MacLeans
Yes, Anais Granofsky is Lucy from Degrassi. She was on the
Canadian teen show from the age of 10 to 18. Last year, she participated in
the show’s reunion and will soon direct an episode of Degrassi: The Next
Generation. But in the case of Granofsky, and this can’t be said of most of
her ’80s cast mates, her current non-Degrassi-related endeavours are truly
more interesting.

After four years in film school at New York University, Granofsky returned to
Toronto. She wrote and directed Have Mercy (1999), starring Jackie Burroughs,
about a group of women in a mental institution putting on a talent show. “It
kind of feds like there are enough young male independent filmmakers out there
telling their stories,” says Granofsky, now 28. “I’m hoping there might be a
way to get out female-centred stories.”

Granofsky’s new film, On Their Knees, has hit a few festivals and won her
three awards from the international Black Film and Video Network: Best
Canadian Feature, Best Actress and Best Writer. It’s the story of two
half-sisters–played by Granofsky and Ingrid Veninger–driving an ice cream
truck from Toronto to the East Coast in order to bring the body of their dead
grandmother home. “My grandmother, Bubbie, wanted to play the dead body,”
laughs Granofsky. “I said, `Bubs, listen dude, you are not going to want to be
in that body bag.'” But Bubble’s not forgotten. Granofsky dedicates the film
to “grandmothers past, present and future.”