The publishing of Stephen Broomer’s Hamilton Babylon: A History of the McMaster Film Board last year along with some screenings revealed this too little known artistic
movement in Canadian cinema. The year is 1966 and the newly founded McMaster
University’s film department is ideologically torn between the aesthetic
projects of its two founders: whether it should continue in the vein of the
avant-garde films of John Hofsess or of the broad comedies of Ivan Reitman? It’s
a stimulating read, extensively researched and full of original commentary, and
reveals fundamental problems for the Canadian film industry, both for the experimental and narrative sectors, that are still relevant today.
100 Best
Canadian Films is a series of personal
surveys of the history of Canadian cinema. Other lists includes those by Paul Corupe, David L. Pike, Jerry White, André Loiselle, Paul Williams, Greg Klymkiw, Pat Mullen, Jason Anderson, Daniel Kremer, Yves Lever, Piers Handling, Marcel Jean, Mike Hoolboom and myself. – D.D.
***
99 CANADIAN
FILMS
Dear
David: In response to your request for a list of 100 significant Canadian
films, I have chosen to give you an idiosyncratic list of 99 films that
informed my sense of Canadian cinema’s scope
’n variety, films I encountered growing up in Toronto, on local television, and
in school and through such diverse sources as Cinematheque Ontario,
Canuxploitation, and Pratley’s Feature Film Guide. I have tried to give an
equal weighting to fiction, documentary, and experimental films, since Canada’s
got such a rich tradition across the board. But don’t expect only ‘rich tradition’!
If I could, I’d put every TV movie Emmeritus Productions ever made on this list
(tip of the hat to Paul C.) – S.B.
FICTION/DOCUDRAMA:
The Bitter Ash (Larry Kent,
1963)
À tout prendre (Claude Jutra,
1963)
Winter Kept us
Warm (David
Secter, 1965)
Countdown Canada
(Rob
Fothergill, 1967)
Picaro (Iain Ewing,
1967)
The Best Damn
Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar (Peter Pearson, 1968)
The Neon Palace (Peter Rowe,
1970)
The Only Thing
You Know (Clarke
Mackey, 1971)
Rip-Off (Don Shebib,
1971)
The Pyx (Harvey Hart,
1973)
Wedding in White
(William
Fruet, 1973)
Paperback Hero (Peter Pearson,
1973)
Black Christmas (Bob Clark,
1974)
Recommendation
for Mercy (Murray
Markowitz, 1974)
Les Ordres (Michel Brault,
1974)
Skip Tracer (Zale Dalen,
1977)
Blood Relatives (Claude Chabrol,
1978)
The Brood (David
Cronenberg, 1979)
Mourir à
tue-tête (Anne
Claire Poirier, 1979)
My Bloody
Valentine (George
Mihalka, 1981)
Visiting Hours (Jean-Claude
Lord, 1982)
Beyond the
Seventh Door (Bozidar
D. Benedikt, 1987)
Un zoo la nuit (Jean-Claude
Lauzon, 1987)
The Carpenter (David
Wellington, 1988)
Tommy Tricker
and the Stamp Traveller (Michael Rubbo, 1988)
George’s Island (Paul Donovan,
1989)
Highway 61 (Bruce McDonald,
1991)
Careful (Guy Maddin,
1992)
Liar’s Edge (Ron Oliver,
1992)
Calendar (Atom Egoyan,
1993)
Zero Patience (John Greyson,
1993)
Sweet Angel Mine
(Curtis
Radclyffe, 1996)
Jesus Christ
Vampire Hunter (Lee
Demarbre, 2001)
DOCUMENTARY:
Churchill’s
Island (Stuart
Legg, 1941)
