Canadian Film Digest (Oct 1971)

SYDNEY NEWMAN A Soliloquy WITH NFB UNDERTONES “One day at lunch, John Grierson told me this story from his childhood: He had been up to some mischief in an austere public school somewhere in Scotland, and was admonished for it by the stern professor: ‘‘Don’t you think you are impertinent my boy?” he was asked. ‘’Yes sir.’’ answered young Grierson. “Stick to it, my boy, stick to it!’ was the professor’s reply. “Don’t ever lose it.” Years later Grierson said to me, ““Newman, you have a ‘B’ picture mentality.” | have stuck with it ever since.”’ “It was mostly because | was an advocate of the Grierson ‘theology’ for getting films to people that ! left the Film Board and turned to Television with all its audience values, rating systems, costs and marketing side of public entertainment.” “Last year | returned to the National Film Board as its Commissioner. The gawky, talented and enthusiastic fledgling | hand known had become a huge, sophisticated and complex place. So much had happened. A private film industry was growing up. The NFB was thrashing around trying to find its place in the midst of the confusion and government austerity. Private producers were screaming at Mother Film Board with anguished cries of criticism, knowing full well that the solution was either for us to offer to close up shop or as an alternative, give them most of our work. And yet, 70% of the top people on the production and technical side of Canada’s private film industry are ex Film Boarders. The CFDC was spawned by Guy Roberge, 14 WE SALUTE WARNER BROTHERS ON THEIR | {]&5[0)(o}3 then NFB Film Commissioner, and ex NFB Michael Spencer who is executive Director of CFDC today. Wouldn’t the guys in the know really claim that without the Film Board there wouldn't be a private film industry in Canada today, and wouldn’t they all admit how necessary it was for Canada to have such an industry? And just because of that, the NFB is more essential to our country than ever. Our technical standards are second to none. We can experiment and innovate in a way no private company ever could, or would want to, and we can spill our talent and experience over into the private sector and have Canada make a real mark in the cinematographic world.” “This year at Cannes some forty Canadian features were shown. Not bad for a country that couldn’t claim more than being tops in documentaries a few short years ago. And, many of the films shown at Cannes were NFB productions. All of them may not have the showbiz flair that Harvey Harnick used to find lacking in the old days when he put the fear of God into NFB producers. But, they are still a far cry from the ‘Waving Wheatfields’ which used to lull him to sleep.”’ “The Film board doesn’t win over 70 awards and citations each year around the world for no reason.” “*The NFB production MON ONCLE ANTOINE was shown at Cannes, It is a new feature by Claude Jutra who has directed a wide variety of films in the past 20 years, acting in some of them as well. His last feature was WOW in 1969, which enjoyed tremendous popularity in French Can ada. MON ONCLE ANTOINE is set in ° a small Quebec village. Visually it is extraordinarily beautiful, and it conveys the unique ambiance of Quebec as few films have. It doesn’t belabour it, it simply lets it happen. The story is about a teenage boy whose curiosity about life leads him to discover something about sex, both virginal and worldly, about life and about death. His Oncle Antoine is running the town’s general store as well as being the local funeral director. It’s the story of a Quebec family, but it’s everybody’s story, in a way.” “Also shown at Cannes was the NFB documentary A MATTER OF FAT. Who but the Canadians would be so conscientiously concerned with one of the problems of the affluent society — Overweight? A MATTER OF FAT tells the true and incredible story about a guy who loses more weight than his wife weighs. He is a natural actor and a most loveable fellow. The film is a funny and informative look at obesity. It shatters a lot of popular myths about losing weight, and comes up with some genuinely constructive suggestions.”” “COLD JOURNEY” is another NFB film presently in production for theatrical distribution. The dramatic story revolves around a 15-year old Indian boy and the attempt to turn him into a Canadian. It pinpoints the ironies of our educational system and some of the human dilemmas of our country.” “My plans for the future? For a start, an agreement has been reached with the CBC to put 13 one-hour NFB productions on the National Network this coming year. For the rest, we shall continue to be the pace-setters for anything that’s audio-visual. We shall continue to make the kind of films we believe in, while hoping that they will earn their place in the market place. We shall try to inject a certain vulgar energy into our films — a showbiz flair to excite popular audiences. We want to increase the size of our audiences and to that end we are hoping to produce much more exciting theatrical shorts in the future. We want to provide audiences with that extra zest that comes from a good accompanying short. We believe that the Canadian public wants to counter the American opinion which floods our media, with Canadian productions which are exciting and have something tangible to say.” “And, | almost forgot... we shall vastly increase contracts to private film makers and production companies.” “Waving Wheatfields anyone?”