Canadian Cinema Review: Films, Colonial Discourse and Resistance PDF

FILMS Back to God’s Country ​ Set in Canada’s North ​ Privately-funded ​ Distributed by New York-­based First National throughout North America, Britain, Europe and Japan ​ Makes $500,000 in its first year of release—a 300% return for the Calgary investors who financed the fi...

FILMS Back to God’s Country ​ Set in Canada’s North ​ Privately-funded ​ Distributed by New York-­based First National throughout North America, Britain, Europe and Japan ​ Makes $500,000 in its first year of release—a 300% return for the Calgary investors who financed the film ​ Foundational, but the “cannon” excluded it for a while ​ Sex, gender, race, ethnicity and melodrama ​ Anglo-protestant, white homosocial nation haunted by its others (the white woman, the Inuit woman and the Chinese man) ​ Camera denies these characters subject formation—they’re spectacles and subalterns subjected to humiliation, abuse and death ​ Resistance and re-inscribing ​ Male gaze - Nass River Indians ​ Marius Barbeau ​ CPR-funded (corporate) ​ Mulvey’s gendered visual pleasure raced visual pleasure ​ Visual pleasure for the Caucasian viewer through a representation of the Other as degenerate/inferior ​ “the objective of colonial discourse is to construe the colonised as a population of degenerate types on the basis of racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to establish systems of administration and instruction” Homi Bhabha 1983, 23. ​ ‘degenerate type’ ​ degenerate, n. One who has lost, or has become deficient in, the qualities considered proper to the race or kind; a degenerate specimen; a person of debased physical or mental constitution. OED Online ​ On 11 May 2000 the Nisga’a Lisims Nation became a self-governing Indigenous nation. They did nod ‘vanish’ ​ Otherness is the boundary of normality. As such images of otherness exercise a disciplinary function, as mirrors of difference, as markers and warning signals. The savage is indispensable in establishing a civilization’s place in the universe ​ Jan Nederveen Pieterse, “Image and Power.” In Raymond Corbey and Joep Leerssen eds. Alterity, Identity, Image: Selves and Others in Society and Scholarship. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991. (201) ​ The Other’s perceived lack of “civilization” ​ Colonized as “savage’ is essential to the white nation’s construction of itself as superior ​ “It therefore becomes necessary for the colonizer to subject the colonial other to a double command: be like me, don’t be like me; be mimetically identical, be totally other. The colonized are constrained to impersonate the image the colonizer offers them of  themselves; they are commanded to imitate the colonizer’s version of their essential difference” ​ Colonizers doubled command ​ “The white nation—or to be precise, the nation that desires to be white—frames its sense of itself, its self-­‐‑consciousness, by repeating over and over to itself that it is about to swallow and mourn an aboriginal other who has died. When the instant of death arrives, and even though that instant is endlessly deferred, the nation will be able to give itself a distinctive white Canadian subjectivity, but thanks to the irony that grounds it, the nation, cannot realize its aim of folding others into itself because the limit that holds it apart from them is also what gives it a feeling for itself, the consciousness of its own nationhood.” Of Japanese Descent ​ D.C. Burritt ​ Propaganda film ​ Government-funded/ (NFB/Ministry of Labour, 1945) ​ Q: Does colonial discourse play a role in the Ministry of Labour and D.C. BurriC ‘s representation of Canadians of Japanese heritage? If so, how are degenerate types constructed? ​ “In 1942 it was decided that all people of Japanese racial origin should be removed from the coastal defense zone” ​ Hails/Recruits (Althusser): If you are somebody who survived interment in a Canadian camp for Japanese Canadians, whose citizenship was revoked, etc., you might not respond to the hail if you’re a Japanese because it’s not meant for you ​ Improvement of conditions: sound bridge voice-­‐‑over narrating this cut from the Japanese fishing village to the interior of B.C ​ Early 1900s: Japanese body by the B.C press as a “machine” requiring less sustenance and pay than the laboring white man ​ The film circulated at a time when the government wanted to create a receptive response to its police of dispersing Japanese Canadians east of the Rockies ​ Represents evacuation and internment as a necessary relocation of Japanese Canadians to a healthier environment facilitating their improvement through assimilation ​ Japanese Canadians as abject and the “Asian” body as an object that could “infect” the nation ​ Male voice over Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance ​ Counter-cinema that resists the hegemonic colonial discourses of Québec and Anglo-Canadian nations ​ Historical background: ​ Mohawk nation is disposed of their lands by the French Roman Catholic Order ​ 1716: