Canadian Crossing

Telefilm Canada brings back more Canadian films for rent

Prices have skyrocketed lately but the price of Telefilm Canada's Made in Canada Spotlight campaign (previously known as the Canadian Movie of the Week) is still 99¢.

The films are available on the Apple TV app. The campaign started yesterday but you get a week with each film. Take This Waltz (pictured) is one of my all-time favourite films, Canadian or otherwise. Seriously, these Canadian films cost about a loonie.

There is a healthy mix of very new films and some older Canadian films. Here is the lineup:

April 5 Take This Waltz
April 12 Alone Across the Arctic
April 19 The Marijuana Conspiracy
April 26 A Dangerous Method
May 3 Water
May 10 Drunken Birds | Les oiseaux ivres
May 17 Akilla's Escape
May 24 C.R.A.Z.Y.
May 31 Jean of the Joneses
June 7 Night Raiders
June 14 Giant Little Ones
June 21 Long Time Running

There are also 4 featured Quebec films:

May 31 Laurence Anyways
June 7 Maria Chapdelaine
June 14 Kuessipan
June 21 Souterrain | Underground

We have seen all of these films with the exceptions of Alone Across the Arctic, The Marijuana Conspiracy, A Dangerous Method, Drunken Birds, and Akilla's Escape as well as Underground.

Telefilm Canada presents the Canadian Movie of the Week

Finding good Canadian films not just because they're Canadian

Heralded Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée passes away at the age of 58

The presentation of C.R.A.Z.Y. is newly restored in 4K. The recent death of Jean-Marc Vallée should be all the more reason to watch this film. TIFF ranked this film at number 8 of the all-time Top Canadian films in the 2015 list. Sorry for this pun but you would be C.R.A.Z.Y. to avoid seeing this film.

Drunken Birds, Water, and C.R.A.Z.Y. have all been submitted to the Academy Awards in the foreign film category. Water reached the Top 5 nominations. Drunken Birds is the current nominee.

Giant Little Ones is a very underappreciated film.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

We love that the deal includes some Quebec films. Most anglophone Canadians should appreciate the wonderful gifts of French-Canadian films.

You can read more about the celebration of Canadian film, including how to access the Apple TV app.

photo credit: Take This Waltz film

Canada draws Group F for the 2022 World Cup

Group F 🇧🇪🇨🇦🇲🇦🇭🇷#CANMNT #WeCAN #FinalDraw pic.twitter.com/cypz9cTTx0

— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) April 1, 2022

Canada was literally the last ball drawn out of Pot 4 for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Canadian men's soccer team will be in Group F with Belgium, Morocco, and Croatia.

Even though Canada won the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) qualifying, the team still ended up in Pot 4, ranked 38 in FIFA rankings. The rankings for Canada's opponents are Belgium (2), Croatia (16), and Morocco (24).

Croatia was the runner-up in 2018, Belgium finished 3rd in 2018 so there is some tough competition. Morocco was in the World Cup in 2018 with a best finish in the round of 16 in 1986, the year Canada qualified for the World Cup.

Here is the Canadian schedule:

Date	Opponent	Time	Stadium	City
November 23	Belgium	2200	Ahmad bin Ali Stadium	Al Rayyan
November 27	Croatia	1900	Khalifa International Stadium	Al Rayyan
December 1	Morocco	1800	Al Thumama Stadium	Doha

Times listed are Qatar time, GMT+3. EST (Eastern) is GMT-5.

The late night times might seem like a disadvantage but consider that Qatar has an average high of 30°C (86°F) in November.

The top 2 teams in each group advance to the knockout stage.

Canada has been a bit excited when the men's soccer team qualified for the 2022 World Cup with a 4-0 win over Jamaica at BMO Field on Sunday. 

Canada finished first in CONCACAF qualifying with a 8-2-4 record. The final match was actually a 1-0 loss to Panama in Panama City on Wednesday.

Alphonso Davies may be the most famous name on the team. The team also has Cyle Larin (Besiktas) and Jonathan David (Lille) who are in the Champions League. Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC) and captain Atiba Hutchinson (Besiktas) are notables in midfield.

