If I had the privilege of living in Toronto, I might run into famous Canadian film people doing ordinary things. Toronto is now the fourth-largest city in North America, behind New York City, Mexico City, and Los Angeles. The magnitude of Toronto makes that dream not so likely.
Ben Gordon and Matt Hoffman had a bit of fun to try and find acclaimed Canadian film icon Don McKellar in Finding Don McKellar. Like several films dating back at least to Michael Moore's Roger and Me, the fun is not actually finding McKellar.
Gordon and Hoffman have fun in the process of the 11-minute short film with recreating moments from McKellar's masterpiece Last Night, shot in Toronto, and a list of favourite Toronto places McKellar noted in a 24 Hours article.
Sensitive Skin shows the shadows of dark Canadian humour
They also take off for the Toronto Islands in hopes of finding McKellar based on the fact that Season 2 of Sensitive Skin was filmed on the islands.
Twitch City is where my love for Canada started
Twitch City on DVD
Canadian film review: Last Night
Canadian film review: Highway 61
The Grand Seduction matches up well with Quebecois version
McKellar is a triple threat as writer, director, and actor. The film honours his achievements in all these categories.
As we've noted, I first discovered his talents through Twitch City.
Americans can find McKellar's talents as a voice actor in Window Horses and in Mina Shum's Meditation Park as well as The Grand Seduction, all on Netflix.
CanadianCrossing.com television coverage
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Gordon and Hoffman use Finding Don McKellar to draw attention to Canadian film as well as Canadian television. Extending this to a full-length film might be more than enough time to go through McKellar's career but could be a good way to draw attention to the wonderful world of Canadian film.
Canadian film review: Women Who Act
Though this film takes a different path from Women Who Act, both do a fine job with giving insight into Canadian film.
Finding Don McKellar would be a good opening short film before you watch Last Night. You could pair this film with Your Mother and I, a short film from Anna Maguire featuring McKellar and Julia Sarah Stone.
video credit: YouTube/Ben Gordon
photo credit: Finding Don McKellar film
Comments