Paul Tomkowicz:
Street-railway switchman (Roman Kroiter, 1954)
Corral (Colin Low,
1954)
The Days Before
Christmas (Stanley
Jackson, Wolf Koenig and Terence Macartney-Filgate, 1958)
Pour la suite du
monde (Pierre
Perrault, 1963)
Revival (Don Shebib,
1965)
Helicopter
Canada (Eugene
Boyko, 1966)
Ladies and
Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen (Donald Brittain and Don Owen, 1966)
The Things I
Cannot Change (Tanya
Ballantyne, 1966)
The Fogo Process
Films
(Colin Low, 1967)
R34 (Jack Chambers,
1967)
A Married Couple
(Allan
King, 1969)
Sad Song of
Yellow Skin (Michael
Rubbo, 1970)
August and July (Murray
Markowitz, 1973)
Accident (Patrick Crawley
and Martin Duckworth, 1973)
Volcano: An
Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (Donald
Brittain, 1976)
The Inquiry Film
(Jesse
Nishihata, 1977)
Home for
Christmas (Rick
Hancox, 1978)
Hookers on Davie
(Janis
Cole and Holly Dale, 1984)
Artist on Fire:
Joyce Wieland (Kay
Armatage, 1987)
Comic Book
Confidential (Ron
Mann, 1988)
Kanehsatake: 270
Years of Resistance (Alanis
Obomsawin, 1993)
In the Gutter
and Other Good Places (Cristine Richey, 1993)
Reconstruction (Laurence Green,
1995)
Fiction and
Other Truths: A Film about Jane Rule (Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman,
1995)
Project Grizzly (Peter Lynch,
1996)
A Place Called
Chiapas (Nettie
Wild, 1998)
Claire’s Hat (Bruce McDonald,
2001)
Gambling, Gods
and LSD (Peter
Mettler, 2002)
Tyler’s Barrel (Matt Gallagher,
2002)
Hardwood (Hubert Davis,
2005)
Special Ed (John
Paskievich, 2013)
I Drink (Peter McAuley
and Jim Shedden, 2013)
EXPERIMENTAL:
Portrait of
Lydia (John
Straiton, 1964)
Steel Mushrooms (Gary Lee-Nova,
1967)
Palace of
Pleasure (John
Hofsess, 1967)
Soul Freeze (Bob Cowan,
1967)
Rat Life and
Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland, 1968)
Reason Over
Passion (Joyce
Wieland, 1969)
The Hart of
London (Jack
Chambers, 1970)
Connexions (Greg Curnoe,
1970)
Wildwood Flower (Keewatin
Dewdney, 1970)
Essai à la mille
(Jean-Claude
Labrecque, 1970)
N-Zone (Arthur Lipsett,
1970)
Variations on a
Cellophane Wrapper (David
Rimmer, 1970)
La region
centrale (Michael
Snow, 1971)
Rhapsody on a
Theme from a House Movie (Lorne Marin, 1972)
Hearts in
Harmony (Judy
Steed, 1973)
Rameau’s Nephew
by Diderot (Thanx
to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (Michael Snow, 1974)
Sweet Movie (Dusan
Makavejev, 1974)
Everything
Everywhere Again Alive (Keith Lock, 1975)
Black Forest
Trading Post (Andrew
Lugg, 1976)
Trapline (Ellie Epp,
1977)
The Art of
Worldly Wisdom (R.
Bruce Elder, 1979)
The Road Ended
at the Beach (Phil
Hoffman, 1983)
Landfall (Rick Hancox,
1983)
On Land Over
Water (Six Stories) (Richard
Kerr, 1984)
36 Short Films (James D. Smith,
1984)
Bricolage (David Rimmer,
1985)
A Trilogy (Barbara
Sternberg, 1985)
Undivided
Attention (Chris
Gallagher, 1987)
Consolations
(Love is an Art of Time) (R. Bruce Elder, 1988)
Cloister (Carl E. Brown,
1989)
Machine in the
Garden (Richard
Kerr, 1991)
Ville Marie (Alexandre
Larose, 2006-2009)
Axis (John Kneller,
2014)
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