Englishman John Herdman is the team coach. You might remember that Herdman led the 2015 Women's World Cup team.

2021 Tokyo Olympics Canadian wrapup

Canada and soccer means women's soccer. The women's soccer team won the gold medal in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Canada hosted the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Christine Sinclair is the most famous soccer player from Canada.

The Canadian men's soccer team wants to shift that perspective now that the team will play in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

U.S. uses sun, speed to win 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup

This is the first time in the tournament for Canada since 1986 and only the second appearance ever.

Canada lost all 3 games in Group C in 1986 and didn't score a goal, finishing with a -5 goal differential.Canada lost to France (0-1), Hungary (0-2), and the Soviet Union (0-2) in Mexico. 

CanadianCrossing.com soccer coverage

The timing of Canada reaching the World Cup is extra good since the United States, Canada, and Mexico will host the 2026 World Cup.

Twitter capture: @CanadaSoccerEN
photo credit: One Soccer

New Brunswick switches out one newspaper monopoly for another one

Journalism in Canada is very dominant by Postmedia, especially Ontario-West. The chain, owned by U.S. hedge funds, own both major newspapers in several major cities: Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. Postmedia also owns the National Post.

New Brunswick has had its own English-language virtual monopoly, not by Postmedia but by Irving.

Now meet New Brunswick's new monopoly owner: Postmedia.

Postmedia will buy 3 dailies and six weeklies from Brunswick News (Irving). The dailies are in the 3 largest cities in the province: Fredericton (capital), Moncton, and Saint John: Telegraph-Journal (Saint John), the Fredericton Daily Gleaner and the Moncton Times & Transcript.

The 6 weeklies are Miramichi Leader, Woodstock Bugle-Observer, Bathurst Northern Light, Kings County Record, Campbellton Tribune, and Victoria Star (Grand Falls).

As bad as the news situation is in English in New Brunswick, there are fears that Postmedia will make them worse.

"Postmedia would be wise to maintain at least the façade of local news for those three operations," Michael Camp told CBC News, noting as well that "there's nothing to be gained from changing them all to one name." Camp is a professor of journalism at St. Thomas University who once worked for the Irving papers.

What is interesting about this observation is Postmedia maintains the appearance of separate journalism in Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver. The company owns both newspapers in those markets even though they control both papers.

Irving was the devil New Brunswickers knew. Postmedia may (likely) make things worse. Running poor papers from New Brunswick versus running New Brunswick papers from Toronto.

There is a track record of Postmedia buying up local weeklies and then closing them. Is is better to have a poor newspaper or not one at all.

CanadianCrossing.com New Brunswick coverage

Before the acquisition, Brunswick News announced in January that they would stop publishing a Monday edition for its 3 dailies: Telegraph-Journal, the Fredericton Daily Gleaner and the Moncton Times & Transcript. The announcement noted a Monday "replica" edition Telegraph-Journal online.

L'Acadie Nouvelle, the French-language New Brunswick daily, will stop printing on Mondays beginning this summer.

Postmedia's National Post hasn't had a Monday paper since the summer of 2017.

The story of Tilbury, ON getting its newspaper back

CBC News needs to bring back local news in wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus

Even though New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are neighbouring provinces, the gap in literacy is about as wide as the Bay of Fundy with Nova Scotia scoring so much better.

New Brunswick does have independent French language newspapers. While the province is officially bilingual, this shuts out anglophones from independent news.

The CBC and Radio-Canada do operate in the province as an alternative. As good as these outlets are, they can't crawl into local communities in a mostly rural province to provide small town news.

CanadianCrossing.com journalism coverage

Jesse Brown of Canadaland thought of one advantage to the Postmedia acquisition. The Irving newspapers were notoriously known for making things difficult for non-subscribers to read stories in those newspapers. 

The Globe and Mail is getting so bad that you need to be a subscriber, even for Canadian Press stories, to read most stories. Toronto Star is getting rather bad as well in limiting access.

Postmedia lets anyone read their stories. Anyone. Most of them are crap (they are). You never have an issue using a link for a tweet on Twitter or posting on Facebook.

