Cinema Canada (Jun-Jul 1973)

Canadian Film Awards and nominated for an Academy Award, “Selling Out” has gained a formidable reputation since it was shot on P.E.I. last summer. It tells the story of an aging Island farmer who is alone and must auction off his farm and possessions to retire to the city. Beautifully photographed and poignantly directed, the film at its best is incredibly moving; even at its worst it’s just overly sentimental. Apart from the humanity of the story, the film makes a political point when the old farmer’s land is bought by an American. Foreign ownership of land resources on P.E.I. is a matter of grave concern because the Island is so small. It is possible that the ‘Million Acre Farm’ could soon become just a summer home for people from outside the province, and outside the country. The discussion following the film proved to be quite lively. Film commentator Gerald Pratley was present and gave a brief account of the film’s history. He said that Islanders should not think that the film showed them in a bad light, and that all the publicity the film is getting proves that the problem of foreign ownership is widespread. According to Pratley, people everywhere identify with the Island situation. He noted that the film is a re-creation of a situation and not an actual recording of an event in traditional documentary style. Vernon McGoogan, the retired Island farmer who played the central character in the film, was also present. He felt that the situation depicted in the film was getting worse on P.E.I.: he has had to rent his own farm out because it would have required a lot of new equipment and more land to make a living as a farmer. Also participating in the discussion were some Americans who had bought land on P.E.I. Sparks began to fly at one point between those who favoured banning all selling of land to foreigners and those who favoured a selective approach. Comparisons with the Detroit-Windsor crime situation were brought up and rather heatedly debated. Personal Films Particularly noteworthy during the festival were nine films by Rick Hancox who started in film while attending Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown during 1968-69. His films range from extremely funny to intensely personal statements about his life and the lives of people around him. “Cab 16”’, his first major effort is a black and white documentary about a cab driver in Charlottetown who is involved with helping handicapped children. Although “Cab 16” is rough in technique, his next film “Tall Dark Stranger’? is a structured, technically polished colour film about a young freak dressed like Christ who turns on a farmer. This amusing film won grand prize at the National Student Film Festival in 1970 and two awards at Oberhausen in 1971. Hancox’ work at New York University “Rooftops’’, “I a Dog’’, and “Next to Me”’, reflect the haunting desolation of the cityscape and the ludicrous life of people who live in the confines ofa jungle city. “House Movie” done in 1972 is probably his most significant film to date. Set to a Rachmaninoff symphony, the film is a diary of a period in the life of the film-maker and his wife. The film achieves a remarkable warmth and intimacy as it records significant objects and events in their lives, leading to their move to another house and a temporary separation. Another personal film shown was a “home movie” of a remarkable family now living on P.E.I. after travelling all over the world with a brood of 17 children. The film was started in 16mm by the father while the children were very young, and has been taken over by one of the sons. Lawrence Casota, who narrated the film in the absence of the unfinished sound track. “Shotgun” Films A number of short films were shown which came out of a film course given by George Semsel in 1968-69 at Prince of Wales College. The course started out with a large amount of exposed blank set stock and students were told to make films by doing something to the stock. Semsel was fond of saying “If you can’t think of anything to do with it, throw it up in the air and fill it full of buckshot.” He backed up the spirit of his suggestion with some of his own films which used a variety of techniques such as handpainting, hand drawn sound tracks, dyeing, and holes punched in the film. Some more recent experimental films, by Barry Burley and Niall Burnett, were shown as well. They were “conceptual” by Charles Lapp Se ee ee eee ee or “structural” in style, somewhat along the lines of Michael Snow’s work. Documentary Independent film-maker Kent Martin who works out of Charlottetown was on hand to discuss his finely-crafted documentary: “‘Milton Acorn: The People’s Poet.”’ The film has been shown on CBC and is due for another showing soon. Milton Acorn, the former carpenter from P.E.I., is becoming something of a living legend on the Canadian scene both for his rugged, beautiful verse and his radical nationalist views about Canada and the condition of the working class. Kent financed the film on his own and is making a living as an independent. Commercial One former Islander, Don MacLeod, who got kicked out of Prince of Wales for his undue interest in film in 1945 now is a successful producer in New York. One of his films got an Academy Award for best documentary in 1966 but the film shown during the festival was a colossal commercial starring Catherine Deneuve. Shot for Japanese television the film is a lavish 4-minute ad for a famous wig-maker. It included a huge studio set-up in New York and location shooting in Paris. The budget? $800,000. That equals two “Wedding in White’’s! ! ! Hollywood Again There has never been a feature film shot on P.E.I., but Hollywood almost made it across the Northumberland Strait back in 1948. Apparently the Island Board of Trade did not take kindly to strangers from Hollywood and wouldn’t let them over to film the P.E.I. story “Johnny Belinda’’. The film producers then decided to change the script a bit and make the film in Cape Breton. The resulting film starred Jane Wyman as the deaf and dumb Belinda who is raped by one of the locals and is befriended by the new doctor in the community. Also starring in the film are Charles Bickford, Lew Ayres and Agnes Moorehead. The film drew a full house and wound up the six days of film activities which included discussion periods following each film. ® Cinema Canada 25