• F E 5 T I v A L 5 •

FESTIVAL' OF FESTIVALS

by Michael Dorland though, there was no such context at lesson is plain. There are no longer any Timing. (But as Pat Thompson notes in the Festival of Festivals. Or rather the neat boundaries. Film crosses into tele­ ssue, Canadian shorts, the category In this great future, you can forget the context was that of 36 Canadian entries vision which crosses back into film." in which this country wins Oscars, were past - Bloor St. graffiti of various lengths often forlornly adrift But it was precisely the absence of on the whole in fine shape.) For all of us, the consequences are amid some 200 other selections, mainly "neat boundaries" - namely context - If the process of working through the grave. The very success of the Broadcast features, of the best and brightest of that was most striking about the Per­ burden of feature film belatedness Fund is putting in jeopardy the raison world cinema, past and present. And in spective Canada program this year. could be greatly eased by a clearly de­ d'etre of Telefilm Canada. For Canada, that context, the Canadian section re­ Measured against the stronger film in­ fined context for Canadian cinema, the as a nation, without feature films, the vealed a cinema still labouring against dustries - and, more importantly, fact that there isn't one - that it survives brightest and the best will simply extraordinary cultural handicaps. stronger filmic traditions - of other somewhere between the domination of leave... This was only reinforced by the Per­ countries, Canadian cinema is still very international cinema on the one hand - Peter Pearson, Telefilm executive spective Canada program's domestic uncertain not just of what it is trying to and television on the other - only com­ director context. In a stunning example of cul­ say, but how it is to say it. There is an pounds it. The difficulties of style that t was perhaps to be expected after last tural myopia, this was also the week in oppressive belatedness to Canadian appear in the work of experienced di­ year's triumphant Canadian Retros­ which CBC chose to go 100% Canadian cinema in content and in style that sim­ rectors like Ted Kotcheff or Claude Ipective that the Festival of Festivals' content, heightening the political com­ ply has to be worked through - and is Jutra only illustrate how real a burden second Perspective Canada program petition currently going on as to the fu­ being worked through. Successfully belatedness is:Joshua is Kotchefl's first would suffer somewhat by comparison. ture orientation of Canadian images and with films like 90 Days or Canada's Canadian film since 1974 and it shoWS; After all, there is an enormous differ­ the means of their delivery. Sweetheart; with considerable promise Jutra's La Dame en couleurs is his first ence between a retrospective that can If Perspective Canada is to become a in My American Cousin, Jacques et French-language film in nine years; both select from 60 years of Canadian film 's serious showcase for Canadian cinema, Novembre or John Paisz's work-in-prog­ films struggle against a literariness that up-and-down history, and the much that vocation is not helped by taking ress Crime Wave, but also with. varying preoccupies them to the detriment of narrower perspective of the '84-'85 film place in a domestic environment where degrees of diffiCUlty, ranging from their qualities as cinema. The reverse crop. But in that difference lies all the Canadian cinema itself appears like tele­ Joshua Then and Now or La Dame en side of that belatedness is that the brunt difference, namely a context. Last year, vision's poor cousin. This was the ftrst couleurs (to mention two films by vet­ of the burden has to be carried by those current Canadian film - and this for the year in which it was possible to actually eran filmmakers) to badly flawed fea­ least equipped to do so - ftrst-time di­ very first time - could be seen within see the effects on Canadian cinema of tures by nearly-new directors (laur­ rectors. Telliogiy six out of 14-feature­ its own larger filmic context, that web the redirection of policy, money and ence Keane's Samuel Lount or Claude length entries in this year's Perspective of situation, association, and memory production towards broadcasting. "For Gagnon's Visage pale), to outrightly Canada program were first-features. But i that mak~s up a culture. This year, us," says Telefilm's Peter Pearson, "the amateur efforts like Eric Weinthal's if the Sandy Wilsons, Jean BeaudryS, p e rs pee t v e can a d a

