Cinema Canada (Dec 1975 - Jan 1976)

Stratford Film Festival, which tends to be pretentious, high-toned and dull, or the Canadian Film Awards (at Niagara-on-the-Lake), which was cold, bitchy and unpleasant, The Yorkton Festival is run by people with a genuine sense of human interest and hospitality. In a year when practically all the Canadian film festivals — with the exception of certain programmes at Ottawa’s Filmexpo in the National Arts Centre — have been poorly attended, it was heartening to see crowds of over 400 people for the evening screenings (all short subjects under 60 minutes) covering the fields of animation, experimental, documentary, television public affairs and drama, sports and children’s films. The Yorkton Festival does not take place because of some pervasive passion throughout the town for movies. (There is one theatre which changes programmes three or four times weekly doing the usual Jaws-Shampoo-Earthquake business.) For some, the gains’ of having a film festival have more to do with politics than culture. Allan Bailey, Yorkton’s mayor and leading mortician (he obviously made the old adage about “death and taxes’ his financial cornerstone) and his wife, Colleen Bailey (whom a local wag of jaundiced views about the festival called “the driving force behind all this inertia,’’) are happiest when meeting various ambassadors (representatives from the British and South African embassies showed up this year), and dignitaries such as André Lamy, commissioner of the National Film Board, film director Allan King (if only he hadn’t made that blue-movie for television, Baptizing) and Larry Hertzog from CTV, among others. Yorkton’s minkset didn’t exactly clasp Micheline Lanctét to its bosom. She kept talking in French for one thing, and always seemed dressed-down for every occasion, wearing blue jeais and casual T-shirts. ‘These film people!”” one could almost hear the disapproving whispers of Yorkton’s bigger burghers as the week wore on, and McLean and Hofsess kept showing up with progressively rumpled clothes and cheerfully dishevelled mentalities (there was a provincial liquor strike at the time but the adjudicators had discovered that it was only cheap booze that was in short supply). Finally, after a week of splendid eating (any town that is as farm-and-family oriented as Yorkton produces an exceptionally high percentage of good cooks) and steady tippling, the judges made their choices. As: a bow to participatory democracy, the Festival created a new category this year, in which the public voted for “Most popular film by audience selection”. The audience chose a National Film Board animated short ignored by the jury,Who are We? directed by Zlatko Grgic; Allan King’s Baptizing was runner-up, with The Man Who Chose The Bush coming third. For the next Festival, in 1977, the organizers intend to advertise in as many film publications as possible. This was the 13th Biennial Festival in Yorkton, and in many ways it was the most exciting and useful film festival to bé held in Canada in 1975. Obviously one has to have an interest in short films to find this particular Festival valuable, but to my eye the most creative, adventuresome and imaginative work done in films is done in the shortsubject field, whether by beginners just starting out or by professionals who have honed their skills to a sharp perfection over many years. Canada’s feature film industry, by contrast, suffers from excessive pressures, cynicism, and government interference. Nobody here is trying to make the Great Canadian movie, or a million bucks, or both. Yorkton’s Festival shows what talent looks like before it gets jaded, stepped-on, or put through bureaucratic rigmaroles. By 1977, Yorkton promises to have air service, a bookstore, and other cultural amenities, in time for its next Festival. Despite its population size, Yorkton thinks bigger about films than most cities in Canada. 0 cinema canada/30 THE WINNERS Golden Sheaf: Man Who Chooses the Bush, produced by Tom Radford, NFB. Best Documentary: Man Who Chooses the Bush, produced by Tom Radford, NFB. Best Cinematography: Man Who Chooses the Bush, produced by Tom Radford, NFB. Best Direction: Man Who Chooses the Bush, produced by Tom Radford, NFB. Best Amateur: Metamorphosis, produced by Barry Greenwald, Ontario. Best Informational: Who Stole the Quiet Day, produced by Alfred Higgins Productions, California. Best Television-Public Affairs: Heritage: Ireland, produced by CTV. Best Sound: Heritage: Ireland, produced by CTV. Best Television Drama: Baptizing, produced by CBC. Best Arts: Life Force, produced by Mellenco Films, Quebec. Best Experimental: Dull Day Demolition, produced by Insight Productions, Ontario. Best Animation: La Faim: Hunger, produced by NFB. Best Children’s: Life Times Nine, produced by Insight Productions, Ontario. Best Nature and Wildlife: New Channels for Sockeye, produced by NFB. Best Picture Editing: With Flying Colors, produced by Insight Productions, Ontario. Best Promotional: Hors-Série, produced by Société Radio-Canada, Montreal. Special Certificates Honourable Vention Amateur: Terror in the Wilderness, produced by Joe Borelli, Florida. Informational: A Fight for Breath, produced by NFB. Experimental: ; Haps Hash and the Coloured Coat, produced by Hans Veen, The Netherlands. Animation: Exhibition Reel of Student films from Sheridan College, Ontario. Animated films, 1975, recognition for Titles for the Tenth International Tournée of Animation, Beckoning and Da Da Da.