/

/

/
so THERE I was, you see, having my hand shaken by On-
tario premier David Peterson, one of those neat, graceful,
naturally’ pleasant characters who doesn’t abuse a crowd by
going oi a minute longer than necessary. The occasion was
the official opening of the Canadian Centre for Advanced

- Film studies.

I "Peterson joked that the 12 of us
who had won residencies at‘ih
centre, should have our titles |
, chang iged immediately to “fellows”
since “residents”? made him think
of people committed to institu-
tions. 7
{And we chortled, we did, over
thgt one. Hobo.
/{ After three months of study and
a4 week of shooting our first 10-
minute film productions, I for one
/felt fairly certifiable. I can’t vouch
for anyone else, of course.
Movie-making, ] have learned, is
the most; arduous, frustrating, ex-

4 crutiatingly painstaking art form

if
/

dy

i/

y

eben

 seréen time, has Canadian conten

ever devised.
Iywas nice of the premier to
congratulate us for having the
__ flture of Canadian cinema in our
/Yands, 1 realized this was a ;
Gargantuan Thing, like launching
a starship crew. A. national under-
taking yet. ,
Somebody pointed: out it costs.
roughly as much to train a film-,
maker as it does to.train a Con-
_ corde pilot. Really? Good grief!
Out in the front yard of the
former E.P. Taylor mansion, the
Canadian and Ontario flags flap- ;
ped bravely. What we had going
on here, I could tell, was a Na-
: tional Scheme to seck out and, if
" necessary, forge with our'own .
" beaverly little paws a Canadian :
"image in the mass global mind.
; We dainn near sang O Canads. 4

identity, | guess ~- a term 1 must
admit I feel wacomfortable -
around... ;

‘movies much about Canada. Te
think about four per cent of our

of this missing i
age of ourselves is our invisibility
at'an international level.

\

(Noni: VANCOUVER’ District
‘Council has joined the city incall
ing for. more. legal aid for Jo

.. , income family court applicants. !
“.  }3“This sis a -very, very serious:
1.) matter,” ‘said. Ald. Joan Gadsby."
“People are in desperate need of :
id.”

“The? district ‘voted. to’ urge . the:

‘Attorney. General: for ;

ion. th
dequate funding for maintenance
and child support, hearings | in! fami

“egal ines ea

ey calls)

Everybody in the world knows —
what Americans and Brits and
Aussies are like because everybody
watches their movies and sees them
revealing themselves.

Canadians? Who has seen a Ca-
nadian movie other than other '
Canadians? I

|

‘ od
A\ side effect of
this missing image of

ourselves is our
invisibility atan-

- international level.”’

i +)
re fone So
Sa ETE ES
Oh there have been biggies — ,
Meatballs and The Fly come to
‘mind, But they'don’t tell you much
‘about the ‘‘Canadian experience.’
They don’t project Canuckness, -
/In fact, they deliberately de-

. emphasize being Canadian.

| Since the dawn of moving pic-
tures, Canada has always been an
entertainment ‘colony ofthe United -

: States, Thus it remains. A lot of
'_./ American movies and episodic . .
| television | get shot i in Toronto, and ..
| Vancouver. |
‘What it was all about is‘cuttural ~ |
ap filmmaking in Teronto is that the °
. yi CN Tower never shows, Every

» But the ongoing joke about.

}

cameraman knows how to take his
street shots from angles that avoid
the tower, even though you can see
it from everywhere in the city. {t
‘ts, after all, the tallest structure in

. the world.

Evena glimpse of it would give,
the place away as not being Boston
or Minneapolis. So, while we have
a healthy film industry in the sense

“that a lot of teams of trained peo-:

ple are working, it all expresses a.
foreign vision. :
Mounting the podium with his
back to the magnificent 23-acre
spread, the centre's founder Nor- |

man Jewison read the speech he
said he intended to read at the
academy awards.

It was about what a powerful
' medium film is, Too important to |
leave in the hands of others :
without grasping the levers of con- |

_ tral for ourselves. The trick is to

find a way to do that.”

Apparently, training us to do it
is the key.

I guess there were a couple of
thousand patrons there. They
heard the centre being touted as
Canada's coming-out onto the
world movie stage. Heady: Great
theatre, too.

The magnificent late afternoon
tight faded, storm clouds rolled
overhead, the wind pawed the trees }
even as Norman — everyone calls
; him Norman, of course — read.
' from his notes, almost like a guy .: i
with tablets in his hands, and | was
‘reminded of the big scene in The
! Ten Commandments where *

: Charlion Heston parts the waters.

- And verily I say unto you, the © :
storm held back just exactly long
“enough! And we went forth into

history, I guess. Will s viable Ca-.

nadian cinema emerge? Heavy.
stuff, ch? @

Fo 2. Neale
ose 6 hs) 7

CLOSET
SHOPS

, son

not available for viewin

SO ARE WE!

Your 4 North Shore
Independent Home Hardware
Stores have joined together to
Jake sure Vou, our customers,

f have the opportunity to view |

ae "any Home Hardware Flyer Item

‘a in atleast ONE of our.
North Shore Stores.

a visi
28 heginners” ¢ classes.
0 4 ‘stretch classes :
‘e 12. aqua classes © a
“3 Selene instruction woth traning

“cases were not “represented ‘by ‘legal
‘counsel during ‘six'months in 1987,
‘according to the report. :

The report ‘says. that reduced) fi
nancing : by, the provincial . BOV-:
ernment has meant that legal aid is

- available «only © in “urgent cases
‘where the applicant's ‘income falls ;
below the Statistics Canada pover.

Come In And As'
“About the V.LP; Card
SBONUS VALUE
7A. Details available bat elub:
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incenuve

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international! Plaza’ *,,
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