100 Best Canadian Films – Helen Faradji

It was around 2010 when I discovered Helen Faradji’s regular editorials to the online website of the Québécois film magazine 24 Images. They were stimulating, relevant, critical, written with care and generous. Not only did they engage with the Québécois film community directly but also the rest of the world, the history of cinema and online film culture. This was something unique as the ‘serious’ film critics that I read – the Ciment’s and the Delorme’s – didn’t talk about anything remotely Canadian and the internet was still a terra non grata. Also the magazine itself, with two women in the lead editorship positions (this includes Marie-Claude Loiselle), regularly put forward (and still does) extensive dossiers on the history of Canadian, though specifically Québécois, cinema. The first issue I bought is from October-November 2010 with the feature ‘Rêver L’ONF de Demain’. This sort of publishing just doesn’t happen in English-language Canada: where in Montreal they honor the film history that I came before them in Toronto, and other places in English-Canada, it just seems like young directors like to publicly complain about funding and distribution. But what about the past?! It just seems like a minority interest after having attended a few of the Canada on Screen series that only had about another twelve people in attendance…

But anyways, I’m honored to post Faradji’s 100 Best Canadian Films list since I think it’s a good one and I’ve both learned a lot and have been influenced by her 24 Images editorials, up until she stopped writing them in 2015.

100 Best Canadian Films is an open series of personal surveys of the history of Canadian cinema. Other lists includes those by Fabrice Montal, Stephen Broomer, 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. Please let me know if you’re interested in contributing. – D.D.

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Helen Faradji’s 100 Best Canadian Films

- Begone Dull Care, Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart (1949)

- Neighbours, Norman McLaren (1952)

- The Days Before Christmas, Stanley Jackson, Wolf Koenig, Terence McCartney-Filgate, (1958)

- Les raquetteurs, Gilles Groulx, Michel Brault (1958)

- Very Nice, Very Nice, Arthur Lipsett (1961)

- La Lutte, Michel Brault, Marcel Carrière, Claude Fournier, Claude Jutra (1961)

- Les Bûcherons de la Manouane, Arthur Lamothe (1962)

- Lonely Boy, Wolf Koenig, Roman Kroitor (1962)

- Nobody Waved Good-bye, Don Owen (1964)

- Pour la suite du monde, Pierre Perrault, Michel Brault (1963)

- Le Chat dans le sac, Gilles Groulx (1964)

- À tout prendre, Claude Jutra (1964)

- Rouli-Roulant, Claude Jutra, (1965)

- La vie heureuse de Léopold Z., Gilles Carle, (1965)

- Entre la mer et l’eau douce, Michel Brault (1967)

- Wavelength, Michael Snow (1967)

- Pas de deux, Norman McLaren (1968)

- A Married Couple, Allan King (1969)

- On est au coton, Denys Arcand (1970)

- On est loin du soleil, Jacques Leduc (1970)

- La région centrale, Michael Snow (1971)

- Mon oncle Antoine, Claude Jutra (1971)

- La vraie nature de Bernadette, Gilles Carle (1972)

- Le temps d'une chasse, Francis Mankiewicz (1972)

- La vie rêvée, Mireille Dansereau (1972)

- La maudite galette, Denys Arcand (1972)

- Réjeanne Padovani, Denys Arcand (1973)

- La mort d’un bûcheron, Gilles Carle, 1973

- Il était une fois dans l’Est, André Brassard (1974)

- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Ted Kotcheff (1974)

- Black Christmas, Bob Clark (1974)

- Bar salon, André Forcier (1974)

- Night Cap, André Forcier (1974)

- Les ordres, Michel Brault (1974)

- Shivers, David Cronenberg (1975)

- L’eau chaude, l’eau frette, André Forcier (1976)

- Parlez-nous d’amour, Jean-Claude Lord (1976)

- Le vieux pays où Rimbaud est mort, Jean Pierre Lefebvre (1977)

- Chronique de la vie quotidienne: Samedi, Pierre Bernier, Jean Chabot, Roger Frappier, Claude Grenier, Jacques Leduc (1977)

- J. A. Martin, photographe, Jean Beaudin (1977)