Critics of this blog might wonder why we post mostly CBC News links. Unless The Tyee and other similar Canadian journalism has a relevant link, very difficult to find reasonably neutral journalism links in Canada.

Right-wing news tends to open its doors for people to read. Centrist publications tend to hide their content. Ultimately, the right-wing content gets to more people. While this is bad in the United States, this is way worse in Canada. Worse in Canada but even worse in New Brunswick.

photo credit: Telegraph-Journal

Canada government engages in a LIberal-NDP pact to avoid a federal election until 2025

The 2021 federal election showed that Canadians wanted parties to work together. So that is the push behind the pact announced this morning with the Liberals, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the New Democratic Party, led by Jagmeet Singh.

The deal is contingent on parliamentary progress on key NDP policies, including dental care, pharmacare, housing, and climate change. This deal is a confidence-and-supply agreement.

“This supply and confidence agreement starts today and will be in place until the end of this Parliament in 2025,” Trudeau said in a press conference this morning. “The government can function with predictability and stability, present and implement budgets and get things done for Canadians.”

The Liberals have a strong minority government; combined with the NDP, the government can pass legislation.

This falls short of a coalition government. Then Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to scare the Canadian public of a possible coalition government with the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois in 2008. Harper got then Governor General Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament and was able to stay in power.

The new pact is not a coalition in that the NDP will not be part of cabinet and this only applies to areas where the 2 parties are like-minded. The agreement doesn't go beyond when the next election would have to be called.

The most recent example of a confidence-and-supply agreement was what the British Columbia NDP government made a similar deal had with the Green Party in 2017.

The Daily Show take on PM Harper's request to prorogue Parliament

Interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen issued a statement late Monday: "This is an NDP-Liberal attempt at government by blackmail. Nation-building is replaced by vote-buying; secret deal-making over parliamentary debate; and opportunism over accountability." Bergen said. "If this NDP-Liberal coalition stands, Canada is in for a very rough ride."

This is still developing and the Bloc Quebecois will weigh in shortly. The NDP has its own press conference later this morning.

The Conservatives have to weigh in on this level of outrage, though the party might want to consider the huge advantages this pact delivers.

The party is in a leadership race where the range is widened. Pierre Poilievre and Jean Charest are at opposite ends of what was the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives, respectively. The Conservative Party can have a full-fledged leadership race without a threat of a quick election. By 2025, you shouldn't be able to claim Canadians don't know much about the leader of the Opposition.

This only works if the party picks a viable candidate.

Erin O'Toole out as Conservative Party federal leader

Justin Trudeau, Liberals win a third government with back-to-back minority governments

Canadian politics coverage on CanadianCrossing.com

The pressure is on the Liberals to make strong progress on these concerns before 2025. Promises won't cut it by 2025.

This is the part where we point out that the single payer health care system came into fruition with a Liberal minority government with a push from Tommy Douglas and the NDP. Just saying.

The 2025 federal election needs to be about the direction Canada is going with a stronger portfolio from the Liberals and a focused approach from other parties on why that needs to change.

photo credit: CPAC

Canada to finally lift pre-arrival COVID-19 tests for air and land border crossings

Be cautious of third party, fraudulent webpages and apps that may pose as #ArriveCAN and ask you for payment. ArriveCAN, the official Government of Canada platform to provide your information when entering Canada, is free and secure. https://t.co/kdWEXB6imc #FraudPreventionMonth pic.twitter.com/bEGw26pppD

— Canada Border Services Agency (@CanBorder) March 14, 2022

No April Fools here. Starting April 1, fully vaccinated travelers to Canada won't need a pre-arrival COVID-19 test.

The requirement seemed overblown, especially for fullv vaccinated and boosted travelers to come to Canada. Randomized testing upon entry to Canada will continue.

You have to use the ArriveCAN app.

Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra, and Minister of Tourism Randy Boissonnault announced the updated changes this week.“Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated travelers will continue to be tested with COVID-19 molecular tests on arrival and quarantine for 14 days,” said Duclos in the news conference.

