Canadian Crossing

Canadian film review: Trouble in the Garden

We've seen a number of Canadian films tell the stories of Indigenous people and what they have suffered at the hands of the government. The stories don't get easier to hear. Trouble in the Garden stands out as an exceptionally told story that is entertaining, thoughtful, and informative.

We meet Pippa (Cara Gee), a Indigenous protester who is arrested as she tries to stop a real estate project being built on treaty land. Pippa gets bailed out by her estranged brother Colin (Jon Cor). Colin takes her to his family home, where Pippa is under house arrest.

"It's just for a week." There is clearly tension between the siblings.

Alice (Kelly Van der Burg), Pippa's very pregnant sister-in-law, is surprised to see Pippa, saying they hadn't seen her since the wedding. Pippa points out that she now goes by Raven. She also meets her niece Grace (Persephone Koty) for the first time.

The obvious difference is that Raven is Indigenous and the rest of her family is Caucasian.

Alice makes a remark later to Colin about how Pippa had ruined their wedding.

Who calls Raven as Raven instead of Pippa? Characters growth or lack of growth depends on whether they call her Pippa or Raven. Raven's foster parents who come by to visit not knowing she will be there. Raven/Pippa was disowned by the father. The irony is thick with the parents chasing his Scottish relatives while Raven has many more questions about her birth family and roots.

Turns out Colin is selling the real estate projects on the stolen land and that his parents have a house in that project. Raven is horrified to learn this news. This also makes her look bad to her friends who are protesting the projects.

In a lot of films, you wouldn't hear much from Alice as a character. This is what writer/director Roz Owen gets right about this film.

Their relationship is awkward but feels very real, good and bad. Alice appreciates Raven's connection with Gracie. Alice asks the questions along the way to help the audience understand what Raven is going through in her life. This helps educate the non-Indigenous people watching the film.

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for early November 2020

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Gee is really excellent at carrying a film. She has to carry a lot of torment and anguish in circumstances where she can't be as verbal with the character.

Trouble in the Garden is Owen's full-length directorial debut. Owen shows the parallel of chasing over roots that helps a non-Indigenous audience comprehend why Raven is so tormented. The pacing of the film flows freely with no pauses or awkward editing.

Trouble in the Garden can be found on CBC Gem in Canada and Amazon Prime Video in the United States.

video credit: YouTube/Vortex Media
photo credit: Trouble in the Garden film

Happy Holidays 2020

Our happy holidays message also applies retroactively to Hanukkah, which ran from December 10-18.

CBC has a lot of Christmas-related programming down the stretch. The Saturday night CBC Canadian film series continues on Boxing Day.

CBC Radio smartly brought back the James Murray COVID-19 updates on The World at Six on CBC Radio One. A reminder to limit holiday gatherings to those in your household. Ontario goes into a province-wide lockdown on Boxing Day.

We are going to take some well-deserved time away for the rest of the calendar year, short of breaking news, such as a new nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Canada.

We are adjusting our schedule and won't cover the 2021 World Juniors tournament this season. The tournament begins on Christmas Day and runs through January 5. The original schedule was for the tournament to be in Edmonton and Red Deer in Alberta. The 2021 World Juniors will be held in a bubble in Rogers Place in Edmonton. The old Northlands Coliseum hosted the tournament in 1995 and 2012.

This move would have been made even if COVID-19 did not exist.

You can follow the tournament on TSN in Canada and the NHL Network in the United States.

2021 CBC television winter schedule

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

Season 9 of Letterkenny debuts on Christmas Day on Crave. Season 9 of Letterkenny will be on Hulu on Boxing Day in the United States. You might recall that Season 8 of Letterkenny debuted on Christmas Day 2019. 

Your humble narrator has been catching up on Letterkenny and Cardinal as well as Canadian films on Hulu.

Each Letterkenny season runs 6-7 episodes. Cardinal has 4 seasons of 6 episodes on Crave in Canada but Hulu only has the first 3 seasons. Hulu still hasn't acquired the third and final season of Mary Kills People.

Letterkenny has been this amazing dynamic of smart writing in a rural setting. A few too many fights than I prefer in a show but witty banter and a real love behind the making of the show. An English Canadian show that has love for the Indigenous and Quebecois populations is really incredible.

For the Americans who haven't tried out the Global TV show Nurses on NBC, the U.S. network is giving you another chance to see the first 2 episodes. NBC will run the first 2 episodes again on December 29 at 9 pm Eastern. The 10 pm Tuesday timeslot is where new episodes air on NBC on January 5.

We had our CBC winter schedule preview on Monday. The U.S. audience will have to wait quite awhile for the Baroness von Sketch Show bonus episodes (February 24!!). The CBC winter schedule starts January 4.