- Pea Soup, Pierre Falardeau et Julien Poulin (1979)

- Les bons débarras, Francis Mankiewicz (1979)

- Mourir à tue-tête, Anne Claire Poirier (1979)

- Le confort et l’indifférence, Denys Arcand (1981)

- Crac!, Frédéric Back (1981)

- La bête lumineuse, Pierre Perrault (1982)

- Au clair de la lune, André Forcier (1982)

- Videodrome, David Cronenberg (1983)       

- La guerre des tuques, André Melançon (1984)

- La femme de l’hôtel, Léa Pool (1984)

- Sonatine, Micheline Lanctôt (1984)

- Le voleur vit en enfer, Robert Morin, Lorraine Dufour (1984)

- Elvis Gratton, Pierre Falardeau (1985)

- Le déclin de l'empire américain, Denys Arcand (1986)

- Un zoo la nuit, Jean-Claude Lauzon (1987)          

- Family Viewing, Atom Egoyan (1987)

- L’homme qui plantait des arbres, Frédéric Back (1987)

- Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg (1988)

- Alias Will James, Jacques Godbout (1988)

- Le party, Pierre Falardeau (1989)

- Jésus de Montréal, Denys Arcand (1989)

- Naked Lunch, David Cronenberg (1991)

- Léolo, Jean-Claude Lauzon (1992)

- Requiem pour un beau sans cœur, Robert Morin (1992)

- Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, François Girard (1993)

- Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, Alanis Obomsawin (1993)

- Yes Sir! Madame…, Robert Morin (1994)

- Exotica, Atom Egoyan (1994)

- Crash, David Cronenberg (1996)

- Hustler White, Bruce LaBruce (1996)

- Hard Core Logo, Bruce McDonald (1996)

- The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan (1997)

- Last Night, Don McKellar (1998)

- When the Day Breaks, Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis (1999)

- Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Zacharias Kunuk (2001)

- Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary, Guy Maddin (2002)

- Gaz Bar Blues, Louis Bélanger (2003)

- The Corporation, Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott (2003)

- La face cachée de la lune, Robert Lepage (2003)

- The Saddest Music in the World, Guy Maddin (2003)

- Ryan, Chris Landreth (2004)

- C.R.A.Z.Y., Jean-Marc Vallée (2005)

- Petit Pow! Pow! Noël, Robert Morin (2005)

- Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal (2006)

- My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin (2007)

- Up the Yangtze, Yung Chang, 2007

- Rechercher Victor Pellerin, Sophie Deraspe, 2007

- À l'ouest de Pluton, Henry Bernadet, Myriam Verreault (2008)

- Next Floor, Denis Villeneuve (2008)

- Hommes à louer, Rodrigue Jean (2009)

- Incendies, Denis Villeneuve (2010)

- Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg (2012)

- Enemy, Denis Villeneuve (2013)

- Felix et Meira, Maxime Giroux (2014)

- Mommy, Xavier Dolan (2014)

- Minarsky, chute mortelle, Matthew Rankin (2015)

- Les démons, Philippe Lesage (2015)

- Vaysha l’aveugle, Theodore Ushev (2016)

- Room, Lenny Abrahamson (2016)

- Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n'ont fait que se creuser un tombeau, Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie (2016)

A Cinema Of Imagination in English Canada

The release of Big Little Lies out now on Blu-ray is a reminder of what’s lacking so much in Canadian cinema: beauty, generosity and spirit. The community of and around these three mothers and their children is going through many challenges and problems but there’s a resilience that holds everyone together. The interior emotional world of these characters oscillates between anger and joy, sadness and humor. It’s by this fine balance, accentuated by a powerful soundtrack, that Big Little Lies captures a truth of the human spirit today. The image that comes to mind is that of Madeline telling people to fuck off with a smile as she has the best interest of her family and friends in mind. That is to mean well and to fight for it. In Big Little Lies everyone are themselves: they are complex characters that have experienced challenges, they are beautiful and full of emotions, they need to be loved and are loving, and at the end they get what they need (to cite the Rolling Stones song that plays during the end credits). If Jean-Marc Vallée is still the best working Canadian director it’s not because he has gone stateside and has more resources (though this is obviously a plus as it has given him more freedom), it’s because he proposes a cinema of three things: dreams, imagination and winning.