U.S. to open border to fully vaccinated travelers starting today

Opening Day for fully vaccinated Americans to cross into Canada with caveats

August 9 is the date fully vaccinated Americans can cross into Canada with some fine print

CanadianCrossing.com border crossings coverage

The changes apply to travelers who are full vaccinated. Boosted doesn't seem to be a requirement that we can tell. Boosted is better than being fully vaccinated. 

CBC News has a solid Q&A to help you out on nuanced questions. 

Where to visit Canada in 2022

CanadianCrossing.com travel coverage

The irony was that the Canadian government made travel easier for Canadians to shop in the United States and return than for Americans, fully vaccinated and boosted, to travel to Canada. This makes a day trip or even a longer trip to Canada much more viable for U.S. travelers.

Your humble narrator is eager to make a trip to Canada.

Twitter capture: @CanBorder
photo credit: CBC News

Turning Red shows the beauty of Toronto thanks to Domee Shi

Turning Red is not a Canadian film. You might have wondered if Turning Red was a Canadian film because of all the Canadian elements.

The animated film is set in Toronto in 2002. Meilin "Mei" Lee is a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian girl. Domee Shi is the director and co-writer. Shi won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Bao at the Academy Awards in 2019.

"Grade Eight." This may seem like a minor point. Americans would say "8th grade" while Canadians would say "Grade Eight." Think of the Barenaked Ladies song Grade 9.

The basic premise of the film is that Mei turns into a large red panda. when she is in a state of high emotion.

There is Canadian acting talent in the film, including Sandra Oh (Ming Lee, Mei's strict mother) and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Priya Mangal, one of Mei's best friends). As we have noted, Canadian talent wouldn't make a difference in the status of a film.

Turning Red director Domee Shi explains how her childhood in Toronto inspired the film (CBC Radio Q)

Turning Red puts Canada in the spotlight (CBC News)

Shi showcased Toronto in this story: not a major city pretending to be somewhere else. SkyDome (aka Rogers Centre) is a key part of the film's plot. Streetcars, Kensington Market, bags of milk: all visible in the film. Okay, so the school Mei attends, Lester B. Pearson Middle School, is not real. This honours all the structures named after the former prime minister, including yes, the major airport.

Canada may seem like a foreign country to a lot of Americans. The idea of a new generation having some understanding of Toronto and Canada is promising.

Domee Shi wins for best animated short at 2019 Oscars

Canada is only part of the show. The story of a 13-year-old girl, Canadian of Chinese descent, is new to the Disney+ world. That story is truly important. The people behind Turning Red would likely argue that this is a human story about puberty, uncertainty about the world, and feeling a bit flustered and scared. We don't turn into a giant red panda on the outside, but sometimes we do on the inside. Very relatable.

There are notable firsts for the Pixar world. The first full-length film directly solely by a woman. Obviously, the first set in Canada.

Turning Red is currently streaming in Canada and the United States on Disney+.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Beaverton is like The Onion in its satirical flair. A recent headline in The Beaverton: New Pixar movie details fantastical story of being able to afford living in Toronto.

The humour revolves around "the boundaries of magical realism I had Meilin and her parents live right downtown, as opposed to commuting four hours every day in bumper to bumper traffic from Brampton or even Scarborough.”

The housing situation in Toronto is very real. The dream of a "fully-detached home with TTC streetcar tracks right outside the front door" is just that.

Turning Red is set in the ancient times of 2002, when housing wasn't as much of an issue.

photos credit: Turning Red film/Pixar/Disney

2022 Heritage Classic wrapup

Leafs and Sabres are going goal for goal to start the second period. 👀🚨 pic.twitter.com/9jd2bWvH9R

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 13, 2022

The 2022 Heritage Classic was a beautiful sight with ideal weather and a loud crowd at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton. Some of the fans went home happy with a Buffalo Sabres win 5-2 over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Other fans were less than happy with the results. Then again, usually a crowd in Hamilton enjoys when Toronto loses.

Cloudy and cold but not too cold, a few degrees below the freezing mark. A March date could have meant temperatures in the low double digits in Celsius (50°F).

The game got a little messy at the end. The teams are rivals but that rivalry has been one-sided of late.

