them to reevaluate how they explain such occurrences and explores the bond between women. Gilroy, who used his latest MacDowell residency to write the screenplay for Our Lady of the Snow, discusses the film and the stage it’s in in a video interview above.
Gilroy was also preparing for the cinematic release of his second feature, The Cold Lands, starring Lili Taylor and newcomer Silas Yelich. It’s the story of a boy and his self-reliant mother. But when she dies unexpectedly, 11-year-old Atticus, wary of the authorities, flees deep into the forests of his Catskills home and he begins a new life constantly on the move. As he wanders the woods in a daze, relying on whatever food and shelter he can find, the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur. When he encounters Carter, a scruffy, pot smoking drifter, the two form a wary alliance. Gilroy worked on the original drawings and images for The Cold Lands during his second residency in 2003.
Gilroy, who wrote and directed the feature Spring Forward, starring Liev Schreiber, Ned Beatty, Ian Hart, and Campbell Scott, writes about intensely personal subjects and likes to develop stories from the characters he creates. His plays – most notably The Invisible Hand and Halcyon Days – have been produced in several U.S. cities and around the world.
