■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ BY WYNDHAM WISE Every year, Take One tracks all the Canadian features and Canadian Features Released in feature–length documentaries that play in the Greater Toronto Area—the largest market in the world for the Greater Toronto Area in 2002 English–Canadian films—in an effort to develop a pic- Thirty–nine features were released in the GTA in 2002 and ture of those Canadian films that are popular with the are listed here in descending order with the director and theatre–going public. The hands–down 2002 favourite the number of weeks played in parenthesis. was Zacharias Kunuk's Inuit epic, Atanarjuat: The Fast Atanarjuat, Zacharias Kunuk (17) Runner. Although honoured at the 2001 Genies for Best Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore (11) Picture, Director and Screenplay, Atanarjuat didn't Men with Brooms, Paul Gross (9) begin its commercial run until 2002 and outlasted all Bollywood/Hollywood, Deepa Mehta (8) contenders, making it one of the most popular Canadian Ararat, Atom Egoyan (7) features of all time. FUBAR, Michael Dowser (6) Red Green's Duct Tape Forever, Eric Till (6) In many respects, 2002 was an excellent year for Formula 51, Ronny Yu (5) Canadian cinema, one of the best in a long time. In addi- The Pornographer, Bertrand Bonello (5) tion to the highly regarded Atanarjuat, there was Paul Rare Birds, Sturla Gunnarsson (4) Between Strangers, Edoardo Ponti (3) Gross's curling comedy Men with Brooms, which became Un Crabe dans la tete, Andre Turpin (3) the highest–grossing English–Canadian film at the box Inertia, Sean Garrity (3) office to date, Deepa Mehta's East–meets–West, Perfect Pie, Barbara Willis Sweete (3) all–singing, all–dancing romantic comedy Bollywood/ Saint Monica, Terrance Odette (3) Hollywood, and Atom Egoyan's Ararat, a gloomy medita- Virgin's Run, Peter Markle (3) tion on memory and genocide. It's a sign of the quality of Black Swan, Wendy Ord (2) Canadian cinema in 2002 that Egoyan's latest opus was The Fourth Angel, John Irvin (2) not the dominate film of the year. An out–of–the–blue Khaled, Asghar Mossambagi (2) dark horse "hit" was Michael Dowser's head–banging Lola, Carl Bessai (2) Looking for Leonard, Matthew Bissonnette mock–documentary, FUBAR, from Calgary, and Michael and Steven Clark (2) Moore's anti–gun documentary, Bowling for Columbine. Mariages, Catherine Martin (2) Although only Canadian by virtue of its producing part- Passage to Ottawa, Gaurav Seth (2) ner, Salter Street Films of Halifax, Columbine proved Quebec–Montreal, Ricardo Trogi (2) very popular with local audiences (and picked up an The Rhino Brothers, Dwayne Beaver (2) Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary). Suddenly Naked, Anne Wheeler (2) Another minority co–production, Formula 51, per- Suspicious River, Lynne Stopkewich (2) formed extremely well, taking in over $12 million Turning Paige, Robert Cuffley (2) States–side, making it one of the highest–grossing Yellowknife, Roderigue Jean (2) Cyberman, Peter Lynch (1) "Canadian" films ever released. And finally, the end of Danny in the Sky, Denis Langlois (1) 2002 saw the release of Charles Biname's Seraphin: Un A Girl at the Window, Francis Leclerc (1) Homme et son peche in Quebec. By press time, the film I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, had raked in over $7 million, making it the all–time Patricia Rozema (1, re–release) domestic box–office champ in Canadian film history. Kevin of the North, Robert Spiers (1) With its unique mixture of critical and popular success- Mile Zero, Andrew Currie (1) es, 2002 will be a hard year to surpass. L'Odyssey de Alice Tremblay, Denise Filiatrault (1) On Their Knees, Angs Granofsky (1) Take One's Canadian film of the year: Atanarjuat. Rub & Tug, Soo Lyu (1) White Lies, Ruben Preuss (1) Bowling for Columbine FUBAR Atanarjuat Seraphin: Heart of Stone Ararat Actor: Luc Picard, Savage Actress: Karine Vanasse, Toronto Messiah Seraphin: Un Homme et son peche Actress: Arsinee Khanjian, Supporting Actor: Luc Picard, International Ararat Le Collectionneur Film Festival's Supporting Actor: Elias Supporting Actress: Isabelle Koteas, Ararat Blais, Quebec Montreal 2002 Top Ten Supporting Actress: Pascale Cinematography: Jean Lepine, Montpetit, Savage Messiah Seraphin: Un Homme et son peche Selected by a 10—member national Editing: Le 1Veg Cinematography: Paul Sarossy, panel of filmmakers, festival pro- Art Direction: Seraphin: Perfect Pie grammers, journalists and industry Un Homme et son peche professionals Listed alphabetically Editing: Suddenly Naked Musical Score: Seraphin: with the director in parenthesis. Art Direction: Almost America Un Homme et son peche Costumes: Ararat Ararat (Atom Egoyan) Sound: Seraphin: Un Homme Musical Score: Ararat Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary et son peche Original Song: Saint Monica (Guy Maddin) Documentary: Rein sans pennes Sound Editing: Max Short Film: La Derniere voix Flower & Garnet (Keith Behrman) Overall Sound: Between Animated Short: Les Ramoneurs Gambling, Gods & LSD (Peter Strangers ceribraux Mettler) Feature Documentary: Marion Bridge (Wiebke von Gambling, Gods and LSD Carolsfeld) Live-Action Short: I Shout Love Le Neg' (Robert Morin) Animated Short: The Hungry Top Ten Ocean (Catherine Martin) Squid Spider (David Cronenberg) the Box Office Claude Jutra Award: Keith Tom (Mike Hoolboom) According to a Playback survey Behrman, Flower & Garnet La Turbulence des fluides/Chaos and published November 25, 2002, Golden Reel Award: Richard Desire (Manon Briand) covering the period from Goudreau, Les Boys III November 9, 2001 to November 7, 2002. The box—office totals are expressed in millions in parenthesis. Genie Awards Les Prix Jutra (Quebec Film Awards) Les Boys III ($5.3) (Canadian Film Awards) Men with Brooms ($3.9) L'Odyssey de Alice Tremblay ($2.1) Picture: Quebec Montreal Picture: Ararat (Robert Lantos, Savage Messiah ($1.6) (Nicole Robert) Atom Egoyan) Atanarjuat ($1.1) Director: Ricardo Trogi, Director: David Cronenberg, La Mysterieuse mademoiselle C. Quebec Montreal Spider ($1.1) Screenplay: Jean—Philippe Le Collectionneur ($0.9) Original Screenplay: Deepa Pearson, Patrice Robitaille, Quebec Montreal ($0.9) Mehta, Bollywood/Hollywood Ricardo Trogi, Quebec—Montreal Bollywood/Hollywood ($0.8) Adapated Screenplay: Sharon Actor: Pierre Lebeau, Seraphin: Formula 51 ($0.8). Riis, Savage Messiah Un Homme et son peche TAKE ONE 51 .