10/Cinema Canada - November 1985 - • F E 5 T I v A L 5 • Fran,Montreal film me, the system of yoking was iucon-. The television streamroller was visi­ anadian cinema, to the extent it has crew was world-class. Franc;ois Pro­ venient and a bit wasteful financially, bly in evidence this year, both in the 36 existed, is a cinema of belatedness. tat is an wonderful cameraman and what is going on now has brought mms that were selected by program­ CIts establishment has taken so long, did an extraordinary job. Editor Ron film production to a grinding halt mers Kay Armatage, Piers Handling and has suffered so many false starts, and ex­ Wisman cut it briJ1iantly and is as The government, by playing it safe Peter Harcourt, and the 120-odd that perienced so many problems and dif­ good as the best that I've ever and in:ves~ing heavily in 1V produc­ they rejected, as either bad or as being ficulties in getting itself off the ground worked with in London or Hol­ tion, are protecting their downside too televisual. that its images appear on the screen lywood_ The sourtd-editingcrew but in the process are destroying "A lot of us were waiting to see what burdened by the necessity of restoring were first-rate and the gifted Anne their upside. Let us not pay for the a past from which we have been se­ effects the Broadcast Fund were going Pritchard, who did such a wonderful mistakes of the crazy tax-shelter to have on Canadian .film," says Handl­ vered. From the very beginnings of Job on Duddy, excelled herself in years by tlismembering Canadian ing. "Last year it was too early to tell. Canadian feature filmmaking (Back To Joshua. Pathe Recording Studios cinema. Otherwise, we will be back This year we began to see what the ef­ God's Country, 1919) through to The gave me a marvellous track and the to writers and directors emigrating fects were. We certainly saw more ma­ Grey Fox (1982), Canadian cinema has finished print is beautiful, out of the again to make movies abroad and terial that was geared for television. The often been deeply perplexed by its own very same labs that had done such Canada will be finished as a film films that we rejected or did not accept backwardness. This year's features were indifferent work on Duddy. country. This is already happening. were very precisely that. Most of the no exception to this search for a con­ So within that time period, Cana­ We have a lot of young talent - and films that we showed this year are text: for example, My American Cousin dian films have made an extraordi­ straddling that very fine line, so you can looks back to adolescence, La Dame en some old talent too - and, to hold nary leap forward on the sheer pro­ them, we must create stable financial imagine what the other material looked couleurs to childhood, Samuel Lount feSSional and technlcal level. They like. Not that it was bad, it was just that to history. Instead of a past, what is conditions so that they know there are world. class and there is no ques­ will be continuity of work. What we it was done for television, and I think it found is a sense of a past that has some­ tion that, on future films of mine is very difficult to show television mate­ how been lost Goshua Then and Now, need now are persons of viSiOn. And made here or abroad, I would want I trust that the Right Honorable Mar­ rial in a film context." or Canada's Sweetheart offer two very to use people like Anne Pritchard, Yet Perspective Canada's strongest different 'explanations'). Or, in a film cel Masse ~d Peter Pearson and the FranC;ois Protat, Ron Wisman. newly appointed task-force will be 'film ' at the festival, Canada's like 90 Days, the lost past is simply the You kaow, we talk of films in Sweetheart, is an NFB/CBC production, operational given for which no explana­ these men and I wish them the best terms of stars, directors, writers. But in trying to solve the manifold prob­ and so will get delivery on TV rather tion is offered. you don't have a Viable film industry than in a theatre. The Magnificat, how­ Yet in a country as massively uncer­ lems facing them. and a true cinema until you have a One last thing and then I'm off. ever competent a piece of film work, is tain about its past as ours is, film has an body of experienced and skilled art­ When the present impasse in Cana­ still nothing more than a TV documen­ extraordinary potential as a form of col­ ists, craftsmen and technicians, prop tary, as are the other documentaries lective memory - far more than televis­ dian films is resolved and Messrs. people, hair stylists, costume desig­ Masse and Pearson restore the Artie Shaw: Time Is All You 've Got and ion, since film possesses an epic dimen­ ners, carpenters, painters - the financing of films on a sound basis Quel numerolWhat Number? - both sion that television can just never people who provide all the pictorial let's promise to do one thing. Let ' ~ could of which be cut to TV durations with achieve. This epic potential, however, elements that make up the totality of make films of quality, substance and absolutely no loss of substance. In fact, puts tremendous pressure on the a film. And whatever the mistakes distinction. Films that spring from the real tragedy of this year's Perspec­ filmmaker's vision: if it is not strong that were made during the tax-shel­ our cultural memory. Films about tive Canada is that there was little in enough to withstand that pressure, tet years, one good thing that what collapses is more than just a film. who we are and where we are going. the crop with visual qualities so over­ emerged was a group of first-rate whelmingly filmiC, so demanding of a And the further back in time the con­ professionals. We blew a chance to do it in the '70s; let's not blow it again. We're a big screen that couldn't run as safely on tent of the film, the stronger the pres­ And this is not just my feeling, but sure and the greater the risks of failure. country that knows very little about the small one. one that is increasingly encountered Of this year's crop, the three strongest itself, so a vital flourishing cinema is If it's nice to be able to go and see in Hollywood. The first thing out of films were, not surprisingly, those clos Joshua Then and Now at a cinema, as a studio executive's mouth is "Let's not a luxury but an absolute neces­ est to the present: Sity for us. We have the talent both an indulgence in nostalgia for all the' make this in Toronto or Montreal ,; Giles Walker's 90 Days, a brilliantly creative and entrepreneuriai. We other Canadian films audiences don't not only because of cost but becau~e humorous contemporary examination have the professional skills. There's get to see in a cinema, there's unfortu­ they know that production person- nately nothing in this, Canada's biggest of the impossibility of tradition on the no reason not to do it. So, let's do it. per s -p e c t v e can a d a