Toronto is now 2-2 in outdoor games. Having won in Ann Arbor (MI) and Toronto, the Maple Leafs have now lost in Annapolis (MD) and Hamilton. The 2015 Toronto Argonauts went 0-2 at Tim Hortons Field with home games due to the Toronto Blue Jays playoff run.

The wind was certainly a factor. This is not a surprise to CFL fans, who know the intense wind pattern at Tim Hortons Field, especially as a contrast to Ivor Wynne Stadium. For those who might not remember, the new stadium is in the same spot with a north–south orientation as the old stadium had an east–west orientation. The stadium isn't right on Lake Ontario but is extremely windy.

Chris Cuthbert, who called the game on Rogers Sportsnet, would certainly know this from his days at calling CFL games on TSN.

Stephen Brunt had an amazing essay on the history of the NHL in Hamilton. We forgot to mention the Hamilton Tigers of the NHL from 1920-1925 in our Heritage Classic preview.

The Quebec Bulldogs were sold to Hamilton interests before the 1920 season. The team finished on top in the 1924-1925 season. A players strike (the league expanded the number of games without increasing salaries) led to the dissolution and the contracts went to New York as the team became the New York Americans.

The only way to dress when you're in The Hammer 🔨🔥 #HeritageClassic coverage begins at 3:30pm ET on #NHLonTNT

(🎥 @MapleLeafs) pic.twitter.com/OTsArEjLce

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 13, 2022

The Toronto Maple Leafs embraced the spirit of Hamilton's blue-collar reputation.

The fans are the point of having an outdoor game. We've noticed that Rogers Sportsnet shows more of the crowds in the outdoor games where the U.S. outlets rarely show the fans.

How did TNT do in its first Heritage Classic? TNT did supply a 30-minute pregame show. The fun of the outdoor games was that the announcers would be at ice level. Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk stayed in the booth for the entire time and were joined quickly by Wayne Gretzky. Keith Jones worked at ice level for the whole game. The conditions weren't that bad.

The U.S. channel did show the entire Alessia Cara music set. NBCSN couldn't even handle showing Bryan Adams at one of the Heritage Classic games. If there were any events in the second intermission, TNT blew them off.

Wayne Gretzky was a highlight of the TNT telecast, mostly telling stories about growing up in nearby Brantford, ON. We learned that Gretzky pretty much played by himself on the ice in the backyard as a kid. Too often the announcers seemed side-tracked and forgot about the game in front of them.

Sportsnet had everyone in Hamilton, including the studio crew. The TNT studio crew was in Atlanta. If the crew travels to the site of the southern U.S. games, they should have been in Hamilton.

The NHL Network promised postgame coverage. If there was postgame coverage, we literally missed it.

2022 Heritage Classic preview

NHL the month in preview March 2022

2019 Heritage Classic wrapup

Rogers Sportsnet got Hamilton native Eugene Levy to open the broadcast. A lot more memorable than the TNT open, which we don't remember.

.@FriedgeHNIC why would @NHL skip #Montreal for #HeritageClassic destinations? re: your news that @EdmontonOilers could be next #Canadian host. @Sportsnet

— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) March 13, 2022

Elliotte Friedman has been reporting this for some time. The next Heritage Classic will almost certainly be in Edmonton, perhaps in time for the 20th anniversary of the modern day outdoor game, also in Edmonton.

We think Gary Bettman should share the reason why Montréal has not hosted an outdoor game. The largest city in Quebec stands out like a sore thumb as the only CFL or NHL city that hasn't hosted an outdoor games. The Canadiens have played outdoors in Edmonton, Calgary, Foxborough (MA), and Ottawa.

Friedman also reported that there wouldn't be an Heritage Classic next season. Sadly, that is not news. Bettman tosses crumbs whenever he feels the Canadian masses are getting restless.

One bright point: the March weather fit what the game should have. The NHL cruelly set the Heritage Classic games in Winnipeg and Regina in the autumn with autumn-type weather. Please, no more Heritage Classic games in October.

CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage

As we noted on Friday, the NHL Network in the United States is offering rebroadcasts of the game Monday at 2 pm (90 minutes) and Tuesday at Noon (2 hours). Hopefully, one of those rebroadcasts will be the Rogers Sportsnet feed.

