Grant (Gordon Pinsent, right) comes to accept that Fiona (Julie Christie) has Alzheimer's disease in Sarah Polley's Away from Her. (Mongrel Media)
If Canadian cinema had a MySpace page, Laurence Kardish would be the first guy to sign up. He’s a good friend to have: as senior curator of film and media at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, Kardish has for the past four years programmed Canadian Front, a showcase of Canadian films that New Yorkers otherwise wouldn’t have a chance to see.
The Ottawa-born Kardish (his family owned a legendary deli in the city) has made it something of a mission in life to raise the profile of what he sees as Canadian cinema – Canadian films representing Canada, made by Canadians in Canada. And although Canadian Front is held in co-operation with Telefilm, the chief executive of Canada's major film funding body, Wayne Clarkson, tells me, “I’m smart enough not to mess with success.” This is the Laurence Kardish show.
I spoke with Kardish in his cluttered MoMA office, which is dominated by a bookcase spewing books and DVDs, and overlooks 54th Street’s University Club (“if the lights were on, you’d see billiards”) and two immaculate brownstones.
According to Kardish, this year’s program is particularly strong, and it’s hard to disagree, considering the lineup: Sarah Polley’s well-received Alzheimer’s drama Away from Her, Charles Binamé’s hockey biopic The Rocket and Gary Burns and Jim Brown’s hybrid narrative/doc Radiant City, among others.
Kardish is a meticulous and measured speaker. Here’s what he had to say on four years of programming Canadian Front and a lifetime spent watching his home country’s movies.
Q: What was the original impetus behind MoMA's Canadian Front project?
A: I had thought that there were very interesting films made in Canada not being shown in New York. Since MoMA had established a precedent of surveys of national cinemas, I thought it was time for Canada. Also, I wanted to indicate to our public that Canada encompasses a large geographic area, and to acknowledge that there is solid, good and original filmmaking across the country. I wanted to indicate that Canada is a bilingual country and that French-language cinema and English-language cinema co-existed, and to bring to the attention of the New York public filmmakers that would otherwise not be acknowledged here because of the vagaries of film distribution.
Q: How would you define, or describe, Canadian cinema?
A: The interesting thing about Canadian cinema is that there isn’t one or two defining aspects; there is a tremendous diversity. But there is an inclination toward a documentary approach, whatever that means. Various sorts of passions that are articulated in Canadian cinema are not expressed as violently as they are in American cinema or as romantically as they are in French cinemas. But these are negative virtues – it’s very hard to find a trait. There’s heterogeneity of expression.
Q: Why do you think this “documentary approach” is so prevalent?
A: On the whole, there’s a greater interest in life as it is lived than a fantasy construct. Canadian streets and alleys and byways and highways and country lanes are more photogenic and deliver more drama than works constructed in a studio. There’s a very strong doc tradition thanks to the National Film Board [in May, Kardish is curating a major retrospective on NFB legend Allan King]. I hate to generalize, but I think that with many Canadian filmmakers, the tendency is to engage and inform audience. But then you think about the great Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin – his work is all artifice; there’s this theatricality to his work. So it’s not a strict rule.
Zac Beaulieu (Marc-André Grondin, left) is confronted by brother Antoine (Alex Gravel) in the Jean-Marc Vallée film C.R.A.Z.Y. (TVA Films)
Q: What Canadian films and filmmakers have particularly excited you lately?
A: Last year, we opened with C.R.A.Z.Y – people were really very eager to be able to see it again. I gave a run to Noam Gonick’s Stryker: I like the energy in the film, and I also learned a fair amount about Winnipeg gang culture, which I had no idea existed. We programmed a very funny film called Phil the Alien, and a very difficult one, Les états nordiques (Drifting States) by Denis Côté. I’m also very excited by Calgary filmmaker David Christensen – we showed his Six Figures.
Q: What is your perspective on Quebec cinema, and film from English Canada? Are there distinctions, similarities?
A: I do think that Quebec cinema has its own perspectives, rhythms, systems of production, stars and that it is, because of language, necessarily different. I also feel that so much Canadian cinema is defined by region and locality – so there are different sensibilities. English language cinema is not monolithic, but I think the fact that there is this diversity is part of the strength of Canadian cinema. There are people that want to make substantial works all across the country. The fact is that French cinema is distinctive from English language – which happens to be the lingua franca of the U.S. – and therefore, it is “Other.” And this makes it a draw, in the MoMA context.
Q: How has the audience responded to Canadian Front?
A: Quite positive – some screenings attract full houses, some half a house. There’s a general interest – it’s a very measured interest, but there seems to be a growing following by virtue of doing this program on a steady beat. There’s an interest in north of the border that’s encouraging.
Q: Do you think that Canadian cinema will ever have a “national brand,” like Korean cinema?
A: No. God forbid. That would define and limit it. I think that Canada is physically and literally too broad a nation to have that mass. Korean cinema is a very heterogeneous cinema – in Korea, you don’t find the mix of people’s backgrounds that you do in Canada. I like Korean film, but they’re working in a very tight, closed society. In Korea, there are Koreans. In Canada, there Koreans, and also Armenian and Bosnians and French from France and Americans – a host of different peoples with different backgrounds and religions, all being informed differently, and the cinema represents that.
Q: Are there any trends you foresee emerging in Canadian film?
A: The only trend I hope to see is that Canadians will make more films of the kind we’re showing here – personal, adventuresome, informative, passionate, distinct.
Canadian Front runs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York until March 19.
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