Trickster coming to the U.S. on the CW in January

Thought about Anna (Maika Harper) from Mohawk Girls this week with the news about Michelle Latimer. Anna's father was Mohawk but whose mother was white. She struggles with whether she qualifies as part of the community.

Latimer relied on her family's oral history to claim Métis and Algonquin heritage and specifically the Kitigan Zibi community of Quebec. Verification is really important in these matters. Should be noted that the Métis National Council does not recognise any Métis communities in Quebec.

As a settler, I can't begin to understand how this works. I think I've learned to make sure something has been verified first. Journalism teaches you that if your mother says she loves you, check it out. A grandfather's oral history may sound great but you need to check that out first.

Latimer apologized for claimed historical roots without verification. She has also left the production of Trickster for Season 2.

Latimer had an amazing 2020 before this news. Inconvenient Indian won the Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. The festival also showed the first 2 episodes of Trickster. The U.S. audience will get Trickster on the CW beginning January 12.

The National Film Board just pulled the distribution of Inconvenient Indian. The film will also not play at the Sundance Film Festival. Hard to punish a film.

Authenticity is vital to the storytelling process, something Latimer should have known.

"There should be no debate on whether Michelle Latimer is Indigenous. She may have distant Indigenous ancestry but she is not recognized by the nations that she claims. Genetic ancestry does not prove Indigenous affiliation."

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers weighed in on this issue with an extremely thoughtful essay. You might remember Tailfeathers from The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, where she starred and co-directed with Kathleen Hepburn. We don't normally assign homework on this blog but this should be required reading.

2020 Toronto Raptors NBA preview

We ran the Toronto Raptors preview yesterday; the team's actual home opener (well, in Tampa, at least) is tonight against New Orleans.

The NHL has January 13 circled for the start of a 56-game season. The Canadian division due to the border issues thanks to COVID-19 should prove intriguing.

Canada selects 14 Jours, 12 Nuits for the Best International Feature Film for the Oscars

Funny Boy disqualified as Canada entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars

TIFF selects Top 10 Canadian films of 2020

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

You can catch up with the above links for those that missed the chaos over the weekend on the changes in the Best International Feature Film entry for the Academy Awards. Good to have a Plan B when Plan A had a small chance of making the cut.

If you have significant time off, you should look into our film reviews for excellent options for Canadian films and which ones to not watch as well. Funny Boy is an intriguing option for Canadians on CBC Gem and non-Canadians on Netflix, even with not being the Best International Feature Film entry for the Academy Awards. We will have plenty more Canadian film reviews in 2021.

photo credit: A Christmas Fury film

Shining a light on our Indigenous coverage

We want to do a better job of covering the Indigenous world within Canada for CanadianCrossing.com. We start out with a couple of stories that slipped through the cracks from earlier this year. Then we have a big announcement at the end.

Come learn with me? I’ve signed up for a (free) course through the University of Alberta called Indigenous Canada. 12 lessons that explore Indigenous histories and contemporary issues from an Indigenous perspective.

This little video explains it all. Sign up via link in my bio! pic.twitter.com/LccboMO8X2

— dan levy (@danjlevy) August 18, 2020

We have been intrigued as to how much Indigenous issues come out in Canada (unlike the United States where the Indigenous population is truly invisible) yet most Canadians don't seem as interested in learning more about their Indigenous neighbours.

Dan Levy, who is a rather famous Canadian these days, spent part of his COVID-19 pandemic isolation time to take a free 13-week online course on Indigenous history and issues at the University of Alberta. Levy's fame likely drew people into taking the course with him, though they were likely curious on their own.

Levy encouraged people to come along for the ride. He wanted them to make donations to the program, offering to match all donations up to $25,000. Levy did donate to the program since the fundraising goal was reached.

Searching for a good lobster roll in Nova Scotia

Celebrating advantages of the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market

CanadianCrossing.com Nova Scotia coverage

The R v Marshall 1999 Supreme Court of Canada ruling upheld the Halifax Treaties. The Mi'kmaq were allowed to make a "moderate livelihood" in lobster fishing. Despite the court's ruling, no one established what exactly that meant.

Earlier this year, the Mi'kmaq, after 21 years of indecision, set out to lobster fishing mainly in Saulnierville and Middle West Pubnico, Nova Scotia.

The reaction from non-Indigenous fishers was swift and vicious. Traps were taken in the water. A lobster pound was burned to the ground. The RCMP officers would stand there and not respond to the destruction.