Canadian NHL teams in outdoor games

Year	Date	Stadium	Result
2003	November 22	Commonwealth Stadium	Montréal 4, Edmonton 3
2011	February 20	McMahon Stadium	Calgary 4, Montréal 0
2014	January 1	Michigan Stadium	Toronto 3, Detroit 2 (SO)
2014	March 2	BC Place	Ottawa 4, Vancouver 2
2016	January 1	Gillette Stadium	Montréal 5, Boston 1
2016	October 23	Investors Group Field	Edmonton 3, Winnipeg 0
2017	January 1	BMO Field	Toronto 5, Detroit 4 (SO)
2017	December 16	TD Place	Ottawa 3, Montréal 0
2018	March 3	Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium	Washington 5, Toronto 2
2019	October 26	Mosaic Stadium	Winnipeg 2, Calgary 1 (OT)
2022	March 13	Tim Hortons Field	Buffalo 5, Toronto 2

Twitter captures: @Sportsnet; @BR_OpenIce; @canadian_xing
videos credit: Rogers Sportsnet
photo credit: Rogers Sportsnet/NHL

Celebrating Canadian women on International Women's Day 2022

Letterkenny isn't the most logical place to start with a celebration of International Women's Day.

The final Letterkenny episode of Season 10, celebrating International Women's Day, airs today on Crave in Canada. Hulu also has the episode in the United States. The Crave schedule on cable in Canada lists a March 16 premiere date.

Letterkenny has a predominant male cast. Katy (Michelle Mylett) is the primary female in the hicks category. Mrs. McMurray (Melanie Scrofano), Gail (Lisa Codrington), Bonnie McMurray (Kamilla Kowal), and Tanis (Kaniehtiio Horn) are also in that world. Wayne (Jared Keeso), brother of Katy, has had a few love interests, most recently Rosie (Clark Backo) and Marie-Frédérique (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau).

Gae (Sarah Gadon) is one of the prominent exceptions in the skids group.

Betty-Anne (Kelly McCormack) and Mary-Anne (Jess Salgueiro) played hockey players with the Letterkenny Shamrockettes.

This is not a complete list of women in the show.

Happy Holidays 2021 includes Season 10 of Letterkenny

On International Women's Day 2020, just before the world collapsed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, Rogers Sportsnet and NBCSN had all-female crews covering the NHL. For years, Cassie Campbell-Pascall has been a lone wolf in terms of working as a game analyst.

CBC started having Campbell-Pascall work on Hockey Night in Canada, often with Mark Lee on Montréal Canadiens games. Credit to CBC Sports for being a relative trailblazer on diversity.

Now we have seen significant growth in women in key NHL roles in the broadcast booth and in management. Christine Simpson had a good story on Saturday on women in the management ranks for the Vancouver Canucks.

Beans won the 2021 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award

Beans by writer/director Tracey Deer won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association last night. Beans beat out Night Raiders from writer/director Danis Goulet. Scarborough, the third film, was written by a woman (Catherine Hernandez) and co-directed by a woman (Shasha Nakhai).

CBC will have a lot of holes to fill in the 2021-2022 television schedule

We found out just about a year ago that CBC cancelled Frankie Drake Mysteries. Created by Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci, Frankie Drake Mysteries featured Lauren Lee Smith, Chantel Riley, Rebecca Liddiard, and Sharron Matthews. The show also featured talents such as Wendy Crewson and Grace Lynn Kung.

A follow-up movie would do quite well and not just in Canada.

Canada has had some amazing TV shows that are female-centric: Baroness von Sketch Show, Second Jen, Workin' Moms, Mohawk Girls. We can count Orphan Black if you count all of Tatiana Maslany's personalities.

A Canadian film idea to showcase female Canadian acting talent

Canadian women succeed in all kinds of industries. We tend to lean toward film and television because of our interests. The story above was our idea of showcasing Canadian female talent in a single Canadian film.

Every day should celebrate women. International Women's Day is a solid reminder of appreciating what women bring to the society we call Earth.

video credits: Letterkenny; Rogers Sportsnet
photo credit: Orphan Black

Randy Bachman brings back Vinyl Tap to commercial radio in Canada

If you missed Vinyl Tap with Randy Bachman on CBC Radio, the show is returning to Canadian airwaves on commercial radio. We mentioned the announcement of the program leaving after 16 years on CBC Radio. The final program aired on CBC on Canada Day 2021.

