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I I t \ I II N contents issues 6r even tS Film & Video Ne*s Susan Kea e. Towards Cultural Equity A' ci.ed FdrA1. (VarcoJver) rst Vance Chapman h &w" n"o&.,v"'S"arl el'a .Y $i s,, ffqr \rdred u6rdehra,.,a.r"s "* 4 d colurrlns CONTRIBUTORS Greg Beatty, Lorraine Chan, Vance 6 Chapman, N,lary Anne Farah, Gabrlel Cruising Media Gomez, Susan Kealey, Glace W Lawrence, Serial Killers & Other "lJndesirables" Levi, Laura U. Marks, Hazelle Palmer, lan Rashid, Clive Robertson, Lisa Robertson, lan Rashid Jennifer Rudder, Kelly Wood. STAFF 8 Dlana Bryden (Admlnislration), DQTv christopher Eamon (Productlan), Public Access Queers Sharon Lewis (Advenlsing and Promotion). l2 Packaged For Export, Kathleen Pirrie Adams Gabriel Gomez (Ed torla Coordination) Contents Under Pressure Thanks to Denise Benson Canadian Film Video in l\4arc de Guere, Robert Pennant, & a U.S. Context Shawn Syms & Kika Thorne for production U. IMarks and creative assistance, Laura artist's proiect BOARD OF DIRECTORS Catheiine Crowston, Susan Kealey, 24 Kelly wood & Lisa Robeltson Cl ve Robertson, El zabeth Schroder, Ke y Wood is a Uancouver artist whase phota-based wark was recently DESIGN exhibited at Canera works Gallery in Chrlstopher Eamon Design San Francisco and vox Populi FUSE is plb shed nle times a year (includes one doob e lssue)byArton s Cutura Affairs Soclety revrews and Publish fg lnc., a non profit artst's orga. z+ Ltsa Robertson is a writer who lives in uon. Our oinces are ocated at 1a3 Balhlrst street, Toronto, ontaio, canada MsT 2R7, tel: Vancouver. Her fist book of paetry 26 Telling Relations (416) 367 0159, iax: (416) 360.0741. Allnews xeco o4ue is fotthconing from review by Lorraine Chan stand lnqunies should be sentto this add.ess. Plb cation mail reg strat on No. 4455. Copyrlght TsunaniEdhians. @ 1993 A.ton s Plb shlng lnc. A rights .eserv€d 29 Paul Sisetski under lnternauona Copyight Union. Any reproduc. tior wthout permisslon ls prohibited. arton s review by Greg Beatty P!blshirg assumes no respons bility lor unsolicir ed manuscripts. Manuscripts not accompanied by a stamped setaddressed envelope willnot be 30 chosts returned. Publicaton of an advert sement ln F1JSE review by Jennifer Rudder does not i.clude endorsement ofthe adve.l ser bythe magazfe. Op nons expressed outside of specifcally marked editorials are nor necessarily 3 3 Black is Back! held by mehbers otthe editorial board. Drofile The Toronto Festiva of Festivals reviewed FUSE acknowredges financiar ass stance from the 4 3 canada Council. the onta o Aris Council and the ,nu*n" Dempsey & Lolri Millan by Glace Lawrence Government ofonrario through the Minstry of Cult!re and Communicaiions and the many hours by Lev ofvollrteer and partia y pald abourwhich are 37 Youth Cruci-fiction at l'Ascension pro! ded by everyone iisted on our masthead. Kai a sh its/Bo ne m an teuiew ec1 Subscript on rates: $20 per year; lnsttutions $32 4 5 ,toa" ,.,..,"-. t. by Clive Robertson peryear; nstlutons $47. oecsions regard ne who qualifies as an indi!dua slbscrber.ehain compiled by Lesa Hanna 39 Returning the Gaze the righr oithe Pub lslier. revie\d by Hazelle Pa mer P nted in canada on recycled. acid lree paper, wi6 @eetablebased inks by Ihe Rew@ PtihtinE 41 Telematic Perfotmance Loops Torcnto and r:'.:!..94::t Quebee Mary Anne Farah reviews pertorntance at ..::::_:- :.:: : :i :: ': ].e:s idel the conference "Le Corps Amp ifi€' LAURA U. MARKS frkaged For Export, Gontents Under Pressure Canadian FiIm andVideo in a U.S. context ,1T LOOKS THE SAME, THERE'S JUST SOMETHING A LITTLE BIT".OFF,' happens' I want is what Americans say when visiting English-speaking Canada Vhat How do tq ask, when a Canadian image is presented in an American context? C"nuii"n independent filmmakers cope with the representation of Canadian national I to sug- identityr And how can media construct or demolish national identity? want this little-bit- g..t thut -h.n\ri.wing artifacts of English-speaking Canada involves their lffness, it might be considered as an agent of political intervention Aware that dis- work will be iiewed in the culturally colonizing context of American exhibition' present tribution and other support stiarctures, Canadian media workers sometimes identity' images of Canada that both champion and dispute the notion oI Canadian assert By jaying both sides of the coin, these artists are thus able to simultaneously r.i.fin. national and local identities. At the same time, Canadian film/videomak- "ni border cross- ers cross to and from the U S. for recognition and support, and in these ings can also be seen to enact another aspect of their critical practice' Iwant to look both at how Canadian independent filmmaking is perceived in the dis- U.S. and how independent media represent Canada, with an eye to how these gulsed and diffident packages of Canadian culture may become volatile in their recep- as a dual t"ion in the U.S. This exploration