granted a plot at Kanehsatake by the French Crown ​ 1717: secret negotiations erase Mohawk title to land (not informed of this). It now belongs to Sulpicians (confirmed in 1840 by the British Crown) ​ 1936: Sold to Belgian Baron Empain ​ 1930s: Oka residents play gold on the traditional gathering place of the Mohawks and sacred Pine area. Eventually taken over by the municipality for the site of a golf course ​ Land always going back and forth, some of these transactionds are happening in secret ​ Continuously stripped away from the community, even though have many connections sand spiritual ties to the land ​ Bhabha: “the objective of colonial discourse is to construe the colonised as a population of degenerate types on the basis of racial origin, in order to justify conquest and to establish systems of administration and instruction” “The Other Question…” Screen 24:6 1983: 18-361983, 23 ​ Settler system of justice is not serving them well ​ Repressive state apparatus of police and Canadian military violated the sovereignty of the Mohawks ​ Reversing the white fantasy of the Indigenous Other as terrorist to apprehend the white terrorism of internal colonialism ​ Narrating the colonialism that is unfolding due to this false creation of a golf course on sacred land ​ Making clear to them that their behaviour is indicative of the persistence of colonialism ​ Reversal of white fantasy ​ Her POV documentary fuses the spectator into the perspective of the Mohawks behind the barricades ​ The ways in which colonial discourse gets interrupted by Obomsawin ​ Film as a site of resistance to internal colonialism and the racist discourse of the colonial stereotype that perpetuates it ​ Hand held camera - ○​ immerses the audience in the perspectives of the Mohawk protesters and conveys the tension and uncertainty they faced ○​ Displays emotional tension, unpredictability, in a way unsettling ○​ Documentary Realism – gives story more truth to it, portrays commitment to advocacy, more authentic ​ Can you think of examples of Obomsawin disrupting or interrogating colonial discourse? ○​ Gives voice to indigenous people, through the use of interviews and footage ○​ This humanizes them, presenting them as defenders of their land and sovereignty rather than as aggressors ○​ connects the events of 1990 to broader patterns of colonial dispossession and erasure, disrupting the colonial portrayal of the crisis as an isolated incident or "uprising” ○​ Documents violence perpetrated by the army, showing indigenous people not as the aggressors or ‘savages’ of the narrative “bomsawin’s interruption and reversal of the colonial gaze involves a denaturalizing of televisual representations that construct and circulate colonial stereotypes of Mohawks as violent warrior savages”  ○​ Focuses on a more traditional, community-based way of storytelling – instead of detached narrator, showing people that are involved and witnessing the events first hand ​ Protest scene ○​ Affect, hate ○​ Chaos vs. peacefulness of the land ○​ Irony – calling them savages when they are the ones burning and chanting ​ Re-Historicizing Oka ○​ “Where the trouble all began 270 years ago” Obomsawin re‑historicizes Oka—why mid-way through the film? How does this sequence frame what follows? ○​ Is it significant that Obomsawin imports the imagery of imperial colonialism in her re-­‐historicizing from the Mohawk perspective? ​ -oppositional looking that interrupts and reverses the white colonial gaze that is actively engaged in misrepresenting Mohawk people through the optic of colonial stereotyping ​ -From reading: Obomsawin says, ‘I wanted to show what Mohawk people were like and why they took the stand they did’ ​ -Western viewer is asked to identify not only with the gaze of the Other that must negotiate the physical violence of colonialism, the SQ attack, but also with the psychic violence of colonial discourse, the white stereotype of First Nations, as it is negotiated by Obomsawin’s cameras ​ -- film asks the white Western viewer to identify with the gaze of the Mohawk Other that reads colonialism as white state-sponsored terrorism Mon Oncle Antoine ​ 1971 ​ NFB, budget of $450K ​ Co-wrote screenplay with Clément Parron ​ Premiered with no English subtitles at the Stratford Film Festival ​ Won two Canadian film awards for best direction ​ Effort to draw attention to camera and POV (later a defining feature of Quebec cinema) ​ Very unstable environment that involves a working class group trying to change their lived reality within this hegemonic, exploitative ruling class ​ Small crew ​ “Capitalist landscape that consumers labour” ​ “Capitalist industry and the Roman Catholic church constitute the disciplining and omnipresent power structures regulating the subject formation and social relations of the townspeople” ​ Reading: allegorical reading, a fable that tells essential truths about a community that would be recognizable almost everywhere ​ ASbestos ​ Driving to funeral scene  ○​ *How are certain ‘affect’ components shown through the