Canadian Film Rant

There was an amazing amount of Canadian talent on display during this past Sunday’s Oscars. It’s a shame these artists all had to run to the States to pursue their life’s ambition, but who can blame them?

Canada is a disparate country and doesn’t have the critical mass to support a proper film industry; but has this always been a reason or an excuse? (And why am I ending each paragraph with a rhetorical question)?

I write this now, spurred on by today’s Editorial in the Globe:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/editorials/the-canadian-caper-goes-hollywood/article9038307/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The following paragraph, taken from the article is what caught my attention:

“A little consternation is deserved – perhaps even obligatory – but it’s worthwhile asking why we don’t do a better job at creating our own myths through film. A relatively small audience, poor economics, competition with the behemoth next door – all true, but all excuses, somehow, for a lack of vision and power. Quebec filmmakers have been producing strong films – including Rebelle, an Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, the third year in a row for a Quebec film – and are showing that it can be done.”

Yes, there seems to be a huge contingent of young, upcoming Quebec filmmakers making internationally relevant films. I thought Rebelle, by Kim Nguyen was excellent – about child soldiers in Africa. Denis Villeneuve made Incendies - which was superb – most of it taking place in a fictitious city in Lebanon. Monsieur Lazhar, by Philippe Falardeau was up for best Foreign Film last year. Denys Arcand – another Oscar nominee – is presently shooting his latest feature in Montreal.

These Quebecois films have something in common: their stories exist elsewhere – although Monsieur Lazhar is an Algerian teacher who comes to Quebec – so they’re not exactly experiences shared by the average Canadian.

Passion, vision, insouciance, and integrity – these are words that describe this new breed of Quebecois filmmaker. But where is the new breed in English Canada? I think it exists; there just isn’t the cultural infrastructure to support it. Telefilm Canada is a starting point, but like any governmental agency, it’s a bit like walking blindfolded through Perseus’s labyrinth. (Is that called a mini-tour)? And Richard Stursberg – that clueless cultural mandarin – nearly brought Telefilm to its knees with his senseless Draconian blather. He then moved on to ravage the CBC – another strange and baffling chapter in the Anals of Canadian Culture.

As far as film distribution on television is concerned, European and UK models have been around for a couple of decades now (Canal Plus, BBC 4, etc.) and they’ve been telling their stories to great effect for a generation – distributing them around the world. (Even Quebec has TV5 which reaches 207 million households in close to 200 countries and territories on five continents – English Canada has nothing even close to that). Why the CBC – which receives over a billion dollars a year – doesn’t scour the country for young hotshot filmmakers is beyond me. All CBC has to do is play the role of Executive Producer and finance low-budget films directed by 5 or 10 hyper-talented directors. It’s not like the Crown Corporation is taking any kind of risk, mortgaging homes, or making deals with the Mafia like certain American Producers. The problem is, in order to make these films, the CBC may be taking a few dollars away from the 20,000 bureaucrats and bean-counters who seem to be the raison d’être of their very existence. It’s almost criminal that CBC television has been around since the late ‘50’s and their really good dramas can only be counted on a few fingers and toes – usually made by independent directors. Now the mandate seems to be the making of lame docu-drama biopics of politicians which no one would ever pay to see in theatres.

I humbly suggest that a cultural round-table should be brought into existence, with filmmakers, producers, distributors and television honchos, (Norm Bolen, Robert Lantos, Norman Jewison, Kevin Tierney…are you reading this?) to discuss how English Canada is going to survive this multi-media boom in spite of all the wannabe moguls who seem to have a stranglehold on the purse-strings and misguided decision-making.

Perhaps it should take place in Banff, chaired by people who have already experienced the process in their own country – countries such as England, Ireland, France, Germany, Norway, New Zealand and Australia. These are places which have told marvelous indigenous stories on shoestring budgets and have made their inhabitants proud.