When Ponds Freeze Over

One night in St. John's, a mother tells a story to her daughter of how she once fell through the ice while skating and had her life flash before her eyes. From this terrifying accident and in the panic of attempted escape from the cold water, Mary Lewis mixes various styles of animation, dramatic reconstructions and visual puns. Part home movie, part genealogy, part ethnographic record, part history of Newfoundland, this rich and multifarious film hurtles us across the 20th century through the loves and lives and lies of several generations of the Lewis family.