The non-Indigenous fishers argued that the Mi'kmaq fishing would lead to overfishing. That argument proved quite weak, given how few boats the Mi'kmaq had compared to the commercial fishers.

A lobster boycott developed to support the Mi'kmaq in their efforts.

The kicker to the story that you might not have seen coming is that Mi’kmaq communities the Membertou and Miawpukek First Nations bought Nova Scotia-based Clearwater Seafoods in a deal worth $1 billion Canadian.

The Mi'kmaq had these rights for generations; those rights were validated in 1999 by the Supreme Court of Canada. They finally tried to take advantage of those inherent rights and were subject to violence and racism.

We talk about buying fair trade for chocolate; there should be something along the lines of fair trade lobster as well.

Montréal chef Chuck Hughes travels north to learn more about Indigenous food traditions in Chuck and the First Peoples' Kitchen. The show premiered this fall on APTN.

Hughes is the host yet he is there to learn from the people who doing the cooking.

Hughes has experience with food television in Canada and the United States. His warm and humble nature is helpful in these parts of Canada that most Canadians know very little of first hand.

The show is available in English and French. The first season had 13 episodes. This would be a great show to have in the United States.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

The Trudeau Government has introduced Bill C-10 to amend the Broadcasting Act to require broadcasters to fund Indigenous productions and provide content in Indigenous languages. The current act mentions Indigenous programming but doesn't require them.

While we have seen a number of Indigenous films, the TV offerings have been limited to shows such as Mohawk Girls and Trickster.

Little Mosque on the Prairie showcased Muslim characters. People need to see themselves on screen in films and television.

Mohawk Girls ran on OMNI Television and APTN during its run. The CBC showed the program this past summer and is available to Canadians on CBC Gem.

Canadian Museum of Human Rights needs a CEO who really understands human rights

Canadian film review: Angry Inuk

CanadianCrossing.com Indigenous coverage

We are launching a category on the right side of the blog for our Indigenous coverage.

Years ago, the question would occasionally come up: Is Canada a racist country? Your humble narrator didn't really have a sense of that back then. The English and French. White people and Indigenous people. Those were rather obvious. My standard answer was that there was racism but more subtle than what we have seen in the United States.

Now, we know a lot more about racism in Canada than we knew back then. Most of what your humble narrator has learned about the Indigenous population has been through Canadian films as well as visiting the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. That curiosity led to podcasts on topics, including racism, police conduct, clean water, food costs and food insecurity, and missing girls and women.

We talked about promoting Indigenous travel in our Thanksgiving 2020 notebook. That is a good way to learn about their culture. Understanding and curiosity is only the beginning of a better relationship between the Indigenous population and settlers from other parts of the world within Canada.

Twitter capture: @danjlevy
photo credit: me; Chuck and the First Peoples' Kitchen/APTN

McGill University comes out with Redbirds for men's teams

Given the relationship between Canada and its Indigenous population, sadly there was no surprise that some team nicknames were racist. This isn't a comparison to the United States; Canada must reckon with its own offensive nicknames.

We've talked and dealt with Edmonton's CFL franchise finally making the decision to shed its nickname. We haven't talked about much about the McGill University men's teams in Montréal.

The modern name for the women's teams have been known as the Martlets. The women's teams in the past unofficially built off the offensive terms based on the men's teams nickname.

The McGill men's teams will now be known as the Redbirds. There is a McGill history with Redbirds with the Red Birds Ski Club and other McGill sports clubs, teams and events using the Redbirds name.

The previous Red--men (imagine the nickname minus the dashes) had been in use since 1920 until April 2019.

Canadian film review: Hochelaga, Land of Souls

McGill, along with the Edmonton CFL team and the Washington NFL team, had a transition between dumping the offensive nickname and having a new team nickname.

Changing the nickname away from being offensive is significant; until you have a new nickname, some people would revert back to the old nickname without an alternative.

Edmonton hasn't played a game as The Team because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team did represent at the virtual Grey Cup Unite events. We've heard Empire and Energy for a new nickname though we love the Elks as a nickname. We'll take any nickname that isn't offensive.

The CFL released its 2021 schedule last week. If this happens, the Edmonton Football Team needs a new nickname before the team starts up again.

CFL notebook: Edmonton CFL team is now the Edmonton Football Team

Washington NFL nickname switch should inspire a similar move from the Edmonton CFL team

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

Using Indigenous people as racist overtones for sports nicknames has been quite popular in North America. A number of U.S. universities went through these steps years ago, such as Stanford, Miami of Ohio, and Marquette.

