More than a Flicker: A Century of Canadian Film

One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema
by George Melnyk
University of Toronto Press, $35.00, 361 pages

Anyone who watched Canadian television in the 1960's and 70's would remember the National Film Board’s vignettes called "Hinterland’s Who’s Who." One of that series was the minute-long film short extolling the beauty of the Loon and its habitat. Although that particular film seemed to be played so incessantly it became ingrained into our collective consciousness, it was only one film in a series of more than three dozen such shorts with topics ranging from the Black Duck to mountain sheep to woodchucks.

Those NFB shorts were all produced for the Canadian Wildlife Service, and because they were created with the stylized and serious toned male voice-over narration, they were easily parodied by cultural commentators. Still, they remain an icon of Canadian cinematography and in fact, are closer to the origins of Canadian film making than one might realize.

Among the first film makers in Canada, was Brandon, Man., farmer James Freer, who became well known for shooting agricultural scenes and prairie vistas as early as 1897. He sold these shorts to Canadian Pacific Railways and the Government of Canada, who used them as public service announcements to entice British immigrants to move to the "colonies." Like Freer’s films, many of the early films produced in Canada reflected Canadians as others wanted us to be. Hollywood’s construction of reality of Canadian existence, for example, was generally shot with snow scenes, Mounties, lumberjacks and delicate heroines.

George Melnyk’s new book, One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema, looks at how Canadian film making eventually broke out of the mold it was forced into by outside sources to come to represent Canadian diversity and survival. Mr. Melnyk is a professor in the Faculty of Communications and Culture at the University of Calgary. One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema is a historical perspective but also includes the political and social influences that have shaped Canadian films.

Well written and documented, Mr. Melnyk’s book traces the roots of Canadian cinema as it encompasses both English and French languages and cultures. Mr. Melnyk applauds the efforts of film auteurs such as Denis Archand and Atom Egoyan; he dissects the successes of films such as Going Down the Road and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz; he even examines the role of film critic in our mass media. And while the book is generally comprehensive, one of the things he has omitted is the technological innovation of Canadians that brought the giant screened IMAX movie camera and specialized theatre to the enjoyment of the world. Still, as Mr. Melnyk writes, Canada has moved a long way from being the world’s Hinterland of film making.

– Reviewed by Mike Gange