National Cinematic Identity. What is it? by DAVE JOHNSON

I cannot consider myself an authority on the subject of cinematic identity, but being that I am a practitioner in the celluloid arts and a Canadian. I am submitting a “rant”, if you will, on what I believe should be a form of national cinema.
It is without a doubt that Canadian cinema was born through the loins of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). This cinema was that of primarily documentary genre and later animation. These early generation NFB films created a whole industry for Canada as a self sustained unit, creating stories of so called far away lands only to be shown within Canadian theaters as news reels. Moving forward to 1967, the first screening of Michael Snow’s film Wavelength was received with the audience members throwing their chairs in reaction to such a film. With this, some could argue, was the birth of Canadian avante-garde film, even though the film debut was in New York(?). In the 80’s we saw Canadian films, produced through American companies, such as Porkies, Meatballs, etc. and the establishment of such directors as David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, etc. etc.  All this just scrapes the surface of the history of Canadian Cinema. If one was to throw all this in a bowl we would then have a salad of different styles and influences. Are these good examples of Canadian cinema? Well, one could argue that this is separate from American cinema in that they all have some sort of temporal displacement, landscape becomes the muse, characters, even the so called heroes are unsavoury, and essay upon essay has been and will be written making one point or another defining “OUR” cinema.
Let’s move on from this tired debate and talk briefly about the 1985 manifesto of R. Bruce Elder "The Cinema We Need."

“In this essay, Elder attacks the attempt on the part of Canadian filmmakers to make "New Narrative film": a cinema that is different from Hollywood cinema's desire for traditional storytelling and which draws upon, in part, the aesthetic of the Canadian avant-garde. Elder claims that Canadian narrative cinema will never be able to compete with American products and that this "New Narrative cinema" engages in a process of vandalization and commercialization of the Canadian avant-garde tradition.” (Referenced from National Identity, Canadian Cinema, and Multiculturalism:  Scott MacKenzie, University of Glasgow http://www.uqtr.ca/AE/vol_4/scott.htm).

Now I’ve been known to miss an obvious point or two, but, from a certain context, and from a cultural viewpoint, this states that we need to ignore the American import and concentrate on our own engineering of cinema. The only way this could be done is through political awareness, education (or an unbiased knowledge of cinema as an art form, not just an entertainment industry) and through support for artist centers and cooperatives. If we want to define Canadian cinema we must continue to create and support it despite of what our imports tell us. A Canadian cinematic identity will only be prevalent if we choose to create one. From a practitioner’s point of view, I would like to not worry so much about trying to identify and worry more about engineering our own cinema… keep creating with awareness and put it on the big screen, a screen, ANY screen! The more we create the more we will be recognized!!! Create, don’t be Created!!!!