November 1985 - Cinema CanadaJ11 • F E 5 T I v A L -5 •

• 90 Days writer/director, Giles Walker

• • Canadian documentary's sweetheart, Donald Brittain

one ,hand and a cold, technological fu­ privileges re-creation over creation - ture devoid of all Romanticism on the indeed, is less a style than a stiltedness, other; Sandy Wilson's sweetly nostalgic a sense of filmed theatre instead of film My American Cousin set in the late as the construction of a total environ­ '50s; and Don Brittain's formidably bit­ ment. If Ted Kotcheff does in Joshua ter Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of re-create Montreal's Fairmount Street Hal C. Banks, set from the late '40s to for one lovely long crane-shot, that the '60s. richness of camerawork plus decor is However, with Joshua Then & Now, only a passing moment; it does not per­ also set from the '40s to the present, meate the film as a whole. Similarly already there are difficulties: as the Samuel Lount's attention to interiors is • Shy in Montreal, thrilled in Toronto: 90 Days co-stars Christine Pak and Sam Grana Anglo city the film describes no longer not matched by equivalent exteriors: exists, the motivations of the characters instead of a sense of what Toronto in and American ideas of freedom in ican' aspiration to freedom brings out are more difficult to grasp. While that the 1830s could have looked like, there Samuel Lount. the criminal in the Canadian: under does not create insurmountable obsta­ are only exterior shots of landscape. It's With these metaphors for Americani­ Butch's influence, Sandy rebels against cles for the film's strongest actors (Alan the same in My American Cousin: the zation, (English) Canadian cinema does her parents; under the influence of Arkin and Alan Scarfe ) it does for the beauty of the Okanagan Valley is only begin at last to wrestle with its own be­ American revolutionary ideas, Samuel less-developed talent, particularly the context of no-context. Because latedness. Why does nothing ever hap­ Lount treasonously rebels; under the Joshua himself (if only James Woods' landscape is not historical: it is merely pen? Why can't Joshua write when he reign of terror of Hal C. Banks' control dramatic powers were as strong as his the "nothing ever happens" of Sandy's comes home? Why don't "brave Cana­ of the Canadian maritime industry, looks),' or Gabrielle Lazure, who has a diary in the opening shots. dians love freedom" (William Lyon Canadian unions and shipping com­ nice body and that's about all she has. But, of course, things do happen - if Mackenzie in Samuel Lount)? Why are panies eventually rebel against the The difficulty of a film's attempt to cap­ you can remember them, and even our films so slight? If Canada on its own American domination established at the ture a past that has left few traces of more so if you can capture that sense of so often seems a graveyard for failures - invitation of the Canadian government. itself reaches exemplary heights in their happening. Joshua leaves Canada of the imagination, (or more accurately Of course, these are not real Amer­ Samuel Lount, Laurence Keane's and becomes a famous writer - then he for the institutionalized bankruptcy of icans; they are caricatures and symbols; couragepus but highly flawed stab at fatally returns home to do a book about the imagination), it's the encounter with imaginary constructs invented by Cana­ turning conscience-stricken bunglers Canada that he can't and, instead, sinks America as history that provides the be­ dian artists to account for something into history's heroes. into existential quandaries. Most impor­ ginning of Canada's own sense of itself that is embarrassing or difficult to grasp The weight of Canadian cinema's be­ tant for Canadian cinema in terms of as different. Because in an environment about ourselves and so needs to be sym­ latedness often reveals itself as a strik­ happenings is the arrival of the Amer­ of peace, order and good government, bolized. The 'real' Hal Banks never ap­ ingly unmodern film style that icans: the American Cousin; Hal Banks; nothing does happen until the 'Amer- pears once in Canada's Sweetheart: he p e r s pee t v e c a n a d a

