Over the weekend, The Genie Awards came to Ottawa. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Genies, they are the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars. Saying that, I am struck by the likelihood that more Canadians know about the Oscars than the Genies. And that is precisely one of the reasons they were awarded in Ottawa for the first time—so just maybe the government will begin to notice an industry that is asking not for a bailout due to years of strategic errors but rather for an investment after years of success in the face of neglect. It is unlikely this government will pay much attention to its cinematic storytellers when they recently failed to gain a majority due to, among other reasons, underestimating the importance of culture in Quebec…and how, dear reader, can a federal party which seeks to run the country possibly underestimate THAT?
Canadian film, it would seem, is barely on the radar. Though the artists create successes like The Barbarian Invasions and Atanarjuat:The Fast Runner, Canada, the government, pays scant attention; Canadians, however, do, especially when given a chance. This weekend all the venues showing the Canadian films nominated for Genies had long line-ups. Surprise, surprise. You mean there might be an audience for these films?
So rarely do Canadian films make it into the large theatres that the producer of the film Passchendale, which won for best picture, actually thanked the Cineplex-Odeon theatre chain for giving it screen time. Hellooo? What’s wrong with this picture? A Canadian producer thanks a theatre chain in Canada for showing a Canadian film! Now you can see the difference: such a farce would simply never happen in the U.S; in Canada it happens, and nobody seems to think it terribly odd.
The winner walks up to the podium to accept their Genie: Thank you. I'd like to give special thanks to Cineplex-Odeon, without whose support…Art and audience need one another; how sad when they can't find each other. As Carl Bessai, the producer of Normal, put it: "Canadians don't hate our films, they're just not aware of them."
Canadian film, it would seem, is barely on the radar. Though the artists create successes like The Barbarian Invasions and Atanarjuat:The Fast Runner, Canada, the government, pays scant attention; Canadians, however, do, especially when given a chance. This weekend all the venues showing the Canadian films nominated for Genies had long line-ups. Surprise, surprise. You mean there might be an audience for these films?
So rarely do Canadian films make it into the large theatres that the producer of the film Passchendale, which won for best picture, actually thanked the Cineplex-Odeon theatre chain for giving it screen time. Hellooo? What’s wrong with this picture? A Canadian producer thanks a theatre chain in Canada for showing a Canadian film! Now you can see the difference: such a farce would simply never happen in the U.S; in Canada it happens, and nobody seems to think it terribly odd.
The winner walks up to the podium to accept their Genie: Thank you. I'd like to give special thanks to Cineplex-Odeon, without whose support…Art and audience need one another; how sad when they can't find each other. As Carl Bessai, the producer of Normal, put it: "Canadians don't hate our films, they're just not aware of them."
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