            So to repeat these three terms, since they are so necessary though actually scarce: dreams, imagination and winning. Dreams as it’s so important to believe in a future or another world where so many of today’s problems are no longer prescient and happiness is possible. Imagination as it’s necessary to believe, to imagine these possibilities and relationships to make them real. And finally winning as it through these wishes coming true and perseverance eventually paying off, which gives meaning to the struggle that it took to get there. Humanist beliefs for sure, but why have they become so hard to find and rare in an English Canadian cinema? Why is it when so many Canadian directors finally get a chance to make a film the end result is usually the opposite: reality, oppression and defeat? A collective imagination doesn’t have to essentially rely on social reality and its problems, an individual defeat that’s a symptom of institutional malaise. Why instead of dreaming success and victory that instead so many of these directors put forward defeat and failure? I know that the world is and can be a shitty place but this only makes the potential for imagination and victory even more important: at least in art it doesn’t have to be.

            Jacques Rancière can be valuable here as he has a novel manner to articulate the link between art and democratic politics. His concept of the distribution of the sensible refers to the communal forms of naturalized perception within a particular social order. For Rancière social formations are naturally oligarchic therefore the powers of artistic operations are capable of reconfiguring hegemonic perceptions of reality. Art is able to dispute any sense that existed meanings of socio-cultural life is inevitable. This can be seen in his two favored regimes of imageness: the artistic image for Rancière, which creates discrepancies within a given order of expectation of reality as it attempts to dismantle normalized standards of representation; and symbolic montage that connects disparate elements to create affinities, whose co-belonging shows these elements as being part of the same world, as it blends familiarity with mystery. Two other important terms are politics which for Rancière is anything that reframes the sensory community and police which is anything that reinforces the status quo.

            Through a Rancièrien perspective the positive qualities of this idea of an English language Canadian Cinema of the Imagination becomes political, in that they imagine a world of co-habituation while also troubling the apparatus, the institutions that circulate in the financing and distribution of these works. 
            The current genre of the English Canadian miserablist drama seems to be have been solidified by the institutionalization of the discourse formations of and surrounding the work of Atom Egoyan – whose films regularly denounces the problems of society and shows the effects of alienation, while routinely being celebrated for it – as this model, and themes about Canadian fiction like the garrison mentality and weird sex and snow shoes, has ended up creating a collective imagination of individuals being separated instead of finding a place within a larger social community. This ossification might have its roots in the creation of a state-sponsored fiction film industry in favor of social portrayals and in opposition to the communal popularity of American films. It can even be seen as disseminating into current CBC television productions like the reboot of Anne of Green Gables that focuses more on sensationalism and violence than the earlier joyous moments and accomplishments of its original. In this context programming can be seen as supporting this industry and curation favoring those that work within this system.

            Part of this problem is that there are so few directors with a clear, personal vision of hope. Instead of believing in coherence and breath the reigning model is that of fragmentation and group-consensus. Feeding social expectations and stereotypes instead of exceeding them.

If there’s a noble tradition in English Canadian cinema its roots can be seen in the work of Don Owen and Allan King: the documentary tradition, focusing on the people and streets of Toronto and elsewhere, as it hesitates towards fiction. In this middle-ground there is room for imagination to appear where through improvisation surprises can occur to show off what makes us unique. This tradition can be seen as continuing in the work of Kazik Radwanski (Scaffold) and Matt Johnson (Nirvanna The Band The Show). But there’s also a more imaginative Canadian film history hidden behind this: I’m thinking about the line that traces John Paizs’ Crime Wave to Matt Johnson’s Operation Avalanche in English Canada, and Gilles Carle’s La vie heureuse de Léopold Z to Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. in Québec. A leap to dreams, imagination and winning is possible and nobler. And there’s a history of these works in Canadian cinema that shows it has been done in the past. Some examples that come to mind includes King’s Who Has Seen the Wind?, Peter Mettler’s The Top of his Head, Donald Brittain’s Family: A Loving Look at CBC Radio and Terrance Odette’s Saint Monica.