121Cinema Canada - November 1985 F E 5 T I v A L 5 • • ing up in late '50s BC is still fresh maritime fleet, third largest in the is only seen as represented by Canadian descendant Elvira did produce a film in enough in her mind to successfully world, after they had managed to bring actor Maury Chaykin, while the voice­ faint memory of her ancestor. After all, translate it into film, Butch, her Amer- work on Canadian waterfronts and over tells us that "because of him, men films - and even feature films - do get once feared to walk the streets." Banks made in this country. Belatedly. ican symbol, is himself just another kid abroad to a halt. And Banks did what he is a Frankenstein symbol, "the stuff of - a belated, imitation Jimmy Dean. That had been invited to do, under the pro- / makes My American Cousin little more tection of the cabinet, while the RCMP the Capones and Hoffas." • These imaginary Americans, then, "That's Canada for you" than an exercise in innocent symboliza- turned a blind eye to the SIU's shotgun tion. It's good that it's there, like the and baseball· bat tactics. This is a time represent Canadian aspirations and -Timing fears, visions of freedom and unfree­ film itself, but it is only a beginning. when Canadian cabinet ministers in dom: cars, rock'n' roll, sex and movies owever, a cinema of belatedness The strongest evidence of serious Parliament were denouncing Com­ mastery of symbols and reality together munists at the National Film Board, and in My American Cousin - that is, the constantly risks succumbing to nos­ in this year's crop comes not surpris- when Hollywood promised to refer to invention and creation of art; an end to Htalgia, to that which never was, a internal Canadian terror through the es· temptation that television, quintessen­ ingly from one of Canadian media's au- Canada in its scripts if the Canadian tablishment of a new order of justice in tial nostalgia-box, intensifies. This is to thentic masters, Donald Brittain. In government let stand the U.s. domina­ Samuel Launt; 'the horror, the horror' say only that while it is a giant step for­ awarding Canada's Sweetheart: The tion of Canada's cinema screens. Saga of Hal C. Banks, of America in Canada's Sweetheart. In ward for our cinema to be wrestling City-TV's $5000 Thirteen years later, after the Cana­ Joshua, freedom is still entangled with with symbols, symbols alone are not prize for best Canadian film, the Festival dian Brotherhood of Railway and Trans­ imperial cultural symbols (London) but enough; paradoxically they have to 'be jury displayed a discernment that can port Workers revolted against the 'in­ more strongly is symbolized by the flag real symbols. One of the problems with only be endorsed with complete en- ternationalism' of the SIU and, with the of the Attlee Brigade, and it is buried. joshua is that its symbols are only emp­ thusiasm, for Canada's Sweetheart is support of Toronto's Upper Lakes Ship· (No wonder Joshua can't write once he tily symbolic: Pauline is everything that probably the most authentically Cana- ping Company, raised enough noise for comes home.) Joshua is not; not JeWish, not poor, not dian story ever told. For it is the first the feds to appoint a commission of en· But these visions of freedom often go dark - not real. Likewise stringing Canadian film ever to fully explore the quiey, Banks just slipped back across together with an equally acute con­ Union Jacks allover the place and other pathology of Canadian dependence on the border. Subsequently charged in sciousness that the way to realizing symbols of empire as in the TrimbIes' the United States. (Obviously an idea Ontario for perjury, an extraditable of·' them lies through transgression, for garden-party scene does not reestab­ whose time has finally come: Denys Ar- fense, Banks was arrested in Manhattan' which there is a heavy price to pay. lish the reality of what gives these sym­ cand, in many respects Quebec's an- in 1968 to be deported back to Canada. Butch may be free ("Anything you want bols once really meant, and what gives swer to Canada's Brittain, is exploring a Dean Rusk, Lyndon Johnson's secretary we got in the USA") but, as Sandy im­ them their value as symbols. Even less so similar theme fictionally in Le declin de of state, quashed the extradition order mediately challenges him, "So what are when Trimble himself (Alan Scarfe) is ['empire america in, and Canadian intel- at the request of an unnamed Canadian you doing up here in Canada?" Seen revealed as a false symbol, a fake Brit - lectuals like Arthur Kroker and David cabinet minister. Banks, until his recent from Canada, American freedom often just another lower-class grasper trying Cook are pursuing related strategies in demise, lived in comfortable retirement conceals crime: fearing he's knocked up to get his fingers up Westmount debs' political philosophy and literature re- in San Francisco. his girl, Butch has stolen his mother's skirts. Other than sex as a form of com­ spectively.) But, fascinating as the purely car; Hal Banks packs his shotgun, au­ pensatory dominance to make up for "Canada's Sweetheart" is, of course, a documentary aspects of Canada's tomatics and a suitcase full of green­ economic deprival, it's hard to know metaphor for American cinema's hold Sweetheart are, it is in its extra­ bac~ and heads for the Canadian bor­ what a nice guy like Joshua ever sees over Canada. If one of Toronto's first documentary dimension that the film der; Samuel Lount is hanged for having symbolized in these people who made gifts to Hollywood was actress Mary really bites deeply. Because Banks is a believed· that ideas are worth dying for. up the ruling class of the day. But if Pickford who went on to become metaphor, in colour and in sepia. While From Canada, Joshua does return to En­ joshua fails symbolically, it is because "America's Sweetheart," it's saying 'Butch and his parents in My American gland - to bury both his own youth and the reality of what it is symbolizing - something nasty both about the U.S. and Cousin remain standard Ugly American Sidney, the 'real' writer and friend of Canada as a hypocrite's Britain - has Canada that, in exchange, "Canada's symbols, only here for a flying visit, his youth. Canada is always the place since been replaced by a new reality - Sweetheart" would arrive in the guise Banks stayed and wanted to stay, and where dreams of freedom turn into Canada as a hypocrite'S America. of an ugly enforcer. the Liberal cultural nationalist Jack Pic- nightmares. Paisz's Crime Wave, Jutra's That dilemma - the belated imagina­ But where Brittain's Canada's kersgill approved his application for La Dame en couleurs or, in experimen­ tion caught in a metaphoric shift - de­ Sweetheart distinguishes itself from citizenship. Banks is the dark side of tal film, Jesionka's Resurrected Fields stroys Samuel Lount, both man and film. those strains of Canadian anti-im- Canadian dependency: the American make this point also. The man Lount was an 'American' in perialism of both left and right that tend idea stripped of all ideational content, Always? Not quite. Canada when Canada was still British, to blame Canada's 'silent surrender' on reduced to brutal efficiency only. If at After all, as Sandy Wilson says in and while the film adequately handles Ugly Americans, is that this film situates the time of a Samuel Lount, American voice-over, "I never gave up planning the British, that's about all it adequately the problem of Canadian dependency ideas of liberty were just too foreign to my escape," and My American Cousin handles. Samuel Lount fails both as re­ where it belongs, squarely on Canadian take root in the Canadian garrison state, did eventually get made. After all, the ality and as symbol: neither R.H. Thom­ soil: in the collusion between the Cana- 100-odd years of rule by the sub­ Canadian legal system did eventually, son (Lount) nor Linda Griffiths dian federal government, Canadian bus- sequent Family Compacts had opened 13 years later, come after Hal Banks (Elizabeth Lount) have any depth of iness, and Canadian labour as the build- up Canada to the welcomed penetra­ who jumped bail and slipped back character, and so the reality that Lount ers of the dependency system. A goon tion of American culture in its most de­ south across the border. After all, Mor­ died for is also only purely symbolic. like Harold Chamberlain Banks, com- based and moronic forms. As Brittain's decaiIJoshua did manage to write books . Lount himself is a belated revolutionary plete with· criminal record a mile long voice-over explains near the beginning in Canada, and producers Robert Lantos whose would-be 'revolution' was al­ including such charges as attempted of Canada's Sweetheart, one of the at­ and Stephen Roth did prevail through ready over before he had sorted out murder, was invited to Canada in the tractive features of Hal Banks, in the trials and tribulations to financejoshua who he is. late '40s by the St-Laurent cabinet to words of a Canadian offiCial, is that he Then & Now. After all, Samuel Lount's If· the reality ()f Sandy Wilson's grow- clean the Commies ou~ - of Canada's- . was "our own gangster," namely, that