The nickname change is only the beginning of the process to improve relationships between Indigenous people and those who are not Indigenous.

photo credit: @RedZoneMTL

Trickster coming to the U.S. on the CW in January

Coroner, Fridge Wars, and now Trickster on the CW. Been quite a Canadian TV explosion on the U.S. based network lately. Trickster will make its U.S. debut on the CW starting January 12 at 9 pm Eastern.

The CBC series will have 6 episodes for Season 1 with Season 2 already guaranteed. Joel Oulette stars as Jared, an Indigenous teen who juggles dealing with a dysfunctional family and then starts seeing strange things.

Michelle Latimer adapted Trickster from the best-selling novel Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson. Latimer had a successful time at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival with Inconvenient Indian, winner of Best Canadian Feature Film and the Documentary Award. TIFF 2020 also showed the first 2 episodes of Trickster.

CW fans shouldn't be confused since Trickster was a character in The Flash that aired on the network.

The talent and voices that made #TricksterCBC a reality, in front of and behind the camera. pic.twitter.com/UIEKQz16Lu

— Trickster (@TricksterCBC) October 23, 2020

2020 CBC television fall preview

2020 CBC television upfront preview

2020 TIFF wrapup

Unlike Coroner or Fridge Wars, Trickster has a bit of swearing. As we have noted numerous times, Canadians can better handle swearing than those in the United States. CBC and CW are both over-the-air networks but that means more censorship in the United States, the "land of the free."

For those who prefer Trickster uncensored, the series will be available on Sundance Now and Shudder, which will stream the director’s cut of the series once the CW’s broadcast run has finished.

The series has also been sold to outlets in the UK, Australia, and Brazil.

Transplant makes U.S. debut on NBC

U.S. television turns to Canadian TV shows to fill gaps due to COVID-19

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

As for the fellow Canadian TV dramas on U.S. television, Transplant returns with Episode 8 next Tuesday after a 2-week hiatus. The CTV show only has 13 episodes so the NBC run should end around early December.

Coroner is already been shown through Season 2, Episode 5 last night. There are only 8 episodes in each season so the CW run might end in late November or early December at the latest.

We are hopeful that these U.S. networks continue to carry subsequent seasons of these Canadian TV shows.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

Canadians can watch Coroner, Fridge Wars, and Trickster on CBC Gem. Transplant can be found on the CTV Web site; the Canadian network is simsubbing the NBC telecasts in Canada.

video and photo credit: Trickster/CBC
Twitter capture: @TricksterCBC

Canadian Thanksgiving 2020: Trying to remain thankful

There had been a gathering of expats for Canadian Thanksgiving where I live. We started small but grew to about 100 people. The spot we found was really ideal: they already served a turkey dinner on Sunday nights. That restaurant closed in the spring of 2018. The story is familiar: the landlord raised the rent. The spot is still empty today.

You might notice in the picture above that the food is not a turkey dinner. They had the best fried chicken. What was I to do?

We couldn't find an alternative place in 2018 and 2019. Finding a spot in 2020 was fruitless since we wouldn't be able to do Thanksgiving anyway.

I miss the food at that place but the gathering of people was more special. I am thankful for those memories but wish I could make more memories.

Canadian travel bubbles could boost tourism within Canada

No CFL. The Toronto Blue Jays, Raptors, and Maple Leafs are not playing. No U Sports. Families advised to not get together for Thanksgiving but maybe Christmas.

The ability to celebrate Thanksgiving may depend on where you are in Canada. Ontario and Quebec have been reporting hundreds of COVID-19 cases per day.

On October 1, Atlantic Canada (including Newfoundland and Labrador) accounted for 13 of the 14,490 active COVID-19 cases in Canada. Those cases are are all travel-related.

The Atlantic travel bubble remains in effect. If you are from one of the 4 provinces, you can freely travel between the Atlantic provinces. If not, travelers have to isolate for 2 weeks.

Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil said the bubble won't open up "any time soon."

The push for Indigenous travel is timely in an odd fashion. Canadians are encouraged to travel within their own country thanks to the pandemic. The territories are discouraging outsiders from coming in but there are options closer to home as well.

Being more aware of the stories and land of these people would be a travel adventure most Canadians might not consider. Hopefully, the pandemic makes us appreciate more of our neighbours.

Destination Indigenous has a few ideas on where to go. Going somewhere new when travel options are limited can be fun and exciting. Your kids, if you have them, can learn about Indigenous culture.

We recommend a trip to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Your stay may not be that short since there is so much to take in during a visit.

Reflections on Canadian Thanksgiving 2018

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving 2017

We didn't do a Thanksgiving notebook in 2019. We were so busy with so many stories (Canada election, NHL, CFL, MLS, films) in 2019. Not so much this year. Sigh.

