I’ve been thinking again about Canadian cinema, where it is now and what even is it? Canada’s film industry has not much changed in the five years since I last discussed its’ limitations and lack of breadth. Significant resources have still not been allotted to homegrown Canadian film projects and most of our best talents continue to migrate south. Distribution has barely changed -few cinemas across the country will play Canadian content (and when they do they’ll tend to be movies that are mostly watered down versions of American fare like The Grizzlies and Percy); and in this streaming age the onus is even more on finding the good stuff yourself where possible without much of a mechanism for word of mouth to tell you what that is.
The good stuff is still coming of course. Something like Tracy Deer’s Beans had enough of a reach through unfortunate timeliness to the point of being that rare Canadian film to launch international careers. Its’ star Kiawentiio is set to play the live-action Katara on Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender experiment, while two of its’ other actors, Paulina Alexis and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai were soon cast as regulars on FXX’s Reservation Dogs. Their co-star on that show, Devery Jacobs is of course one of the brightest young Canadian stars of the moment, having had her breakout in the pulse-pounding Residential School drama Rhymes for Young Ghouls, and has routinely been making appearances in Canadian movies since while gradually branching out in the States as well. These of course are all Indigenous actors working on Indigenous projects, which only recently seem to be getting heightened attention. Movies like Blood Quantum and most recently Night Raiders have had far stronger pushes behind them in both media and distribution than your average Canadian film for their cultural representation, their genre film staples, and (especially in the case of the latter) their topicality. Indian Horse played in even my small local cinema.
It’s great when this sort of thing happens, but I wish it wasn’t the exclusive case. I wish Canadian movies didn’t have to be so in conversation with the zeitgeist to be seen outside of a small hub of arthouse theatres in Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver. I wish Canadian cinema was less a smattering of a couple movies a year that get buzz and more a movement like other countries have experienced, and which we sort of did have for a brief period in the 1990s. Maybe it’s the fact the Canadian Screen Awards just happened and I missed them, or the arbitrary National Canadian Film Day this past April 20th; or that David Cronenberg, our most successful filmmaker to have stayed largely grounded in Canada, is in the wider movie conversation again thanks to a new film premiering at Cannes -but I’ve been wondering about the Canadian cinematic identity. In 2022, what is it?
The cynical answer might be mid-tier American movies without a budget. Obviously we can’t produce anything close to a franchise blockbuster, we have neither any franchises nor the financial capacity for blockbusters. Our most expensive movie was Paul Gross’ overwrought First World War drama Passchendaele -made for $20 million, equivalent to $16 million U.S. For comparison, that’s about the same as the Sundance horror movie Fresh and less than current indie darling Everything Everywhere All at Once -which at $25 million is considered a significant underdog. We don’t make big movies here, in fact most Canadian films have micro-budgets and must rely on government film grants or subsidies. And so Canadian movies tend to deal in more humble subject matter -even action or crime films have little flashiness. Character dramas, social issue movies, occasional romantic comedies -these are what fuel the Canadian film industry; certainly they seem to be the face of it come CSA time -this year’s big winner was an acclaimed immigrant drama from TIFF called Scarborough. But Canada has also had a long interest in genre films, particularly horror -and I think that needs to be acknowledged and embraced. Because for a time it could be argued that was our best known export.
Here we must return to Cronenberg, who may well have built the foundation for the Canadian horror film through his work in the 1970s and 80s that defined a certain kind of Canadian cinema that flourished in the cult market internationally. Those body horror films like Shivers, Rabid, The Brood up through to classics like Scanners and Videodrome may have been looked down on by the Canadian culture elites at the time, but have gone on to great respect for their inventiveness, commentary, ingenuity and shock value, nurturing what might be Canada’s most compelling genre in the realm of world cinema. It’s not hard to draw a line from these films to Black Christmas (one of the earliest slasher movies, produced and set in Toronto) to the like of Cube, Ginger Snaps, Splice, Possessor, and the aforementioned Blood Quantum -interesting cult horror films that find audiences and grow their reputations abroad. And the best of these feel distinctly Canadian. I’m reminded of Bong Joon-ho characterizing Korean cinema as a “cinema of extremes” that reflect the culture there. Canada has a very harmless, sometimes idealized international reputation (and a decent chunk of our media reflects that), but I like the idea of its’ movies peeling those notions back to reveal our own uniquely fucked up layers.
And that need not just be the domain of horror -some of the best Canadian dramas have dipped into the uncomfortable annals beneath the veneer of respectable, inoffensive Canada. I think particularly of a couple films from Atom Egoyan, the filmmaker at the forefront of that Toronto New Wave, a movement which itself did a lot to dispel notions of what a Canadian film could be. Both Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter deal in worlds that subvert a happy-go-lucky image of Canada; detailing in the former a seedy Toronto strip club where a young dancer and her depressed client share an unusual relationship, and in the latter a small town in B.C. where an immense tragedy brings to light psychological ramifications and disturbing secrets. Both are rather bleak films, but very honest and human all the same. And they subvert the accepted Canadian mythos, which is exciting. It speaks to a greater reach that doesn’t necessarily come from say a Bon Cop Bad Cop. And they’re still being made -Rhymes for Young Ghouls and Indian Horse are great examples, both dealing with the subject of Residential Schools. But another favourite of mine is Firecrackers, about two girls’ need to escape their suppressive small town. I wish these got some of that international attention that Cronenberg and Agoyan have enjoyed -but maybe it’ll just take some time.
There’s more than room for movies like Scarborough. And Maudie, a simple biopic on Maud Lewis that I really enjoyed. I think we are witnessing an evolution in Canadian movies towards generally more socially-centric topics -often ones about the Indigenous experience that are thoughtful and timely. It would be great to see a community built around these kind of films and filmmakers, to see a lot more of them come out more often -indicative of a movement dedicated to both telling these stories and expanding their craft. Because maybe that is the new Canadian cinematic identity, one more openly about tearing down a friendly national image to expose underlying faults in social and political justice. But it would also be cool just to see more Canadian movies from diverse voices gain wider acclaim -there’s a lot of talent in this country that is under-respected and underrepresented. Because the more Canadian movies get seen, the harder it is to nail down a particular notion of Canadian cinema -perhaps that is the goal. I don’t know.
More funding for Canadian movies! More exposure! I want to see a Canadian presence in world cinema. But to get there we need to see it here first!
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