Cinema Canada (Feb 1976)

SE Festival Dei Popoli in Florence, Teri McLuhan’s The Shadow Catcher was screened... CTV grabbed awards at the International Film and TV Festival in New York in late Fall: a Gold Medal for Kidstuff; Silver Medals for Paul Lang’s Trans Canada Highway and for Bill Hartley’s Inquiry: Immigration; and two Heritage shows on Italy and Ireland won New York City’s Special Award Certificate... The Teenage Movie Awards, sponsored by the University Film Foundation, the University Film Association, and the Council on Nontheatrical Events, a U.S. competition, was won by a Canadian: Robert Bergman of Toronto won the Grand Prize and the first place in the Senior Category for The Romance of Irving, and so receives a film study scholarship. He made the film in Super 8 sound. Third Prize in the 16 mm category went to Robin Miller of Willowdale, Ontario, for A Sometimes Life, and Honourable Mentions in the Senior Category were given to Marizio Belli of Sudbury and John Bertram of Toronto. Lies My Father Told Me has been declared the Best Foreign Film by the Golden awards, held in Hollywood in January. Coming up are more and more festivals, and most want entries. An all-day short film festival will be held again this year, sponsored by the Toronto Filmmakers’ Co-op, the Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Productions. Date is February 14, site is the Town Hall, and the fest will run from 9:30 am to midnight. In the morning will be films by and for kids, with Super 8 added in the lobby. Afternoon will present student films and, later, adult amateur efforts. In the evening, independent works will be shown. The U.S. Industrial Film Festival, 9th edition, has announced an entry deadline but no festival dates. Send them anyway, before March Ist, to 1008 Bellwood Avenue, Bellwood, Illinois 60104, where they’ll accept 16mm independent films, 35 mm filmstrips and slide programs, in 26 categories... The 18th Annual American Film Festival, sponsored by the Educational Film Library Association at the Hilton Hotel in New York, will be held May 31 to June 5. Films must be in by _ mid-February, to 17 West 60th Street, New York 10023... Filmex in Los Angeles, March 21 to April 4, will premiere a new event: a feature film market, three countries at a time, and Canada is tentatively scheduled for this year. Three days of screenings will be held for buyers and distribs, and the Festival Bureau would pay the costs, with the CFDC providing a video room for further screenings. Only English or subtitled films will be considered. The Ontario Film Association is again having its two-part program at the YMCA Conference Centre, Geneva Park, near Orillia, Ontario this spring. The Second Annual Grierson Seminars will be held April 3-7, with only ninety guests accepted and to be led by Allan King with Paul Rotha as key speaker. Theme will be documentary film and propaganda. And then the 7th Annual Film Showcase will be held from the 7th to 11th. A buyerseller gathering for new 16 mm efforts to be screened for anyone who may purchase them, this event has been highly successful in the past. More informa tion on both from Box 521, Barrie Ontario L4M 4T7. And the National Gallery has announced the Second Canadian Filmmakers Series, a complete program that tours the country, of 12 independent films. Included are Veronika Soul’s Tales from the Vienna Woods; David Rim mer’s Canadian Pacific, Fracture, and Watching for the Queen; Surreal by Kim Cross; Seeds by John R. Gava; Al Razutis’ Le Voyage and Visual Alchemy; Boardinghouse by Neil McInnes and Ken Stamnick; Ice and Surface by Nicholas Kendall; and Lorne Marin’s Second Impressions. For details on Toronto’s Super 8 Festival, see Special Events in this issue. André Link, producerdistributor and filmmakers William Fruet, Claude Jutra and Martin Defalco were all in the URSS at the end of January for a Week of Canadian Film to be held in Moscow, Leningrad and Riga. Seven features and six shorts were chosen by the soviet authorities. They are Kamouraska by Claude Jutra; Cold Journey by Martin Defalco; The Hard Part Begins by Paul Lynch; The Mystery of the Million Dol lar Hockey Puck by Jean Lafleur and Peter Swatek; Wedding in White by William Fruet; Why Rock the Boat by John Howe; Les Vautours by Jean-Claude Labrecque, and Pas de Deux by Norman McLaren; Le mariage du hibou by Caroline Leaf; Who Are We by Zlatko Grgic; Thoroughbred by Pen Densham and John Watson; The Violin by George Pastic; Hunger by Peter Foldes. Le grand film ordinaire, Roger Frappier’s feature documentary made with Le grand cirque ordinaire, the Quebec theatre company, was shown at the International Student Festival of Open Theatre (Oct. 19-26) in Wroclaw, Poland. The film was well received and praised for its use of theatre to examine contemporary social problems. FILIYI NEWS Random notes ACTRA The Association of Radio and Television Artists (ACTRA) has a new national board of directors elected for a two year term; Grace Butt from Newfoundland/Labrador, William Fulton from the Maritimes, Victor Knight and Gordon Atkinson from Montreal, Bob Gardner from Ottawa, Neil Leroy from Winnipeg, Walter Mills from Saskatchewan, Jack Goth from Calgary, Douglas Paulson from Edmonton, Roy Brinson and Bruce MacLeod from B.C., and, from, . Toronto, Lorraine Thomson Barbara Franklin, Don Parrish, Charles Templeton, Ben Wicks, Bernard Cowan, Vernon Chapman, Jack Gray, and Joyce Gordon. The executive was to be chosen by this group in late January... Toronto Co-op Another group gathering took place November 30 _ when the Toronto Film makers’ Co-op held its annual meeting. A new executive was elected: Pen Densham, Alan Goldstein, Tony Hall, Kit Hood, Ruth Hope, Mark Irwin, David Leach, Patrick Lee, Clarke Mackey and Keith Lock. Guest Ron Evans of the Ontario Arts Council outlined the Council’s view of filmmakers — technical level high but too little hustling and maturity — and said he felt the Co-op was moving _along very strongly. He outlined Council assistance to filmmakers, as well as the thinking behind the programs: talent and creativity are to be developed, but the public must benefit too, i.e., the films must be shown. He said that Council grants to film and photography were $340,000 in 1975, with february 1976/7