If you need a dose of recent Thanksgivings, we posted our 2017 and 2018 notebooks. Enjoy with turkey or reasonable substitute.

Yes, Americans. Canadians eat similar foods for their Thanksgiving. They often have butter tarts, something missing from American Thanksgiving plates.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Chicago International Film Festival, which starts next week, has not been kind to Canadian film in recent years. Not many titles and some very odd choices. Notable exceptions include Black Cop and The Twentieth Century, neither of which played at Windsor.

There are fewer films available for any film festival. The number of Canadian films in the 2020 Chicago International Film Festival: 0. Can't complain about the films brought in if there are no films to see. There could be a last-minute film addition. I still recall how they sneaked Felix and Meira into the festival with as little publicity as possible.

More ways to watch Schitt's Creek in the United States

Schitt's Creek wins 9 Emmys in its final season

We don't have to write about Schitt's Creek but can't help mentioning that the real-life Rosebud Motel in the Hockley Valley region in Ontario is up for sale.

The building is rather famous for fans of the show so a potential owner should take that under consideration. As for the rooms, we don't know anything about the actual motel rooms since the interior shots were from a soundstage in Toronto. 

The motel has been used for other projects such as the film A History of Violence from David Cronenberg. We found out that Jamal Murray of the NBA Denver Nuggets lived there for 2 years while playing for Orangeville Prep. The CBC documentary series Orangeville Prep was scheduled to debut this fall but has been delayed.

The motel's neighbours — Cafe Tropical, Bob's Garage, Rose Apothecary — are in nearby Goodwood, Ontario.

Who is Tim Stützle? #NHLDraft #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/KfYKyEcqMj

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 6, 2020

The Ottawa Senators, the only NHL team in Canada that hasn't played since March, was going to have a good evening on Monday for the NHL draft. The Sens had 3 1st-round picks. The team had a surprise for how the first of those picks would be announced.

Canadian treasure Alex Trebek, a University of Ottawa graduate, agreed to do a video to announce the first pick in the style of a Jeopardy question. Forward Tim Stuetzle will forever be the answer/question to that trivia note. Defenceman Jake Sanderson went at #5 and centre Ridly Greig at #28.

Twitter went wild with Trebek's announcement. We are thankful Trebek is still around to do such a cool presentation. Trebek, 80, is currently battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

The next NHL season will tentatively start on January 1, 2021.

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

For those Canadian fans who love the CFL, TSN2 is showing more than 24 hours of previous CFL Thanksgiving Classic games.

photo credit: me
video credit: YouTube/Canada Explore | Explorez
Twitter capture: @Senators

2020 TIFF wrapup

Announcing the recipient of the #TIFF20 Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film presented by @CanadaGoose: Michelle Latimer’s INCONVENIENT INDIAN pic.twitter.com/VJoCMCsDiw

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 20, 2020

The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival had some drive-in film journeys, a few IRL screenings, and mostly a streaming experience.

Beans from Tracey Deer finished 2nd runner up for the People's Choice Award. Inconvenient Indian from Michelle Latimer won the Documentary Award and Best Canadian Feature Film. The last documentary to win Best Canadian Feature Film was When Jews Were Funny (2013).

The sad news is that there is no award given for Best Canadian First Feature Film, an award that had been handed out since 1997. There weren't enough films to have this be a category in 2020.

Latimer's new TV show got a sneak preview. Trickster airs on CBC and CBC Gem early next month.

Your #TIFF20 People’s Choice Award runners-up 👇

1st runner-up: @ReginaKing’s ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI...
2nd runner-up: @TraceyDeer’s BEANS pic.twitter.com/fdLQEMcBS5

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 20, 2020

Tracey Deer was honoured with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards that aired in Canada on CTV. Variety streamed the awards internationally.

Nomadland from Chloé Zhao won the People's Choice Award. One Night in Miami, the directorial debut from Regina King, was 1st runner up. Beans finished behind those film as 2nd runner up. All 3 directors are female.

Latimer said she would split the $10,000 cash prize for Best Canadian Feature Film/Amplify Voices award evenly between 5 emerging Indigenous artists.

Canadian actor Eli Goree portrays Cassius Clay in One Night in Miami.

2020 TIFF preview

2020 TIFF Canadian film preview

When TIFF concentrated on Canadian films for the opening night film

2020 TIFF Rising Stars

We should know soon which Canadian film will compete for the Best International Feature Film. The Oscars category should be a lot more intriguing this season with limited Hollywood film fare. As we noted earlier, that film choice almost certainly won't come from 2020 TIFF.

In a year of limited film choices, maybe the selection will come from a Canadian co-production.