p e rs pee t v e can a d a

November 1985 - Cinema Canllrlll/1!\ • F E 5 T I v A L 5 • he satisfied ' some repressed Canadian filmmaking communities, each struggl­ aspiration to gangsterism. ing away in isolation - lonely, little Now, if from the distorted pinnacles pioneers belatedly grappling with what of Canadian power, administer an has often been called the art-form of the outpost of empire and governing a 20th century. It's a largely regional sovereign nation are so much one and cinema. From the West coast come the same thing that a U.S.-imported Sandy Wilson (My American Cousin) gangster can serve as a substitute for and laurence Keane's Samuel Lount gangsters of our own, it was still too which, whatever its weaknesses does early for Banks, outside of high govern­ nevertheless aspire .to a national per­ ment circles, to fully receive the wel­ spective. There's John Paisz (Crime The come he felt he deserved. Wave) all alone in Manitoba. There are "What's the matter with your fucking Toronto's various separate film com­ country?," an outraged Banks protests. munities: Eric Weinthal with his sui "You invite me up to do your dirty work generis Timing; the students Ken Scott and then you crap allover me." and Fred Jones with their clever short, distribution The brilliant reversal that Brittain Working Title; the gays, thriving in achieves in Canada's Sweetheart is to splendid isolation with shorts such as make even a Harold Banks become a Midi Onodera's sardonic Ten Cents A victim of Canadian belatedness. As he Dance (Paralax), laurie Lynd's brilliant says to RH. Thomson who plays one of musical Together and Apart, and Nick factor his enforcers: "You're a smart boy - Sheehan's AIDs documentary No Sad why are you still here (in Canada, as Songs; the orthodox Elderian ex­ opposed to New York)?" As one of the perimentalists Richard Kerr (On Land Canadian union officials says, "It's okay Over Water/Six Stories), Henry in this country to spill blood on the ]esionka's Resurrected Fields and Bar­ waterfront, but not on a freshly-mowed bara Sternberg~s A Trilogy, alld the less lawn. That's.left to Americans." At least orthodox experimental narrativists, Canadian distribution dilemma was Per­ that's how it is as Justice Norris, who Peter Dudar (Transylvania 1917) and by Gail Henley spective Canada's opener My American headed the commission of enquiry into Peter Mettler with his searching East­ Cousin by Sandy Wilson, the first En­ Bank's sm, puts it, in "this generally ern Avenue. Other women directors t this year's Festival of Festivals, glish fictional feature film directed by a law-abiding country where we boast of like Patricia Rozema's short Passion and linda Beath of Canadian film dis­ woman in 10 years (the last was The Far our culture and freedom." Barbara Sweete's documentary The Atributor Spectrafilm had a vision. Shore by Joyce Wieland in 1975). Fi­ For the issues raised by Canada's Magnificat. There's the National Film She said that Canadian cinema would nanced and packaged for a small-budget Sweetheart cut dangerously close to the Board, undergoing a renaissance with come into its own in 1990 because of fLlm with a CBC pre-sale and Telefilm heart of Canadian ambiguity; namely, fLlms like 90 Days and Canada's the numbers and quality of the present funding, My American Cousin has Spec­ can freedom, culture and abiding by the Sweetheart. There are the Quebecois generation of young fLlmmakers. How­ trafilm as its distributor. It will be seen law coexist simultaneously without one with four features: La Dame en ever, many Canadian filmmakers don't in virtually every market and should or more of those realities suffering seri­ couleurs, Memoirs, Visage Pale, and believe in her vision of 1990: instead, prove commerCially successful given ous damage? If in Canada's case, some Tacques et Novembre (Le Matou, unav­ they see a very grim future ahead. that it immediately became a popular form of abiding by the law has clearly ailable in English subtitle, was not Perspective Canada is the Canadian favourite at the Festival and was sched­ taken precedence, it has been at the ex­ screened); and Sophie Bissonette's showcase program at the Festival of Fes­ uleQ for an extra screening due to de­ pense of freedom and culture. Instead, documentary on technological change, tivals, and in this, its second year, was mand. belated American ideas of freedom and Quel numero?/What Number? Noth­ clearly indicating a dearth of features. It is an indigenous film full of integ­ culture have filled the vacuum created ing, however, from the Maritimes unless "We saw lots and lots of fIlms, the rity. Wilson clung tenaciously to her vi­ by Canadian law-abidingness's inability Sternberg'S Nova Scotia seaside images majority short films, student films. sion of the fLlm. She fought long and to generate either freedom or culture qualify. Like the country itself, a trans­ There isn't much happening," says Kay strenuously for her choice of Margaret of its own. A system of law that neither continental scattering of films with lots Armatage, one of the programmers for Langrick (an unknown and a non-ac­ produces freedom or culture nor, like of blank spaces separating the distant Perspective Canada. "We saw every fea­ tress) to play the lead. She fought to di­ the Americans pretend to, willingly re­ communities of filmmakers patiently til­ ture film made in Canada and we simply rect her picture. On top of that, every­ strains itself in the furtherance of free­ ling images in a harsh and unwelcoming selected the best. It doesn't appear to thing had to be resolved and negotiated dom and culture, is at best an adminis­ soil. be a thriving industry, certainly not in under time-constraints, because filming trative mechanism subject to nothing Yet where the sheer vastness of such feature films." had to commence during the B.C. but its own arbitrariness. In Canada's a country might call for a cinema of The 1985 fLlms chosen for the Per­ cherry season. And win every battle she Sweetheart, Jack leitch, the president such imaginative impact that those spective Canada program included 10 did. As producer Peter O'Brian admits, of Toronto's Upper lakes Shipping com­ great empty spaces do get spanned, features (of which four were French in­ "Every frame of that movie is Sandy Wil­ pany, offers a terribly revealing indict­ there are instead only isolated (and dependent productions; four were En­ son's." ment. Of the Canadian government's competing) garrisons of cinema. And glish independent productions; and two Movies that get to the screen without backing of Hal Banks, he says "the sup­ where an enlightened national film pol­ were NFB productions); six documen­ compromise are often quickly recog­ port of the government for something icy might pull together the disparate taries (one a CBCINFB co-production nized by critics. My Ameri(:an Cousin really evil bothered me at the time." communities of filmmakers (as is, to and five independently made); 14 won the Festival International Critic'S Canada's Sweetheart documents in de­ some extent, the case in broadcasting), shorts; and five experimental fLlms. Choice Award this year - the first Cana­ tail one such moment of government­ the scope for Canadian feature film is Donald Brittain, Canada's premiere dian film to win. It shared this position backed evil. There have been others not exactly growing, but steadily documentary fLlmmaker, won the To­ with No Surrender, a British-Canadian since, and what makes Canada's shrinking. And, as a result, the Canadian ronto-City Award for Excellence in co-produced feature funded under a Sweetheart so poignant a film is that it feature film now too has a ministerial Canadian Production for his docu­ TelefIlm Canada "twinning" agreement. is perfectly aware that there is nothing Task Force to study its problems. "Re­ drama Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga The two films join the other features to stop those evils from happening grettably," warns Peter Pearson, "we are of Hal C Banks. Though the award which won the International Critic's again. sliding back." comes with an option on a City-TV Award in previous years: Fassbinder's So what else is new? Canadian cinema broadcast licensing agreement, Brit­ Veronika Voss . in 1982; Paul Ver­ • is always sliding back. It's just that, tain's film was one of the few in the Per­ hoeven's The Fourth Man in 1983; and from time to time, along comes a fLlm spective Canada program that did not Alan Rudolph's Choose Me, 1984. "The traditional Canadian manner of that lets us forget this. The problem require distribution. As a NFB/CBC co­ If Brittain and Wilson are exceptional inquiry is to cloud issues and con­ with the Perspective Canada program prodUction, it premieres on CBC this ' in having distribution, what of the other fOUnd findings until the public forgets this year was that it served mainly to fall and the NFB has plans not only to features already made? Or th6se yet to what it was all about" remind us of it all once again. place it in its free-library distribution, be made? - Canada's Sweetheart: but on rental video cassettes as well. As for the principal production-fund­ The Saga of Hal C. Banks Another feature that doesn't face the ing agency, its position is clear. Says Telefilm's Peter Pearson: "The Canadian f this year's Perspective Canada prog­ independent television production has ram suggests a map of the current been a success precisely because it was Istate of Canadian fLlmmaking, what it Gail Henley is a novelist and indepen­ distribution-based. Canadian feature showed was a series of scattered dent producer in Toronto. film production without a parallel dis- per s pee t v e c a n ad a

