Cinema Canada (Jul-Aug 1975)

Bill Boyle minute drama about a deaf girl and a mime artist. Bill Boyle willdirect and Jim Henshaw and Lynne Griffin will star. Funding is almost complete. Also, the first in a series of half-hour dramas made by the NFB for the CBC has been completed. John Smith directed Luce Guilbeault and Vladimir Valenta in The Customer. Under executive producer James Domville and producer Roman Kroiter, the NFB has been running drama workshops for the past half year for its directors. Valenta, Eli Rill, and Israel Hicks worked with five directors this year. Six will participate next year, and long range plans include expanding the program all across the country. 8 Cinema Canada Scheduled to resume shooting this summer is Joyce Weiland’s The Far Shore. And the Saskatchewan government is discussing investing up to $300,000 in Allan King’s feature of W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind? CFDC May approvals include Jean Claude Lord’s Panique, André Forcier’s L’eau chaud l’eau frette, and Jacques Gagnon’s L’ Affaire Coffin. Completed shorts we’ve heard about are Metric Man, a ten minute effort ex plaining metric ideas, made by Cariboo Cartoons for the Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs. Cariboo was set up by Sheridan College graduates. And Gerald Robinson was producer and director of a recruitment film for Keyano College in Fort Mc Murray Alberta. He used a Mission Impossible format for this effort produced for Access TV North, adivisionof the Alberta Education Communications Department. Television activity is picking up as fall schedules are finalised. CTV will have Excuse My French and Maclear returning, and, together with Champlain Productions is making Kidstuff, aimed at 8-11 year-olds. Bill Hartleyis producing. Barbara Frum will have a network show on the CBC. And the Corporation is planning a massive examination of the October Crisis, with drama and documentary combined. The Great Canadian Culture Hunt, with George Robertson producing, will be seven hours on the arts for the CBC. CBC drama is involving more French Canadians every month. Denys Héroux is shooting a Sidestreet episode starring Daniel Pilon. And in The Real Story series, Gilles Carle will direct a drama about the Métis. Gerry Mayer will also direct a Sidestreet episode, and Peter Pearson an episode of The Real Story. A drama about the Canadian vaudeville headliners who didn’t move south, The Dumbbells, is being planned by CBC. name is the group’s, not a commentary on stayingin Canadato earnaliving from the thriving culture industry. TVers John Hirsch and Eric Till, along with author-publisher Jim Bacque, have announced plans fora wide-ranging series of dramas for educational purposes. Format would be TV, film, as well as literary aids, and outside investment is being sought. Hirsch says location shooting is necessary, and the CBC just doesn’t have the money. But the material, he says, is out there, just crying to be used. Let’s hope it’s not just another voice from the wilderness. On the other side of the ledger, a voice has been stilled. Global TV has cancelled Sh . . . It’s the News despite a doubling in ratings and success ona miniscule budget; the program was one of the few comedy series on Canadian TV, and represents aserious loss to those writers and performers seeking experience in TV comedy, not to mention the audience that enjoys the show. Global has virtually erased any evidence of Canadian activity from is schedule, except for a few inane talk shows. Of course the money goes into Canadian Banks, I suppose,