Antigone was the Best Canadian Feature Film of 2019 and Canada's submission to the Academy Awards.

Canadian film notebook: TIFF offering a digital version of Bell Lightbox

Q with Tom Power does a great job at spotlighting TIFF coverage even in normal times. Power's interview with Tracey Deer is especially poignant.

Power talked with director Charles Officer and writer Motion on heir new film Akilla's Escape. Directors Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt discussed their documentary No Ordinary Man, about trans jazz musician Billy Tipton.

Power also talks with Eli Glasner on his take of the 2020 version of TIFF. Glasner had high praise for Shiva Baby, a Canada co-production.

Q airs on CBC Radio One at 10 am local time and is available in podcast form.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Rising Stars Alumni and #TIFF20 Ambassador @tatianamaslany sent us this lovely message to reminisce about her first TIFF experience and to thank the audiences that keep coming back for more. pic.twitter.com/eGG3h2qz45

— TIFF Industry (@TIFF_Industry) September 11, 2020

Celebrity sightings. Streets filled with tourists. People waiting in line outside hoping to get into a sold-out screening. Those are some of what was missing from the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.

The realisation that digital screenings were limited was intriguing. The limit is quite logical to give the festival prestige. This 2020 version of TIFF was about the films more than the outside factors. A 2019 highlight was Tom Hanks ending up in a random cafe in Toronto. That was definitely missing in Toronto in 2020.

2020 TIFF Rising Stars

TIFF Rising Stars

We profiled the 2020 class of TIFF Rising Stars here. Here is the list from all the years.

2011 Sarah Allen, Katie Boland, Sarah Gadon, Keon Mohajeri

2012 Tatiana Maslany, Connor Jessup, Charlotte Sullivan, Charlie Carrick

2013 Megan Park, Johnathan Sousa, Evelyne Brochu, Cara Gee

2014 Shannon Kook, Sophie Desmarais, Alexandre Landry, Julia Sarah Stone

2015 Deragh Campbell, Stephan James, Aliocha Schneider, Karelle Tremblay

2016 Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki, Mylène Mackay, Sophie Nélisse

2017 Daniel Doheny, Mary Galloway, Théodore Pellerin, Ellen Wong

2018 Devery Jacobs, Lamar Johnson, Michaela Kurimsky, Jess Salgueiro

2019 Kacey Rohl, Mikhail Ahooja, Nahéma Ricci, Shamier Anderson

2020 Madeleine Sims-Fewer

Best Canadian Feature Film

I have added Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance and Cairo Time to the films I've seen from this list.

Best Canadian Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2020	Inconvenient Indian	Michelle Latimer
2019	Antigone	Sophie Deraspe
2018	The Fireflies Are Gone	Sebastien Pilote
2017	Les Affamés	Robin Aubert
2016	Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves	Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
2015	Closet Monster	Stephen Dunn
2014	Felix and Meira	Maxime Giroux
2013	When Jews Were Funny	Alan Zweig
2012	Laurence Anyways	Xavier Dolan
2011	Monsieur Lazhar	Philippe Falardeau
2010	Incendies	Denis Villeneuve
2009	Cairo Time	Ruba Nadda
2008	Lost Song	Rodrigue Jean
2007	My Winnipeg	Guy Maddin
2006	Manufactured Landscapes	Jennifer Baichwal
2005	C.R.A.Z.Y.	Jean-Marc Vallée
2004	It's All Gone Pete Tong	Michael Dowse
2003	Les Invasions Barbares	Denys Arcand
2002	Spider	David Cronenberg
2001	Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)	Zacharias Kunuk
2000	Waydowntown	Gary Burns
1999	The Five Senses	Jeremy Podeswa
1998	Nô	Robert Lepage
1997	The Sweet Hereafter	Atom Egoyan
	The Hanging Garden	Thom Fitzgerald
1996	Long's Day Journey Into The Night	David Wellington
1995	Live Bait	Bruce Sweeney
1994	Exotica	Atom Egoyan
1993	Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance	Alanis Obomsawin
1992	Requiem Pour Un Beau Sans-Coeur	Robert Morin
1991	The Adjuster	Atom Egoyan
1990	H	Darrell Wasyk
1989	Roadkill	Bruce McDonald
1988	The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick	Allan Goldstein
1987	Family Viewing	Atom Egoyan
1986	Le Déclin De L'empire Américain	Denys Arcand
1985	Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga Of Hal C. Banks	Donald Brittain
1984	La Femme De L'hôtel	Léa Pool
Best Canadian Feature Film (1991-present); Excellence in Canadian Production (1984-1990).