The deal with Orbyt Media and Corus Entertainment calls for the new Vinyl Tap on Corus classic rock stations across Canada including: Q107 Toronto, Rock 101 Vancouver, 101.1 BIG FM Barrie, Q107 Calgary, Boom 101.9 Cornwall, Chuck at 92.5 Edmonton, Hamilton, Kingston, 107.5 Dave Rocks Kitchener, London's Best Rock FM 96, The Wolf 101.5 FM Peterborough, and Power 97 Winnipeg. The program will air Sunday evenings at 9 pm local time.

There will be 48 episodes of the new show in a year compared to about 36 for CBC Radio. Of course, there will be commercials.

For those who aren't familiar with Randy Bachman's music career, think the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Bachman is also a very good storyteller.

2021 Victoria Day notebook

CanadianCrossing.com music coverage

CanadianCrossing.com radio coverage

U.S. radio listeners might get the short end of the stick if they can't listen to the local Canadian stations. Americans could listen on the CBC Listen app to the CBC version. A podcast is reportedly in the works for listeners in the United States and abroad.

photo credit: Vinyl Tap/CBC Radio

Sarah Polley has a new book of personal essays

Sarah Polley finally has a film coming out this year. First there is a collection of Polley's essays called Run Towards the Danger. The essay collection will be out tomorrow on March 1.

What might be surprising is that the book only contains 6 essays. What the book lacks in quantity, the essays tackle huge topics such as the exploitation of child actors, slippery nature of memory, sexual assault, high-risk pregnancy and premature birth, grief, motherhood, and Polley’s 3-year recovery from a serious concussion.

One of the essays that got some notice is The Woman Who Stayed Silent. The essay is about an violent encounter with a then 16-year-old Polley and a then 28-year-old CBC Radio Q host Jian Ghomeshi. Polley felt “a deep, ethical obligation” to tell the story, according to a story in The New York Times.

The 3-year concussion recovery is a sad but understandable explanation for why she hasn't been too productive of late. The recovery reported forced Polley to pass on an adaptation of Little Women.

Sarah Polley on The Current (CBC Radio One)

“I’m a huge fan of personal essays; I just devour them. It’s a form that I love. And in my mind, any one of these essays could be a stand-alone essay. I think it’s inevitable that this book will be interpreted and written about as a memoir, and I’m sort of at peace with it, but it was certainly not the intention of the book,” Polley told Vanity Fair in an article.

Sarah Polley's writing stands out in her films so the idea of essays from Polley is that much more exciting. The writing styles are different.

Canadian film review: Alias Grace

Canadian film review: Stories We Tell

Canadian film review: Take This Waltz

Canadian film review: Away From Her

The Vanity Fair article has a Q&A where they ask Polley about a return to acting:

"The last time I acted was around 14 years ago and since then I hadn't had a second of wanting to act, but watching these women in Women Talking, it was the first time I'd felt this little hunger of how fun that can be."

Polley was the female lead in Splice in the 2009 film. She did have a brief appearance in Trigger (2010) but that was more out of camaraderie as the group was finishing one final film before Tracey Wright passed away in 2010.

The New York Times article goes more into Polley's acting career.

Take This Waltz showcases a real Toronto neighborhood

Relaxed nudity would make Canadian films stand out

Canadian film review: The Life Before This

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

We do know that Polley will be back on the screen with Women Talking sometime this year. The movie deals with the reaction of women isolated in a Mennonite religious colony in Bolivia after a string of sexual assaults.

The story is adapted from the novel of the same name from Miriam Toews, a rather popular Canadian writer of late. Michael McGowan adapted her novel All My Puny Sorrows for his film seen at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.

Academy Award winner Frances McDormand, current Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley, past Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey, and 2-time Emmy award winner Claire Foy lead the cast. Canadian actors Sheila McCarthy and August Winter (Mary Kills People) are high up on the callsheet.

photo credit: Trigger film