is necessarily somewhat personal, because citizen of the U.S. and Canada I both identify with and fetishize Canadian nationali' ty, and find that my insider-outsider relationship to Canada has informed an ongoing obsession with the breakdown of national borders and cultural boundaries' The notion of Canadian national identity gets part of its resilience from the fact that "Canada" is a term that does not stagger under the burden of signification that "America" does, especially within the popular culture that permeates hoth countries "Canada" has a more expansive quality, it is more open to interpretation and redefini- tion. Thus it is easier, in a way, for Canadian filmmakers to make a mark on, or a dent in, the national identity. In addition, this uneasiness with the notion of uniform national identity makes Canadians good at interrogating U S national identity: better than Americans are at doing it themselves. Rather than attempt a survey, I've drawn selectively on work from English-speak- who ing Canada, drawing on a series of interviews with Canadian f ilm/videomakers have had instructive experiences on both sides of the border' Helen Lee' John Creyson, Ardele Lister and Sara Diamond. It will not focus on work that represents at Canada in terms of what (to outsiders as well as Canadians) is exotic about it, but work that might "pass" as American. Canadian philosopher Robert Schwartzwald 72 FUSE FALL 1993 writes, "as in the United States rhe lemptarion has been to advance a national identi- ty through the symbols oi communirtes and peoples marginalized along the way, l especially the continents otiginal peoples. This temptation to spectrlarize Canada 1 Robert Schwarlrwald,'anlother in terms of its visibh'exorrc people must be avoided, largely because what this does is Canada. another canada?, other allow white po\{er centres to continue to lunction, invisibly \X/ithin Canada this Canadas, Ihe Massactrsefts invisibility functions ro disguise power; but outside Canada it can work to subvert Review, Spring Summer 1990, other invisible porvers, Trojan Horse style. Canadian film, seen in the United States, p.12. can trouble the vie$'er's consciousness of American cultural and political centmlity. WLite[)aar, a short video by Kim Tomczak and Lisa Steele, speculates about how this little-bit-offness would look if the relations of cultural imperialism were reversed' It asks, what if all the American movies, TV shows, books and magazines got switched overnight for something that looked almost the same .but not quite? "lt was like a dream I couldn't wake up from," says the narrator who has awakened in this doppelganger universe. "Everything was iust...off." The narrator (a male figure with a female voice over) realizes that s/he is in Canada As books by Farley Mowat, Margaret Atwood and Robertson Davies wave across the screen, s,4re comp)ains' "These people are so dominating. They've made things, I don't know, so Janilidr' How come I knorv so much about Newfoundland, and Toronto?" Even with "American content" rules and stiff import taxes, dismally tiny proportions of "American" music, books, magazines and music make it onto local markets Through this simple reversal, the tape suggests a u,ay ol turning the tables on U.S cultural hegemony in order to supplant what is well known to U.S. viewers with something just a little bit different, and watch the productive confusion that results. I got the run-around trying to rent Wbile Daun for a video series in Rochester, N.Y. recently because its U.S. distributor had stopped carrying it. This little problem is typical of the way Canadian independent media is viewed, or more accurately not uiew"d, in the United States. Canadian access to exhibition and distribution in the U.S. is abysmal, and this is perpetuated by patronizing American attitudes toward Canadian independents. Americans in the independent media scene tend to believe Canadian filmmakers are overfunded. A rare article on Canadian filmmaking in Antetican Filn in 1990, "They Always Get Their Film," conveys this and other miscon- ceptions in its title-page spread that reads, "The Canadian government has sired Isic] a national cinema, but can a film industry sur-vive when every taxpayer is a a production producer?"2 The title, with its outlaw, \X/ild Vest reference, spreads over 2 Kenneth Winikoff, "They Always panorama: the con- still in which samurai on horseback ride into a Rocky Mountains Get Their Film. American Film. Julv paradise notations being that Canada is simultaneously vast wilderness, multicultural 1990, pp.26 30. 44 45. and a place where the most outlandish funding proposals are nurtured to fruition While Vinikoff's article supports the idea that government funding allows Canadian film to be more artful and complex than Holll'wood product, it falls back on the notion that government funding impedes filmmakers from world-class achievement.

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