 

Best Canadian First Feature Film

I've added Luk' Luk'l and Bang Bang Baby. Would love to find Love, Sex and Eating The Bones. Films are much harder to find in this category. Sad that we don't have a 2020 entry but not enough films to qualify in this category.

Best Canadian First Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2020	no award given	no award given
2019	The Twentieth Century	Matthew Rankin
2018	Roads in February	Katherine Jerkovic
2017	Luk' Luk'l	Wayne Wapeemukwa
2016	Old Stone	Johnny Ma
2015	Sleeping Giant	Andrew Cividino
2014	Bang Bang Baby	Jeffrey St. Jules
2013	Asphalt Watches	Shayne Ehman, Seth Scriver
2012	Antiviral	Brandon Cronenberg
	Blackbird	Jason Buxton
2011	Edwin Boyd	Nathan Morlando
2010	The High Cost of Living	Deborah Chow
2009	The Wild Hunt	Alexandre Franchi
2008	Before Tomorrow	Marie-Hélène Cousineau
		Madeline Piujuq Ivalu
2007	Un Film Sans Fusil Continental	Stéphane Lafleur
2006	Sur La Trace D'igor Rizzi	Nöel Mitrani
2005	The Life And Hard Times Of Guy Terrifico	Louise Archambault, Michael Mabbott
2004	La Peau Blanche	Daniel Roby
2003	Love, Sex and Eating The Bones	Sudz Sutherland
2002	Marion Bridge	Wiebke Von Carolsfeld
2001	Inertia	Sean Garrity
2000	La Moitié Gauche Du Frigo	Philippe Falardeau
1999	Just Watch Me:	Catherine Annau
	Trudeau and The 70's Generation
1998	Last Night	Don McKellar
1997	Cube Vincenzo	Natali
As determined by the Toronto International Film Festival.

 

You can check out all the award winners. The 46th Toronto International Film Festival will hopefully be relatively normal in September 2021.

Twitter captures: @TIFF_net (x2); @TIFF_Industry
photo credit: Inconvenient Indian filmm

Canadian film review: Indian Horse

The real stories of Indigenous people who suffered wounds of all different kinds from residential schools can't always be captured well on film. Some stories have triumph within tragedy. Some stories are mostly tragedy.

Indian Horse falls in the latter category. You sense within minutes of this film that a lot of heartache is coming.

Saul lives deep in the wild with his parents and grandmother. His older brother takes ill at a residential school and later dies. His parents, who converted to Christianity, focus on their dead son and leave Saul behind with his grandmother.

After his grandmother dies, Saul is caught by the authorities and sent to a residential school.

The only saving grace for Saul is that he is really good at hockey. The team doesn't want him at first because Saul is Indigenous. Eventually, his talent takes over.

Saul finds some solace when he sent to play with a team comprised on Indigenous players in a small mining town.

Saul has good teammate support with his fellow Indigenous players. He gets to the Toronto Monarchs and his teammates don't really talk to him.

The story is about Saul's inner struggle with adaptation in his various worlds. There is a sad sense but we learn very little about what Saul is thinking.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The film is a bunch of chapters loosely bound together. A bunch of horrible things happen without much warmth or anything reasonably pleasant.

You get the desolate circumstances for Saul and other Indigenous children over multiple generations. If you know absolutely nothing on this topic, you will get a good sense of what really happened. Indian Horse is a pretty good film, just really difficult to watch. Some of that unpleasantness is the story and also how the story is told.

The film is an adaptation of Ojibwe author Richard Wagamese's 2012 novel of the same name. You might learn more about Saul in the book as opposed to the film.

Sladen Peltier, as the 6-year-old version of Saul, got a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Vance Banzo, a member of Tallboyz, does a good job as one of Saul's Indigenous teammates.

The film was released theatrically, playing at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Yet the film was originally supposed to be a TV movie for Super Channel. The film does have a feel like a TV movie.

Indian Horse was actually the highest-grossing English Canadian film of 2018. So others clearly disagree with this review.

Indian Horse is available on Netflix.

video credit: YouTube/YouTube Movies
photo credit: Indian Horse film

2020 TIFF preview

We have a 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. A day shorter and a whole lot fewer films on the schedule. Fewer crowds and parties. A lot fewer attendees, thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The show is going on.

Tonight's opening night film is David Byrne’s American Utopia from Spike Lee.

2020 TIFF Canadian film preview

TIFF added a couple of Canadian titles. Akilla's Escape, a crime-noir about an urban child-soldier directed by Canadian filmmaker Charles Officer, is one of 4 titles in the Planet Africa program. The Canadian documentary Underplayed by Stacey Lee focuses on gender inequality in the electronic music scene.