So how to break the mold? How to combat individualism and cynicism? The answer, to restate it, is quite simple (though hard to achieve): find the possibility to dream, imagine and find success (how ever intimate it’s defined: it can be as small as two friends high-fiving after a rough day). Some recent examples that come to mind that strive for this includes Pierce Csurgo and Mitch Greenberg’s La Chasse and its fantasy narrative to recover a stolen painting; the expanded cinema route of Rebeccah Love’s live readings of short stories and plays and the over-ambitiousness of the longer short film Acres; or finally Mark Cira’s work that’s oversaturated with symbolism whether through the story of a young girl being diagnosed with diabetes (Sweet Yoyo) or an out of control Instagram short.

This Cinema of Imagination in English Canada would be one that’s loyal to one’s emotions and intellect. It would need to be faithful to one’s personal history and the people that have crossed it. It’s currently what’s so exciting about Canadian cinema and it might just have to take place at the margins: A small group of friends making work, coming together and dreaming that happiness and success is possible.

100 Best Canadian Films – Fabrice Montal

As an important programmer at the Cinémathèque québécoise, I need to thank Fabrice Montal for this list. I’m impressed by the choices and the range, and I'm especially impressed how Jean-Marc Vallée’s Les mots magiques was included. It's really rare. Montal is also an important scholar on the work of the Montreal experimental filmmaker Robert Morin.
Aside from a general difficulty to get people to contribute (though I'm very grateful to everyone that has!) some things have become apparent after having run the 100 Best Canadian Films series for almost six months and getting fifteen lists: It seems like there are more Québécois folks who are (very) knowledgeable of their own province's cinema, compared to Anglophones and an English Canadian narrative cinema. Perhaps not too surprisingly, there is a stronger enthusiasm for Canadian cinema in places and cities other than Toronto (we can be a little jaded here). A couple of Americans contributed, which shows that Canadian cinema has made an impact elsewhere. And I wish that I received more contributions from more diverse contributors, but hopefully this will remedy itself through future contributors. A reminder: 100 Best Canadian Films is an open series and please let me know if you want to, or know anyone, that would like contribute
(I could be reached at through my email davidd329@gmail.com).
100 Best Canadian Films is a series of personal surveys of the history of Canadian cinema. Other lists includes those by Stephen Broomer, 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.

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Here are my choices, a list made sincerely and randomly. No order at all. No hierarchy. No genre. – F.M.

Fabrice Montal’s 100 Best Canadian Films

- Yes Sir! Madame (Robert Morin, 1994)

- L’eau chaude, l’eau frette (André Forcier, 1976)

- Requiem pour un beau sans-cœur (Robert Morin, 1992)

- Warrendale (Allan King, 1967)

- Soif (Michèle Cournoyer, 2013)

- Mon Oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)

- Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (Guy Maddin, 2002)

- Le Déclin de l’empire américain (Denys Arcand, 1986)

- eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)

- Mourir à tue-tête (Anne Claire Poirier, 1979)

- Away from Her (Sarah Polley, 2006)

- Les bons débarras (Francis Mankievicz, 1980)

- 88 : 88 (Isiah Medina, 2015)

- Sonatine (Micheline Lanctôt, 1984)

- Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)

- La Région Centrale (Michael Snow, 1971)

- La Lutte (Michel Brault, Marcel Carrière, Claude Fournier, Claude Jutra et al, 1961)

- Gambling, Gods and LSD (Peter Mettler, 2001)

- The Days Before Christmas (Stanley Jackson, Wolf Koenig, Terence McCartney-Filgate, 1958)

- Bestiaire (Denis Côté, 2012)

- Grass : History of Marijuana (Ron Mann, 2000)

- Paul Tomkowitz: Street Railway Switchman (Roman Kroitor, 1953)

- Quebec-U.S.A ou l'invasion Pacifique (Claude Jutra, Michel Brault, 1962)

- Archangel (Guy Maddin, 1990)

- Nobody Waved Goodbye (Don Owen, 1964)

- A Tout Prendre (Claude Jutra, 1963)

- Curling (Denis Côté, 2010)

- Lonely Boy (Wolf Koenig, Roman Kroitor, 1963)

- Hard Core Logo (Bruce McDonald, 1996)