14/Cinema Canada - November 1985 • F E 5 T I v A L 5 • success, she still fmds it difficult to get chancetribution-activated of success." Asmechanism a result, Telefilmhas no r-lr-}----l ..... :-.....;;:==::=r=::===~==l-... her subject-matter passed. "I always financial participation will now be con- --­ have to convince them very painfully to ditional on having a Canadian distribu­ accept what I want to do. There is al­ tion company in place. ways the television deciding. So we still But the prominent position given to have censorship. The taste of those ma­ the distributor in feature-film financing king the decisions begins to limit all of is a double-edged sword - and swiftly us." blunts filmmakers' optimism. If those Marianne andjuliane, considered to films that do get made will be assured be her masterpiece, faced numerous re­ distribution, what types of films will be jections. "It was feared to be too ex­ made? treme in its terrorism. The TV station At a workshop concurrent with the which produced my two previous films Festival Trade Forum, entitled "Make refused it. And the next TV station I ap­ Them An Offer They Can't Refuse," a proached refused it. Finally it was a hypothetical film-deal was struck as an third station, which had a woman prog­ exercise. The workshop was sponsored rammer, that decided to support it." by Women in Film, the Toronto chapter Among Canadian filmmakers, a few of an international organization of pro­ have continued to struggle against con­ fessional women in the film and video siderable odds to make what Kay Ar­ industry. The deal-makers were Joan matage calls "political" films. One is Schafer representing the producer; Gail Sophie Bissonnette, whose documen­ Singer the director, and Linda Beath the tary on technology Quel Numero/Wbat distributor. What was most interesting .Number? was in the Perspective Canada about this 'game' was how quickly the program. "Political cinema is hard to marketplace called the shots. Director/ make in any country. It has such a nar­ writer Gail Singer had decided to do a row possibility," says Armatage. "The fIlm on the Susan Nelles story entitled NFB does it without the hard-hitting The Deadly Nursery so she sought out analysis that Sophie brings to her films. the producer, Joan Schafer. CBC, rep­ She and Laura Sky are stunning exam­ resented by Barbara Allinson, was in­ ples of filmmakers who continue inde­ terested in providing initial support be­ pendently of any institution to make cause of the Canadian nature of the powerful political films. It's very dif­ story. Telefilm, represented by Gwen ficult to make committed left-wing Iveson, would come in due to the CBC's films period. To raise the financing for interest in the project. When the pro­ this is quite something. ,. ducer approached the distributor, the In Quel numero, Bissonnette reveals response from Beath was: We don't the electronic sweatshops of large cor­ want something set in Canada; stories porations such as Bell, Canada Post, and about killing babies don't sell; and Jane a supermarket chain, where masses of Fonda (working under the revised imaginative, intelligent women are sys­ landed:immigrant clause) is wrong for tematically being dehumanized by com­ the part. The producer responded by puterization. "Making films like this changing the story: it would now be set gives me a chance to allow people who in Milwaukee, be about saving (not kill­ rarely get a chance on film such as ordi­ ing) babies and the nurse would be Sandy Wilson, writer/director, My Amerlc C . nary working women to defend their in­ \ an o~s'": every frame her own played by Bill Hurt (favoured by the terests," says Bissonnette. new landed-immigrant clause). "There is a credibility that comes out The moral of this encounter was: of real people and real working condi­ whatever the distributor wants is the tions. The audience can't dismiss it as story that gets made. For the seminar to is substantially inhibiting the growth of novel by Jane Rule and starring Helen they could a feature film. Documentary proceed and the workshop not to be young filmmakers in Canada. Telefilm is Shaver - offers one example of how a has a potential for moving people that immediately stalemated, the ?roducer a fmancier, as opposed to a supporter, film can get done when its topic is not feature film can't. If you listen carefully, had to agree to working on the dis­ to the development of Canadian film." of wide appeal and would not at the the women say things I could never tributor's terms. The choice sent a As Pearson told his Trade Forum au­ outset engender market support. Deitch have scripted." shiver through the spines of every dience. "It is now clear that Telefilm is personally raised the money over a Bissonnette is also wary of the change fIlmmaker in the audience. Without a corporation that is in the Entertain­ period of two-and-a-haIf years through the Broadcast Fund has had on Cana­ jumping into bed with the distr'ibutor, ment Business. At the beginning of the a series of fund-raising parties at which dian film . "It solves one problem, the workshop would have ended right Broadcast Fund, we thought we were she flogged her private placement pros­ doesn't solve the other. When you away, and the hypothetical deal would investing in film and television prog­ pectus. "It was gruelling," she says "but didn't have a broadcaster, you could not have been made. In reality, this is rams. We have discovered that we are it is far more profitable to be exhausted still get the funds to make your film. the bind most filmmakers face. now, as a consequence of our invest­ and ready to do the next thing than Feature films are having the same prob­ "Canadians have a dilemma," says ment, involved in the record business, exhausted and not having a picture." lem and this will be even more exacer­ Phillip Borsos, who directed The Grey video-cassettes, stuffed animals, and re­ West Germany's Margarethe von bated. Independent filmmakers should Fox and, in the U.S., The Mean Season, frigerator door stickers." Trotta, invited to Canada by the Festival still have access to other funds at Tele­ and was nominated by this year's Festi­ "What Telefilm has done," Borsos as another of the 10 To Watch, is pes­ mm even if they don't have' a broadcas­ val as one of 10 directors to watch for' -:.:ontinues, "is shifted the decision-mak­ simistic about the situation for indepen­ ter or distribution license. If you try and in the future. "They want the film to be ing from the producer who doesn't dent filmmakers. "The time to do prob­ pre-arrange a broadcaster, you're asking seen by a lot of people, namely Amer­ know anything, to a distributor who lematic, serious films is almost over in him to take a risk - a finished film icans, and yet they want to make a film doesn't know anything. As long as Tele­ every country. Even in France, the na­ speaks for itself." that is indigenous and speaks to their film is being a business operation, they tion of cinephiIes, spectators are declin­ Bissonnette sees herself as typical of roots. Two separate sides to what is es­ will do that and have to do that, and it ing. Only the big machines are doing the independent filmmaker who goes sentiallya business." will compromise the integrity of Cana­ well. The same in Italy. In Germany. It's out after the film is completed, and pri­ According to Borsos, "Telefilm is as dian cinema. But, as a business organiza­ harder and harder for all of us, male and vately and systematically nurtures its right as any financial organization tion, they have to do that. So again they female, doing serious films which are distribution and -exhibition. "I spent would be to have a distribution agree­ have limited the filmmaker. However, if more complicated than what the three-and-a-half years researching and ment prior to involvement. Why would the filmmaker wants to make a film, machines produce, to find support. I'm making this mm. The personal price you they end up with 20 films with no dis­ maybe it will be without those people." not very optimistic for our cinema on have to pay for independent filmmaking tribution? There are alternatives for filmmakers the whole." usually makes you the best person to "And yet," Borsos adds, "for the determined to make their film. The All von Trotta's films are co-produc­ push it through." young filmmaker it's difficult, if not im­ American Donna Deitch, who brought ed with television and first have a theat­ Perhaps one of the most e nergetic possible, to find a distributor up-front. to the Toronto Festival her movie De­ rical run in the cinemas, then move to and independent marketing plans de­ So by imposing this regulation, Telefilm sert Hearts - based on the Canadian a TV window. Despite her commercial vised for the theatrical release of a fea- p e rs pee t v e c a n a d a

