Cinema Canada (May 1980)

appealing to young audiences — the NFB’s extensive animation collection. Again, the most obvious choices are present Lows Romance of Transportation in Canada), as are the prestige films (Leafs The Street). But what about the work of Co Hoedeman? And Norman McLaren? Seeing Ourselves may be the first book-length publication by the Board to completely ignore McLaren. This may sound like a radical departure, but given Page’s purposes it is, at best, a damaging oversight. A cynic might accuse Page of merely culling the NFB/CBC collection to provide harassed teachers with rainy day lesson plans. In reality, this would be an injustice to Page, to Seeing Ourselves, and to those who will use the book intelligently as a tool for sophisticated programming. That said, one is still left with the impression that here, film is being used as illustration rather than provocation. Perhaps, contrary to the book’s intentions, students should not be presented with films that are right on topic, prepared by a benevolent bureaucracy to meet their every need. Perhaps the job of relating a film to what is being studied is itself the lesson to be taught. And perhaps students should be presented with films that are somewhat less accessible, and slightly beyond their age group expectations. Certainly, more effort is needed to make all parties aware of the functioning of informational media, and its role in the formation of the Canadian reality. Seth Feldman Seth Feldman teaches film at the University of Western Ontario and, with Joyce Nelson, edited the Canadian Film Reader. He is currently president of the Film Studies Association of Canada. Making Connections : The Behind The Scenes Story. by Wade Rowland Gage. Toronto. 1979. $10.95. On Sunday June 12, 1977, at ninethirty in the evening, the CBC showed the first of two ninety-minute programs called Connections — an exploration of the nature and extent of organized crime in Canada. By the standards of the day, the programs represented a mammoth undertaking, involving three years of research and the expenditure of $500,000. Through a carefully orchestrated campaign of selected leaks to pertinent columnists, the programs received bountiful advanced publicity, and were viewed by an audience in excess of anything the CBC had ever experienced. Some estimates ranged as high as 1.0 million viewers. In writing Connections, Mr. Rowland takes the reader along the troubled, tortuous, and sometimes very dangerous path that ultimately led to international recognition for the producers and a reevaluation of television journalism. What is crucial about these shows is that they attempted to weld investigative journalism and film technology to produce the immediacy and intensity of cinéma verite. The interviews were painstakingly scouted, then shot under trying circumstances, usually from the back of surveillance vans that were frequently changed to avoid recognition. Detection could have meant a lost interview, wasted film, and the possibility of physical danger. Previously, television had concentrated on spot news and analysis, but Connections attempted to break out of those restrictions to provide a panorama of association and geography that spanned most of North America and parts of Europe: the desire was to keep the welter of facts and faces alive and fresh for the audience. The crew’s job was facilitated by the latest in technology: camera equipment perfected by the U.S. military in Vietnam, lenses capable of multiplying light eighty-thousand times, body pack recorders and concealed microphones. The crew members themselves demonstrated courage, and almost manic dedication to their goal that at times seemed impossible to achieve. Rowland’s interview-oriented account leaves little doubt that the project suffered from more than the usual number of personality clashes. Originally, the project stemmed from a collaboration between Jim Dubro and Bill Macadam, who were working on a series of proposals in hopes one might interest the CBC Current Affairs Division. Dubro was responsible for the research and Macadam for the packaging and presentation of the material through his production company, Norfolk Communications. One result of their collaboration was the program called The Fifth Estate: The Espionage Establishment. The lessons learned and the success encountered during that venture whetted Macadam’s appetite for bigger game. Encouraged by Peter Herrndorf, then newly appointed head of Current Affairs, who was anxious for properties that might stir the moribund department into life, the organized crime project was begun under a secret code name on December 9, 1974. As the research progressed, several problems surfaced. First, there was reluctance on the part of the Canadian law enforcement agencies to admit that such a thing as organized crime existed. Second, it became evident that to get information from one source, it was necessary to provide information from another. }CANDLEPOWER (J Barbizon Light 3 Draper St., Woburn, Ma. OISOI 617-935-3920 Distributors of: Mole-Richardson, Sylvania, G.E.. Osram, Thorn, Rosco and Lee. from Cinema Canada/31