Film in Canada

Second Edition

Edited by Jim Leach

Contemporary perspective. Draws attention to the most significant influences on Canadian filmmaking, including ethnic and linguistic diversity, national identity, Hollywood, and the global marketplace
Comprehensive. Offers thorough coverage of the topics and critical themes essential to discussions surrounding Canadian cinema, highlighting films from the 1960s to the present.
Balanced coverage of English- and French-language films. Gives students a thorough treatment of cinematic variation across the country.
Analysis of recent films. Discusses the most recent films from prominent Canadian filmmakers, including Denys Arcand's L'Âge des ténèbres, Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, Philippe Falardeau's Congorama, and Sarah Polley's Away From Her, providing students with the latest information available on Canadian cinema.
Current. This is the most up-to-date authority on the subject with scores of new film commentaries throughout, offering a contemporary look at Canadian film.
Flexible approach. Each chapter explores both historical trends and current examples of topics and themes, allowing material to be used in sequence or independently.
Filmography. A concise alphabetical listing of films, with in-text page references and full production information are provided for quick reference.

Film in Canada

Second Edition

Edited by Jim Leach

Description

Offering a current and comprehensive analysis of Canadian cinema in its political and cultural contexts, this new edition of Film in Canada introduces students to a cinema that is as diverse as the country itself. Major developments in Canadian filmmaking are explored in depth, from direct cinema and the national-realist films of the 1960s to later avant-garde projects and beyond. With detailed discussions on recent and well-established works by prominent Canadian filmmakers, along with new film commentaries and movie stills, this text is an invaluable resource for film students and film lovers alike.

Film in Canada

Second Edition

Edited by Jim Leach

Timeline
Introduction: Not Just Another National Cinema
Blame Hollywood
Screening the Nation
Identifying the Nation
Part 1: Imagining Canada
1:The National-Realist Tradition
Documenting the Nation
1964 Revisited: The Sense of a Beginning
The Persistence of Realism
2:Realism and Its Discontents
Questioning Cinema Truth
Too Real? A Married Couple and Les Ordres
Faking It: The Canadian Mockumentary
3:Traces: Space, Place, and Identity
'Vrais films de chez nous': Post-war Quebec Feature Films
Obliterated Environments: Space in Direct Cinema Fiction Films
A Sense of Placelessness: The Capital Cost Allowance Act and After
4:The Canadian Fantastic
Paul Almond's Fantastic Trilogy
Canadian Gothic
Lost and Delirious: The Films of André Forcier and Guy Maddin
Part 2: Popular cinema/Art cinema
5:Are Genres American?
Inflecting American Genres
Deconstructing Genre
Implanted Memories
6:In Search of the National Popular: Carle and Cronenberg
The Sins of Gilles Carle
The Challenge of David Cronenberg
7:Two Canadian Auteurs: Arcand and Egoyan
Ups and Downs: Denys Arcand's History Lessons
Dark Mirrors: Reflections on Atom Egoyan
Postscript
8:Stupid Films and Smart Films
Boys and Girls: The Quebec Stupid Film
Death and Irony: Canadian Smart Films
Part 3: Redefining Canadian Cinema
9:Shifting Centres and Margins
The Cinema We Need?
Dirty Movies and Aerial Views: Jack Darcus and William MacGillivray
Jean Pierre Lefebvre and the Quebec Imaginary
10:Engendering the Nation
Sex in a Cold Climate
Dream Lives: The Rise of Women's Cinema in Canada
The Real and the Visionary: Léa Pool and Patricia Rozema
Thom Fitzgerald's Alien Bodies
11:Possible Worlds: Diasporic Cinema in Canada
Where Is Home? Diasporic Filmmakers in English Canada
Quebec: Métissage and the Politics of Identity
New Worlds/Old Stories
12:The Real and the Imaginary: Canadian Film and the Postmodern Condition
Staging the Global and the Local: Bruce Sweeney and Robert Lepage
Film in Canada in the Twenty-First century: Congorama and Away from Her
Appendix A: Timeline: Canadian Films
Appendix B: 'Lights, Camera, Action' Study Questions
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography

Film in Canada

Second Edition

Edited by Jim Leach

Author Information

Edited by Jim Leach, Professor and Director of Interdisciplinary MA in Popular Culture, Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film, Brock University

Film in Canada

Second Edition

Edited by Jim Leach

Reviews and Awards

The book reads well from beginning to end as an evolving argument and discussion with many facets, yet it knits together without simplifying. . . Leach's discussion of direct cinema is the most useful I have found anywhere." - Roger Holdstock, Douglas College