40 YEAR SECRET

DUNDAS PRODUCTIONS

DIRECTED BY: Mary Anne Alton-Lemm

PRODUCERS:  Mary Anne Alton-Lemm / Deborah Parks

 

The 40 Year Secret" examines a very dark period of Canada’s social history. The 1960s are remembered as being a very liberating time, but it wasn’t so for everybody. Almost everyone knows of a girl who “went away” and then returned, no questions asked. The secrecy of the time period was meant to protect the social status of middle-class parents and keep the illusion that “nice girls don’t have premarital sex”. The reality was that lots of young people were having unprotected sex and many were getting pregnant. There was a sexual revolution taking place.

 

Pregnant teenaged girls were considered by society to be tainted, something to be hidden away. Many of them lost their babies to adoption, and were told to pretend it never happened. For one couple, Linda and Ray, it was The 40 Year Secret. Find out what happens when they tell their secret in a very public way. And follow them as they rekindle a high school romance and search for their daughter.