More than a few English Canadians have noted that a person living in a major city in the United States has an easier time seeing le cinema du Quebec than English Canada.
Toronto-based distribution company Game Theory Films created Quebec On Screen to help out English Canadians find more and watch Quebec films. The process has involved theatre screenings and iTunes availability.
Schitt's Creek, Anne with an E win big at 7th Canadian Screen Awards
A few of the best picture nominees from the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards are in the Quebec On Screen pipeline: A Colony | Une colonie; Genesis | Genèse; and The Great Darkened Days | La grande noirceur.
All 3 of those films haven't shown up in my world either and were largely unknown when the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards nominations were released. Felix and Meira, from the same director as The Great Darkened Days | La grande noirceur, was a lot easier to find.
Since we hadn't heard much about them before or since, we will be highly curious to find out whether these films live up to the hype. I've seen more Quebec films than most Canadians and enjoy most of them. I hope these films continue that tradition and people find out for themselves.
2017 WIFF Canadian films in review: Features
TIFF announced its Film Circuit People’s Choice Award for Best Canadian Film from the 158 Film Circuit groups. Meditation Park from Mina Shum won the prestigious honour.
The TIFF Film Circuit is the organisation's film outreach programme, bringing the best of Canadian and international film to Canadians.
Shum did a brilliant job telling that story. I remember seeing the film and having to collect myself before seeing the next film. I did cry in watching the film.
Speaking of TIFF, for the first time since 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival will open with a Canadian film. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band will be the Opening Night Gala Presentation on September 5. This is the first Canadian documentary ever to open the festival.
The film is inspired by Robertson’s 2016 memoir, Testimony. The film will feature interviews from Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Taj Mahal, Dominique Robertson, and Ronnie Hawkins. The documentary will stream exclusively on Crave later this year in Canada.
The last Canadian film to open TIFF: Score: A Hockey Musical (2010). We saw that years ago and there is a reason why hockey and musicals don't go together. That said, a young Noah Reid (Schitt's Creek) and Allie MacDonald (Belinda McKay on Young Drunk Punk) are delightful in the film.
We will have a lot more in the next few weeks on the Canadian film lineup at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival, running September 5-15.
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Mouthpiece — from famed director Patricia Rozema — briefly played in the United States but only in New York City and Los Angeles.
Firecrackers — from first-time full-length film director Jasmin Mozaffari — played this past week in Park Ridge, IL, a Chicago suburb outside, among other places.
Whatever logic is used in those decisions is a mystery to your humble narrator. Hopefully both films will appear within easy access of U.S. and Canadian audiences. Firecrackers is available for rent for $6.99 with Amazon Prime.
Not getting a major distributor doesn't mean your film is banned
The folks behind the unnamed American propaganda movie did get a distribution deal in Canada. We were early in the cycle on this story. We talk about award-winning French-Canadian films getting little to no distribution outside Quebec while American propaganda can get a good deal in Canada. The term "ugly American" definitely applies here for a few reasons.
photo credit: Quebec On Screen
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.