November 1985 - Cinema Canadal1S • F E 5 T I v A L 5 • ture made with Telefilm Broadcast the first films negotiated when the they don't understand marketing be­ bending to commercial winds. Fund support, is being undertaken by Broadcast Fund was established and cause they're used to distributing pre­ "If people in the east (meaning To­ Elvira Lount, producer of Samuel since many of the rules of the game marketed American product. I hope the ronto) were doing what I'm doing, I'd Lount. "Because we understand we were still being worked out, the more task force does not just address indus­ look for something else," says Paizs. won't make a fortune theatrically, serious strictures that now impede the trial strategy, but also the cultural strat­ Crime Wave is a film that caused people Canada being such a small country, we feature filmmaker did not impact on egy." to sit up and take notice of a new talent want to stay as much involved with the this production. However, Lount too is "At the trade forum," comments Laur­ because Paizs is utterly uncompro-mi­ distribution." wary of the new line that Telefilm is tak­ ence Keane who directed Samuel sing in his quest for a certain type of Telefilm, unfortunately, will not ing in regards to a distributor being in Lount, "I felt a real lack of passion com­ picture - a picture of style. allow a producer access to the fund set place on a film. "I would strongly advise ing from other people about the issues. "People don't ask me if I'm coming to up for distribution, regardless of how about being so hard lined about it," she There should have been more heated Toronto, they ask me when I'm coming imaginative or competent the release says. "What that tends to do is not allow discussion about the direction." As a to Toronto, assuming that I am. But I'm plan is. "In talking to distributors," says any room for originali ty and seems to filmmaker Keane has serious objections not. I may go to Lockport, which is 10 Lount, "we realized we could do what make product conform to an idea of to the distribution factor. "It ensures miles north of Winnipeg, the size of they could do." So, without the assist­ what is marketable, or a distributor'S that there's another player in the game Hollywood when the first film pioneers ance of Telefilm's distribution program, idea of what is marketable, as opposed that is telling you how to make the arrived. There's hot dog stands there Lount is embarking on a release pattern to making a product that is non-con­ movie - another compromise that tends and great fishing. And it's inconspicu­ which will give Samuel Lount as much forming and has originality and that you to make the commercial package more ous." playing time as possible in this country. know there is a market for, and have important than the artistic package - Paizs' confidence comes from his After Perspective Canada at the Festival thought about who your audience is. If and as far as I'm concerned that's a step deep-seated belief that if the picture is of Festivals, the mm will have its official a distributor comes in early in the game backwards. " good, it will sell itself. "I've had calls premiere opening the Atlantic Film Fes­ of a mainstream production, it may Many filmmakers are leery about from Paramount, MGM and Spectrafilm tival and will then run in a small theatre barely matter - in an artistic endeavour sending briefs or messages explaining to send Crime Wave down to them. in Halifax. From there it goes to close it can matter very much." their point-of-view to the task force. "I "I'm sure they call everyone who is the Ottawa Festival of Arts and, at the Aware of the dilemma that will face made my feature film ," claims Keane, making a feature, but, still, it is en­ end of October, it will have a run at the many independent filmmakers, Lount "and that's enough of a political act. couraging that they called," he adds Towne Cinema in Ottawa. In wonders how the new task force, an­ Briefs fallon deaf ears. All you seem to modestly. November, Samuel Lount opens in nounced at the Festival by former Com­ do is make a few enemies by stating John Paizs' ambition is not to move Vancouver at the Ridge Theatre (an in­ munications minister Marcel Masse to your opinions. I don't know that it to Hollywood. "I'd like to develop a dependent cinema). report on issues facing Canadian film makes any difference." studio in Manitoba. Films can be made "Toronto is a problem," admits Lount. production and distribution, would ad­ If making a mm in spite of the system cheaply. Being made in Manitoba won't "They have rep houses but they only do dress this problem. "The task force bet­ is a political statement, then some of the hinder their sale. It's unique. People second runs." But the principle behind ter pay attention. Distributors change films in Perspective Canada this year would take notice because they were the release strategy is clear. "We want from one month or one year to the did, indeed, carry a clear statement of made in such an unlikely place. And to go from a national awareness of our next, so a project that takes two-and-a­ defiance and individuality. No com­ being made in Manitoba could pOSSibly film and then take it to the U.S. and in­ half years to get off the ground could promise was visible in Claude Jutra's La help them." ternationally." Once the film has been be in the hands of different people. Dis­ Dame en couleurs, and John Paizs' Ultimately, it is this kind of attitude, marketed this way, she feels it is easier tributors are calling the shots on what Crime Wave from Manitoba, that came more than anything, that's going to en­ to line up a distributor in the U.S., espe­ product is made and distributors are to the festival so wet it broke half-way sure there will still be distinctly Cana­ cially in the specialty market. not the creative people. They feel they through the first screening, is also evi­ dian mms of high-quality by 1990 - no Because Samuel Lou nt was one of understand the market, but in Canada dence again of filmmakers who aren't matter how difficult the road ahead. • Investment Opportunities in the Canadian Entertainment Industry A Conference for Investment Professionals October 22, 1985 I would like to purchase audio cassettes or transcripts as indicated below (please place a check mark where appropriate) :