landscape* ○​ Persistence of colonization ○​ Linear movement, car driving towards ‘death’ ○​ Green interspliced between bland and banal settings ○​ Commentary on the consequences of environmental exploitation ○​ Dullness and grayness of the settings and the funeral scene --> what ‘affect’ does this instill in the audience? ○​ - Set in the home/domestic space; The tension within the family-like relationship between Antoine and Benoît mirrors the broader social tensions of the town, with personal relationships serving as a lens for societal critique ○​ - Melodramatic themes: Mon Oncle Antoine portrays tragedy in the form of death (Marcel Poulin), failure (Antoine’s moral collapse), and disillusionment (Benoît’s loss of innocence) ​ film’s transfer of audiences’ identification (from Jos Poulin to Benoit) ○​ Youth are important in looking at environmental activism ​ Poulin: political economy of town is oppressing him, and he refuses to participate in the workings of the town (in the way most everyone else in the town participates) ○​ He sees the power differentials and the powers that corrupt and oppress him ​ Subtitle (“they can all eat sh*t) ○​ The mine, English ownership of the mine, the mayor, those exploiting the working poor ​ Pouring drink scene ○​ Natural greenery outside, artificial inside ○​ Juxtaposition of different representations of nature ○​ Dissatidfactio with the natural environemtn that they have to make this artiifcal environment to make up for this scenery ​ Subjective camera ○​ Identification with Poulin and his framing narrative ○​ Actions in the film are so mundane ○​ Creating a natural atmosphere ​ Benoit’s Gaze ○​ Transfer of identification to Benoit ○​ Aligned with Benoit’s gaze, we begin to see through the social and cultural obstructions or façades to the harsh realities that structure identity and belonging as these are organized by the political economy of the town ○​ - Priest is supposed to represents the moral and spiritual authority in the town – seeing him drinking undermines this idea ○​ Class tensions are evident in the contrast between the mine workers and figures like Antoine, who, though part of the working class, enjoy slightly better conditions and some degree of authority ○​ Economy based in resource extraction; Workers face difficult, unsafe conditions and low wages, highlighting the exploitative nature of the industry  ○​ Through Benoît, the film hints at the awakening consciousness of the younger generation. Benoît’s observations of injustices and contradictions suggest a potential critique of the town’s economic and social systems ​ The death of Marcel Poulin scene: ○​ They look so similar: forces Benoit to confront mortality and the grim realities of adult life in the town.The journey with Marcel’s body serves as a metaphorical passage for Benoît, who begins to see the hypocrisies and failings of the adults around him ○​ The lack of meaningful support for the Poulin family and the mechanical nature of the coffin delivery expose the failures of authority figures (both religious and economic) to protect or provide for the vulnerable members of society benoit is able to see this because he is a child still ○​ Journey from innocence to experience: Benoît’s exposure to death (Marcel Poulin), adult flaws (Antoine’s alcoholism), and sexual awakening (his interactions with Carmen) marks his transition into the complexities of adulthood.The story portrays the disillusionment that comes with recognizing the imperfections of authority figures and the harsh realities of life ​ Final shot: ○​ - His stare is ambiguous, leaving the ending open to viewers ○​ - Benoît’s face, frozen in time, reflects the culmination of his journey from childhood innocence to a more mature awareness of life’s complexities and harsh realities.His experiences—witnessing Marcel Poulin’s death, seeing his uncle Antoine’s flaws, and confronting the struggles of the community—mark a turning point in his life Neighbours ​ Humour ​ White picket fence Goin’ Down The Road ​ Shebib went to California for his training, returned to Canada, and made a highly realist film about economic migrancy in Canada in the 1960s-70s ​ Move to break out of the documentary and ensure that features could be made in this country ​ Budget of $75K and funded by the CFDC (Canadian Film development Corporation) ​ Foundational text of the renewal of feature productions that happened during this timeframe ​ Anglo-Canadian film aesthetic for a generation of directions: Pessimistic social realism ​ Documentary “realism” and fiction ​ The road (an American movie) ​ Gendered buddy dynamic ​ Anti hero characterization ​ Social realism  ​ Easy Rider: Hippies traveling east across the U.S. exploring the counter-culture and its ramifications for American nation. ​ Goin’ Down the Road: Economic migrants (Pete and Joey) travelling west across Canada to Toronto in search of opportunity and prosperity and negotiating regional and class differences ​ On the Road comparison ○​ Classic American counter-culture narrative ○​ Travel