For all the Canadian related content, including short films, TIFF has the films listed by country. Select Country/Region on the left-hand menu and pick Canada.

When TIFF concentrated on Canadian films for the opening night film

2020 TIFF Rising Stars

Where and how the films will be shown are definitely unique. The Bell Lightbox will host some films with a maximum of 50 guests per indoor cinema. TIFF will screen films on Bell Digital Cinema, its online platform. Other venues include a pair of drive-ins and an open-air cinema.

Online films are geoblocked to all of Canada with a 24-hour viewing time limit. Canadians have an advantage in the 2020 TIFF, even watching films online is a lot cheaper than a Toronto hotel room.

Canadian film notebook: TIFF offering a digital version of Bell Lightbox

TIFF Bell Lightbox extends closure to July 1

Masks are required in the Bell Lightbox but not "when seated in-cinema." Wearing a mask is optional at TIFF’s outdoor screenings.

Canadian film review: I've Heard the Mermaids Singing

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

45 years of TIFF:
I'VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING, TIFF '87#TIFF20 pic.twitter.com/3QVf8xbZdc

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 8, 2020

Needed a reminder of TIFFs from the past. We reviewed this film awhile back. This was a breakthrough film for Patricia Rozema. Maybe 2020 TIFF will help another Canadian film make a similar impact.

The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival runs today through September 19.

photo credit: Beans film
Twitter capture: @TIFF_net

Canadian Museum of Human Rights needs a CEO who really understands human rights

Editor's note: Our proposal was written before the Canadian Museum of Human Rights named a new president and CEO. We sincerely hope Isha Khan will make a glowing and positive presence for the museum. We still submit our application.

I certainly have made a few arguments on how I could make an impact in Canada in various positions over the years. The requirements for the Canadian Senate are full of minutia.

You could argue that I haven't worked in a museum or been a CEO of a non-profit organisation. There is an opening for the CEO at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg after allegations of 'pervasive and systemic' racism.

So why would I be a great CEO for the Canadian Museum of Human Rights?

Why I should be the new CFL commissioner

Canadian ambassadors should know Canada really well

New U.S. ambassador to Canada should know Canada before taking job

What if Justin Trudeau could appoint me to the Canadian Senate?

On the surface, I would not be the ideal CEO for a human rights museum in 2020 since I am a white male from the United States. I understand that. Here is why I might be the ideal candidate.

my love of Canadian film, including Indigenous stories — I likely have seen more documentaries and feature films of Indigenous people than most Canadians who are not Indigenous.

work as a journalist — Covering people's stories who don't normally get enough exposure, you learn to listen and let other people tell their stories. I have the inherent curiosity paramount to a good journalist.

love of history — I almost minored in history at university. I have a strong interest in learning stories from the past and how they relate to the present and the future.

principled approach to offensive sports nicknames — We have never published any of the offensive nicknames for any sports teams at CanadianCrossing.com.

the outsider element — I don't have biases against French-speaking people or Indigenous people. I don't have a province of bias since I am not from any province. I do know enough Canadian history but as an outsider.

empathy and sensitivity — People need to be heard and listened to with understanding. I might be in my box with my outside but feel comfortable being the only white or male or both in a room. I understand the need to have a harmonious workplace where people feel comfortable and safe. Good for those people but also the best way to get the most from your employees.

willingness to live in Winnipeg — I have been to Winnipeg and the museum. I enjoyed my time there. I don't have a snob reaction to living in Winnipeg.

Canada's leading export might be values promoting human rights

After seeing Winnipeg on TV, you should go see for yourself

Saskatoon berries a great reason to visit the Prairies

CFL in the Prairies is where the league shines

Finding my own personal Winnipeg

CanadianCrossing.com Manitoba coverage

You are often asked in job interviews about your motivations for why you want this particular position. You can't say "Canada. Winnipeg." and expect to get the job. You breathe a sigh and give an unexpectedly honest, blunt answer.

"At this point in my life, my career, I want to be somewhere to make a difference. I don't want this job just as a job. I want to be here at least a decade if not longer. I want this to be the last job interview I have in a good way."

"When I was here in Winnipeg, I heard in separate conversations from white women who told me they would never go in the Canadian Museum of Human Rights because Indigenous people get in for free. I had not been to the museum before these conversations. I was stunned each time I ran across the line, surprised that these women, who did not know each other, would repeat the same line. I hope that I become the new CEO to have a good response as a comeback. I would preach to the converted in this job but I also hope to have opportunities to show people such as these women the meaningfulness of why the museum is for everyone because all humans have rights."

If you are interested in learning more, you can go to the CanadianCrossing.com home page and click on "Email me."

photo credits: me