- The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin, 2000)

- Spider (David Cronenberg, 2002)

- Picture of Light (Peter Mettler, 1994)

- Noël à l’île-aux-Grues (Richard Lavoie, 1963)

- Les Ordres (Michel Brault, 1970)

- Les Raquetteurs (Michel Brault, Gilles Groulx, 1958)

- Waydowntown (Gary Burns, 2000)

- Careful (Guy Maddin, 1992)

- Thirty-Two Shorts Films About Glenn Gould (Francois Girard, 1993)

- Pour la Suite du Monde (Pierre Perrault, Michel Brault, 1963)

- Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (Alanis Obomsawin, 1993)

- Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)

- Le Festin des morts (Fernand Dansereau, 1965)

- Il était une fois dans l’est (André Brassard, 1974)

- My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007)

- Le Chat dans le sac (Gilles Groulx, 1964)

- Entre la mer et l’eau douce (Michel Brault, 1967)

- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Ted Kotcheff, 1974)

- The Changeling (Peter Medak, 1980)

- Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 1952)

- Very Nice, Very Nice (Arthur Lipsett, 1961)

- Lies My Father Told Me (Jan Kadar, 1975)

- A Winter Tan (Jackie Burroughs, John Frizzell, Louise Clark, John Walker, Aerlyn Weissman, 1987)

- Le démantèlement (Sébastien Pilote, 2014)

- City Out of Time (Colin Low, 1959)

- Il était une chaise (Norman McLaren, Claude Jutra, 1957)

- Ryan (Chris Landreth, 2004)

- The Corporation (Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott; 2003)

- C.R.A.Z.Y. (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2005)

- Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014)

- Wavelength (Michael Snow, 1967)

- Sur la trace d’Igor Rizzi (Noel Mitrani, 2006)

- La Gammick (Jacques Godbout, 1974)

- Bûcherons de la Manouane (Arthur Lamothe, 1962)

- La vie heureuse de Léopold Z. (Gilles Carle, 1965)

- Le bonhomme (Pierre Maheu, 1972)

- La faim (Peter Foldes, 1972)

- 60 cycles (Jean-Claude Labrecque, 1965)

- Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland, 1968)

- Canadian Pacific (David Rimmer, 1974)

- Chronique de la vie quotidienne: Samedi (Pierre Bernier, Jean Chabot, Roger Frappier, Claude Grenier, Jacques Leduc, 1977)

- La cuisine rouge (Paule Baillargeon, Frédérique Collin, 1980)

- La Donation (Bernard Émond, 2009)

- Au clair de la lune (André Forcier, 1982)

- La Sarrasine (Paul Tana, 1991)

- « Quiconque meurt, meurt à douleur » (Robert Morin, 1998)

- Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (Daïchi Saïto, 2009)

- En terrains connus (Stéphane Lafleur, 2011)

- Imitations of Life (Mike Hoolboom, 2002)

- The Street (Daniel Cross, 1997)

- The Street  (Caroline Leaf, 1976)

- Life Without Death (Frank Cole, 2000)

- Les mots magiques (Jean-Marc  Vallée, 1998)

- Hommes à louer (Rodrigue Jean, 2009)

- Les démons (Philippe Lesage, 2015)

- Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre (Philippe Falardeau, 2015)

- J’aime, j’aime pas (Sylvie Groulx, 1996)

- Laurentie (Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie, 2011)

- Lost Song (Rodrigue Jean, 2008)

- La vie rêvée (Mireille Dansereau, 1972)

- La liberté d’une statue (Olivier Asselin, 1990)

- Elephant Song (Charles Binamé, 2014)

- Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)

- À l'ouest de Pluton (Henry Bernadet, Myriam Verreault, 2008)

- Télesphore Légaré, garde-pêche (Claude Fournier, 1959)

- Novembre (Nicolas Roy, 2001)

- Roméo onze (Ivan Grbovic, 2012)

- Prelude (Michael Snow, 2000)

- Mamori (Karl Lemieux, 2010)

- La mémoire des anges (Luc Bourdon, 2009)

- Brouillard 14 (Alexandre Larose, 2015)

100 Best Canadian Films – Stephen Broomer

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.

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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)