ABC, home of the Academy Awards, recently spent an hour in prime time with a special A Night in the Academy Museum highlighting the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The museum, at Fairfax and Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, has been years in the making.
The special showed how complicated covering the world of film can be within a museum. The museum isn't really celebrating small independent cinema but more about Hollywood than the film industry. The special pounded home about The Wizard of Oz: having a pair of the ruby red slippers is impressive.
As much as we adore Canadian film, the United States is the champion of filmmaking. Not always the best films but in terms of history and the multiple layers of viable films across a wide spectrum. A long struggle to build a movie museum in Los Angeles doesn't bode well for a film museum in other countries.
What if Canada had a film museum devoted to Canadian film?
Once you stop laughing at the idea, the jokes come flying. The museum is the "size of a Fotomat booth" or "what do you do with the other half of an abandoned 7-11."
A bigger film museum could be devoted to films shot in Canada to make them seem like somewhere else. That museum could have a wing devoted to Canadian films technically Canadian but with little visible proof that Canadians were involved. That isn't what this museum would show.
'Visibly Canadian' is a reasonable goal for Canadian film
Canadian films should tell more stories about Canada
A Canadian film museum would have a smaller footprint. The NFB would have a room: early experimental films in French and English. The tax shelter era would have a room. Slacker films from Ontario. Atlantic Canada on the big screen. Indigenous films. The surprising strength of female written/directed films from Canada.
Canadian stories told in Canada by Canadians. Canada should celebrate those stories.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has a lot of artifacts made famous by those legendary Hollywood movies. A Canadian film museum would have very few artifacts.
- The No Smoking within a mile sign in L'âge des ténèbres | Days of Darkness (2007) from Denys Arcand
- Bicycles from Parsley Days (2000) from Andrea Dorfman
- The radio control board from Pontypool (2008) from Bruce McDonald
The museum would be more about telling the stories of those stories that were told.
Take This Waltz showcases a real Toronto neighborhood
Canadians often joke about films done in Toronto that look any place other than Toronto. What about a Canadian film that uses Toronto as Toronto.
We took a look with a map at the location shots in Take This Waltz, the Sarah Polley 2011 film.
The film showcases Queen and Dufferin streets, Dufferin Jog, Royal Theatre, Kensington Market, and Lake Ontario. I would guess Trinity Bellwoods Park as well but am not certain.
Polley received a gift for shooting the film: Jack Layton and Olivia Chow allowed Polley the use of their house for the film. Polley and Layton, the NDP federal leader, were close friends.
2021 TIFF wrapup
2021 TIFF preview
2021 TIFF Canadian film preview
Toronto International Film Festival honoured Alanis Obomsawin at TIFF 2021 with Celebrating Alanis Obomsawin, "the centrepiece of the 46th Toronto International Film Festival." Perhaps you are like most Canadians and haven't seen any of Obomsawin's films.
"Her voice as a filmmaker, musician, visual artist, and activist has been consistent. She tells the stories of how Indigenous people in Canada have resisted injustice and abuse inflicted by the most powerful authorities a country can have, and how those people have fought back in the streets and in the courts. Most of all, her more than 50 documentaries made with the National Film Board show how Indigenous peoples have drawn on rich, deep traditions going back thousands of years to assert their presence as vital communities determined to continue on for thousands more years into the future." said TIFF in promo information.
You could have learned about Obomsawin at a Canadian film museum in addition to honours from a film festival.
TIFF will have a rare screening of August 32nd on Earth
People can learn more about the great Canadian films from Denis Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallée before they ran off to Hollywood. Those in the States who enjoy Villeneuve's work should know about August 32nd on Earth and Maelstrom. Those in the States who enjoy Vallée's work should know about C.R.A.Z.Y. and Café de Flore.
Canadian films that might explain a bit about the world of residential schools
Making the case for Canadian film in 3 parts
The necessity of Canadian films that don't seem Canadian
Telefilm Canada shouldn't limit funding by language but reward films shot in Canada with Canadians
Then you would have to produce an elaborate hour-long "commercial" for the museum, such as what aired on ABC earlier this month.
Getting Tom Hanks and Laura Dern to host the special shows the power of Hollywood.
Americans may not realize that others around the world are fascinated by American hubris. Occasionally, American hubris matches the hype, such as in the American film industry. Then again, no other country produces really bad films with huge budgets and pretends they are great.
Having the ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz is exciting. A true film museum would tell the story about Buddy Ebsen and The Wizard of Oz.
Finding good Canadian films not just because they're Canadian
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
A Canadian film museum isn't going to happen anytime soon. The idea of a Canadian film museum to celebrate Canadian film requires some knowledge of Canadian film among average Canadians. The Parsley Days bicycles aren't as exciting if you've never seen that independent Canadian film.
Awareness of how Canadian films are made might lead to more interest in watching Canadian film.
photo credit: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
map credit: Google
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