A. AUDIO CASSETTES o 7. 2.lnvestment: The Personal Perspective; Mr. Merritt Goddard, Vice-President, Equion Securities

o 1. BAM Breakfast 0 8. 3. Legal : Defining and Locking in the Rights and Benefits; Mr. Louis Silverstein, Keynote speaker: Mr. Barry Young, partner in Silverstein Fisher Kugelmass & Selznick President, the Skyld Group, Toronto Title: Successful Individuol and 0 9. 4. Accounting: Reporting and Accountability; Mr. Phil Dunn, partner, Ernst & Corporate Investment in the Whinney chartered accountants, Production Industry

o 2. 9:30 New Investment and Financing Opportunities: Three Perspectives Number of Sessions ...... x $ 15.00 = $ ...... is enclosed Moderator: The Honourable Francis Fox, Partner, Martineau Walker of Mon­ treal Panelists: Mr. Robert Lantos, Partner, Alliance Entertainment Corporation B. TRANSCRIPTS Mr. Robert Thiessen, Manager Product Development Equion Securities Number of transcripts ...... x $ 50.00 = $ ...... is enclosed Mr. Frank Jacobs, President of Entertainment Financing I would also like an abstract in French 0 3. 11 :15 Industrial Evolution and Maturity Personal Case Studies; Presented by Name: ...... , ...... Robert Cooper. Home Address: Moderator: The Honourable Francis Fox Postal Code: ...... Phone Number: ...... o 4. 12:30 Luncheon Keynote speaker: Mr. Frank J. Biondi, Executive Vice-President of the Coca-] Cheque or Money Order payable to Screen Investment Services is enclosed. Cola Company in the Entertainment Business Sector. Send your order form and payment to: Title: Opportunities and Strategic Changes in the Entertainment Industries Film Investment Seminar o 5. 2:30 Mr. A. Jeffrey Radov, Vice-President, Delphi Financial ServicesCorpora-_ Screen Investor Services tion, a subsidiary of PSO-Delphi Corporation. 2300 Commerce Court West Title: Quality Investment Opportunities Toronto, Ontario M5L 1C6 3:30 Roundtable Discussions The conference was produced by Ian McCallum under the auspices of the 0 6. 1. Marketing: Producing for Paying Customers Association ~f Canadian Film and Television Producers and Ryerson Poly­ technical .'ns!ltute With the supp.ort ~f : elefilm ~anada, the Department of Mr. Denis Heroux, partner in Alliance Entertainment Corporation CommUnications and the Ontano Ministry of Citizenship & Culture.