Cinema Canada (Oct 1973-Jan 1974)

aiderta intodd-ao ree On location in Spring Coulle. — by Harris Kirshenbaum David Acomba whips up a storm with “Slipstream” Directed by David Acomba, screenplay by William Fruet. Director of photography: Marc Champion, editing: Tony Lower. Sound: Russel Heise, Post-production supervisor: Alan Lloyd. Music: Brian Ahern, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton. Starring Luke Askew, Patti Oatman, Eli Rill, Scott Hylands and Danny Friedman. Produced by James Margellos for Pacific Rim Films Ltd., Harold Greenberg, executive producer. Winner of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Sound (for Alan Lloyd) Etrogs at 1973 Canadian Film Awards. Distributed by Cinepix. Produced with CFDC assistance. It is really not very often in the day-to-day existence of the Canadian Film Scene that we witness a surprise success story. Yet there was probably no one more surprised at the outcome of the Film Awards than director David Acomba, whose film, SLIPSTREAM was awarded Best Film, Best Direction and Best Sound. Still, critics have had mixed reviews for the film, and at a screening a month before the awards, there had been no arrangements made for theatrical exhibition. At this point in time, though, distribution has been looked after, and a Toronto opening is imminent. SLIPSTREAM is a most controversial film. Even more so now, with some members of the critics’ community claiming it did not deserve to win the awards that it did. Yet the film has a style that is individual and a story to tell that cannot be denied in its reality. It is seriously flawed, and some of its glaring errors have drawn criticism that overlooks its many fine points. The story involves a disc-jockey who broadcasts his daily programme from his remote farm house in the middle of the great Canadian plains. His style is distant and individual, and he has managed to set himself up to work independently, with no hassles. But as he becomes popular and the show catches on, the station manager beings to make demands about the kinds of things he does and the music he plays. His relationship with Kathy, who deserts her commune to come live with him, is a complex one that has been called one of the 28 Cinema Canada major problems of the film. But the situation has many possibilities, and Acomba does draw on some of them fully. There are places in the film where the acting in inexcusable, and there are faults in timing and pacing that are purely directorial in their origin, which does make it seem strange that the film won the award for Best Direction. Yet no one argues that there are some of the most beautiful visual images achieved in this film. Marc Champion’s photography is often breath-taking, and always under perfect control. The problems with the acting are not the faults of performers Luke Askew or Patti Oatman, who both give performances that could have been tightened in the editing to appear much better. What makes the film successful for those who do like it is the battle that Mike (Askew) fights against the corporate media bullshit with which he is expected to fall into line. Several Toronto FM disc-jockeys, who will be involved with the opening of the film, have claimed that it’s really their story, and that this is exactly the kind of thing that they have been put up against. The reality of the story is unquestionable, and the falling down seems to have been just in the execution. Acomba’s main interest is music, and he applies it beautifully in the film. He has been lucky that some of his friends are in the right places to help him obtain rights to the material he uses, and it all adds to the entity of the film. CINEMA CANADA interviewed Acomba the day after the Canadian Film Awards, and what follows are his comments on a number of things.