Cinema Canada (Dec 1974-Jan 1975)

Shooting “The Perlmutar Story” Special Jury Award: Life Times Nine (Insight Productions). Craft Awards were presented to Paul Saltzman for directing The Perlmutar Story; Bob Brooks, Peter Allies, Jack Long, Doug McKay for cinematography for Stampede in Scarlet; Flo McHugh for the script of Goodnight Little Foal; Ron Wisman for editing of Along These Lines; Paddy Cunningham for sound on Along These Lines; Maurice Solway for music in The Violin. Best Film was The Perlmutar Story. Crawley Films’ thirty-nine years in business was the subject of a special salute by the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa during November and December. Janis had its Canadian premier on December Ist, and other features shown included The Luck of Ginger Coffey, The Annanacks, and Amanita Pestilens. Shorts shown included their first commercial effort Canadian Power, as well as Canadian Landscape, 1941, an episode of the 1959 TV series R.C.M.P., Portage, 1941, Newfoundland Scene, 1951, Beaver Dam, 1954,Legend of the Raven, 1957, Motion, 1967, Today’s Firefighters, 1973. Along These Lines, the Peter Pearson-directed short made to celebrate Bell Canada’s centennial, is the only Canadian film to be accepted at the New York Film Festival. ... The NFB computer film Hunger won a Gold Hugo for best animated short at the Chicago Festival, and a gold medal at the Barcelona International Week of Cinema in Colour. Artist Péter Foldes did the work. ... Arthur Lamdthe’s La Chasse aux Montagnais has been accepted for competition at the Leipzig International Festival, marking the first time a film representing Québec has been shown in competition. ... Morley Markson’s Monkeys in the Attic was judged Best Foreign Film at Toulon’s International Festival of Young Cinema. ...In October at the Bucharest festival, seven Québec programs were presented in cooperation with the Cinémathéque québécoise.... The Eleventh Annual Wilderness Awards were presented recently. Best TV film of 1973 was Nain (People of Torngots), produced for the CBC’s Newfoundland series Land and Sea. Also honoured were Norman, a film for CBLT’s Of All People; Harry Rasky; producer Jean La Letarte, cameramen Bill Brayne, Ian Matheson; composer Louis Applebaum; actress Jackie Burroughs; soundman Stan Sellen and Bill McClelland. The Sixth Canadian Student Film Festival was held at Concordia University in Montreal and was sponsored by Famous Players. The Norman McLaren prize was won by Christopher Windsor of Simon Fraser University for a silent movie serial spoof called Trapper Dan. Montreal filmmakers Joyce Borenstein and Veronika Soul also won prizes. (See feature article in this issue.—ed.) .. . The Centennial Planetarium in Calgary held a Canadian Film Night on October 23. NFB shorts were shown. ... At the Sitges Fantastic and Terror Film Festival in October the Best Photography Award was presented to Jean Beaudein for The Possession of Virginia. ... Filmexpo in Ottawa was _ held through only one week this year, in early November (because of lack of funds) but many features, including a great number of Canadian and North American premieres, were shown. Programming was begun by Alex Grant, who moved to Archives, and continued by Wayne Clarkson. More news about Sorrento Festival, this year starring Canada. The Canadian delegation flew to the Milan airport only to find it on strike. Nine of the eleven features had Italian subtitles. Paperback Hero was the most popular feature with the locals, who jammed the theatre and mobbed the participants. Italian movie industry people came and went during the fest. Every Italian newspaper gave a half-page coverage daily, and 118 journalists from seven countries attended; none were from Canada’s English press. Best actor was Chuck Shamata and best actress Geneviéve Bujold. The showbiz paper Variety remarked on the “surprising freshness and variety of Canadian cinema,” and added, “‘Sorrento’s image of a purely cultural showcase with no commercial overtones may also be changing.” And ‘‘Canadian cinema reveals itself to be strangely introspective, socially engaged, honest, often minutely scrutinizing.” The Chicago Festival in November saw Why Rock the Boat? and II était une fois dans l’est representing Canadian features. ... Videoscape opened at the Ontario Gallery of Art on November 20. Billed as “A survey of primarily Cana dian contemporary video art,” it featured works by Richard Sierra, Lisa Steele, Colin Campbell, Marty Dunn, Vito Acconci. ... Another AGO program was the running of four evenings of Canadian experimental films free to the public. Arrangements were by National Gallery and Canadian Filmmakers’ Distribution Centre. Moreland-Latchford has won two awards for educational films at the 22nd Columbus Film Festival in October. Three hundred entries competed. M-L’s winners were Teeth: People are Smarter than Germs in the Health/Medicine category, and Christmas in Pioneer Times in the social studies category. ... The Fourth International Festival in 16mm was held in Montreal from October 22-27, organised by the Independent Filmmakers’ Coop. Twenty features and forty shorts from twelve countries were shown. Guests. included Massino Mingrone from Rome, _ Stephane Tchalgadjieff and Adolfo Arrieta from Paris, Yves Yersin from Zurich and Mark Rappaport from the U.S.A. A selection of the films was shown in Vancouver from November 2-7... . Famous Players, seriously considering pulling out of the Student Film Festival, has launched a financial aid program in York University’s Film Department. The Famous Players Bursary Fund, awarded on the advice of the governors, is made up of the Maple Leaf Award, a $100 prize to the top graduating student, and $1400 divided as needed for students entering fourth year in need of financial aid. The Student Film Festival, billed at $5000 annually, is causing Famous to _ have second thoughts. A closed competition where entries cannot be shown elsewhere, lack of publicity follow-up, Western resistance to Montreal, and other reasons mean that one more year will be tried, after which a decision will be made. Famous will continue to sponsor annual events at the CNE in Toronto. ... The CSC and CFE awards/dinner and dance was held November 23rd at Toronto’s Four Season’s Sheraton Hotel. Prize categories include drama feature, documentary, industrial, sound, commercials, and educational. Judging the editors’ achievements will be Fletcher Markle, Grahame Woods, Grant McLean, Robin Chetwynd, Gerald Potterton, and others. Winners will be announced in our next issue, (See CSC Assignments in this issue for a list of winners. ... ed.) ... Reel Feelings, the second annual evening of Canadian films was held on October 25th at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre. Shown were Life X Nine, The Violin, The Perlmutar Story, experimental works of Jim Anderson, Keith Lock, and Michael Cinema Canada 9