across America (from East to West) ○​ Heightened individual experience (Beat movement) ○​ 1950s ○​ Expressing alienation from mainstream society ○​ Expression (in poetry) of real experiences The Grey Fox ​ Philip Borsos ​ Budget: $4.5 Million funding from CFDC and Famous Players with participation of Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios ​ Distribution: United Artists Classics ​ Box Office: $5.5 Million ​ Uses American form to tell a Canadian story (part of which is about sharing the continent with the USA) ​ As a Canadian film, The Grey Fox positions itself outside of the dominant American Western tradition. Unlike Hollywood’s frequent celebration of violent conquest, Borsos’ film embraces a quieter, more introspective tone, reflecting Canada’s historical relationship with colonial expansion in a way that implicitly critiques American frontier mythology ​ Source Text of Parody: The Great Train Robbery (USA) ○​ The outlaw and his gang ○​ Gunplay and train robbery ○​ Undermining of civil social order ○​ Pursuit by the Law ○​ US justice through summary execution of the bandits by the agents of the Law (the posse) ○​ Introduction to the screen of Cowboy masculinity and the homosocial world of the Cowboy ○​ Porter’s film is the canonical foundation of the American screen western and informs Borsos’ Miner; Bill learns how to modernize and rob trains from this film, however, he also learns what not do do—who not to become as Borsos demonstrates by suturing Porter’s work into his own, juxtaposing Miner to Porter’s outlaw to reveal their differences ○​ By referencing The Great Train Robbery, Borsos subtly places The Grey Fox within the lineage of the Western genre while simultaneously setting it apart. While American Westerns often glorify violence and lawlessness, The Grey Fox  offers a more introspective take, emphasizing Miner’s charm and adaptability over brute force ​ Based on the true story of Bill Miner (polite American robber) ​ The outlaw and his gang ​ Gunplay and train robbery ​ Pursuit by the Law ​ The outlaw and his gang live and are cheered by the entire town and a band as they board the train to incarceration ​ US justice through the agency of Pinkerton Detective Seavey is evaded by the outlaw; he escapes to Europe ​ Re-articulation of the homosocial world of the cowboy and cowboy masculinity; both are rejected by the ‘gentleman bandit’ so that he may share a relationship of equals with his lover Kate Flynn, a proto feminist. ​ Establishing shots: ​ Meta-cinematic or self-conscious moments that establish a parodic dialogue between Borsos’s source texts (Porter and the silent western) and The Grey Fox ​ Note the difference between Hollywood’s western plains and the landscape of the Canadian Northwest setting of Borsos’ Western ​ Landscape – nourished, healthy display themes of film ​ The Grey Fox subverts the Hollywood Western’s traditional depiction of the outlaw as a hyper-masculine, violent, and rugged individualist. Instead, Borsos presents Miner as an aging, reflective, and even gentle outlaw, emphasizing charm, adaptability, and wit over brute force. ​ Borsos presents an ironic or doubled vision by simultaneously engaging with and critiquing Western mythology. The film both celebrates and undermines the Western genre, positioning The Grey Fox as a revisionist Western that deconstructs its own romanticized imagery ​ The Myth of the Outlaw vs. Reality: By including The Great Train Robbery within the film, Borsos highlights how Miner is both a real historical figure and a character in a growing mythos. Miner watches his own legend taking shape through early cinema, making the audience aware of how history is shaped by storytelling. ​ Canadian vs. American Western: While American Westerns often emphasize gunfights and individual triumph, The Grey Fox adopts a more contemplative, subdued tone. The film’s vision of the frontier is one of transition rather than conquest, subtly challenging the Hollywood Western’s glorification of Manifest Destiny. ​ Borsos’s doubled vision ultimately asks the audience to question the Western myth while still appreciating its aesthetic and emotional pull IMPORTANT TERMS ​ Capitalist Exploitation ○​ A concept in Marxist theory referring to the way capitalists (owners of production) profit from workers by paying them less than the value of their labor. This surplus value—the difference between what workers produce and what they are paid—accumulates as profit for the capitalist, maintaining economic inequality and class divisions ○​ Film Examples: ​ ​ Colonial Discourse ○​ A system of knowledge, representation, and power that justifies and maintains colonial rule. Coined by theorists like Edward Said, it refers to the ways colonized people and spaces are constructed as inferior, exotic, or in need of Western domination through literature, media, and political rhetoric ○​ Film Examples: ​ ​ Genre ○​ A category of artistic or cultural production (such as film, literature, or music) that is defined by shared conventions, themes, and stylistic elements. Genres help shape audience expectations and are socially constructed, often evolving over time ○​ Film Examples: ​ The Grey Fox ​ Goin’ Down The Road ​ Ideology + Ideological state apparatuses ○​ A concept from Louis Althusser referring to institutions (such as schools, media, churches, and families) that subtly reinforce dominant ideology and social norms. Unlike Repressive State Apparatuses (police, military, etc.), ISAs operate through persuasion rather than force to maintain the status quo ○​ Film Examples: ​ Mon Oncle Antoine ​ Colonizing Gaze ○​ A way of looking at and representing colonized people that reinforces power hierarchies and dehumanization. This gaze constructs the colonized as primitive, exotic, or lacking agency, serving to justify colonial domination ○​ Film Examples: ​ ​ Parody ○​ A form of imitation that exaggerates or distorts elements of an original work, genre, or style, often for comedic or critical purposes. Parody can both reinforce and subvert the meanings of the source material ○​ Film Examples: ​ The Grey Fox ​ Jesus of Montreal  ​ Degenerate type ○​ A term historically associated with pseudoscientific racial and eugenicist theories that framed certain groups or individuals as biologically or morally inferior. In cultural contexts, it has been used to describe figures that deviate from normative standards, often in reactionary or oppressive ways ​ Male gaze ○​ A concept from feminist film theory (notably Laura Mulvey) describing the way visual media is structured around a heterosexual male perspective. Women are often presented as passive objects of male desire, reinforcing gendered power dynamic ○​ Film Examples: ​ Back to the North Country ​ Postmodernism ○​ a self-reflexive impulse that comments on acts of representation ○​ “Characteristic of a postmodern text the borders between these parallel narratives are blurred, the various texts become intertexts, the contents of the ‘original’ text are realized in the lives of the actors apparently without them realizing it” ○​ Film Examples: ​ Jesus of Montreal: draws attention to commodity culture with this modernization project happening ​ The Grey Fox: questions the Western myth and grand historical narratives. Nods to early Westerns like Great Train Robbery, but its reflective, poetic tone marks it as a departure from those traditions. This interplay between nostalgia and modern sensibilities makes it a film about the evolution of cinema itself ​ Metanarrative ○​ Self-reflexive, aware of itself as object of art, drawing audience’s attention to this awareness through the troubling of metanarratives ○​ Film Examples: ​ Jesus of Montreal: Different layers of awareness happening - with actors playing actors, with the film and the audience -> blurring the lines between fiction/performance and reality. As the actors stage the Passion Play, their personal lives begin to mirror the biblical events, suggesting that Christ’s story is not just a historical account but an ongoing, living narrative ​ The Grey Fox: READINGS “Modernity and Postmodernity in Quebec Cinema” 1. Shift in Quebec Cinema’s Focus (1980s-1990s)  ​ Transition from national self-definition to awareness of Quebec’s integration into global cultural and economic flows. ​ Influence of global events: ○​ Economic recession in Montreal ○​ NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) ○​ Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe ○​ 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum ​ Growing prominence of issues like ethnic pluralism and Indigenous rights. 2. National Identity and Fragmentation ​ Quebec’s national project was always incomplete; modernity and postmodernity coexist. ​ Quebec’s modernization (Quiet Revolution) introduced secularism, consumerism, and a society in perpetual change. ​ Postmodernity challenges old narratives (e.g., nationalism, Marxism) and accelerates commodification. ​ Canada is often considered a "postmodern state" due to its decentralized identity. 3. Denys Arcand’s Films as Case Studies ​ Le Déclin de l’empire américain (1986) ○​ Satirizes Quebec’s intellectual elite, depicting them as self-absorbed and detached from collective political projects. ○​ Explores the crisis of national identity post-referendum, suggesting political indifference. ○​ Thematically tied to Michel Brunet’s Notre passé, le présent et nous (1976), critiquing Quebec’s failure to engage with its past. ​ Jésus de Montréal (1989) ○​ Reinterprets the Passion of Christ through a group of struggling actors in contemporary Montreal. ○​ Satirizes mass media, capitalism, and institutional religion. ○​ Uses mise-en-abyme (story-within-a-story) to critique historical narratives. 4. Impact of Globalization on Quebec Cinema ​ The rise of Quebec’s film industry within North American and international markets. ​ Montreal becomes a hub for multimedia and animation (e.g., Softimage software used in Jurassic Park and Toy Story). ​ Decline of traditional film institutions like the National Film Board (NFB) due to budget cuts. ​