At the turn of the millennium Canadian cinema appeared to have reached an apex of aesthetic and commercial transformation. Domestic filmmaking has since declined in visibility: the sense of celebrity once associated with independent directors has diminished, projects garner less critical attention, and concepts that made late-twentieth-century Canadian film legible have been reconsidered or displaced. Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium examines this dramatic transformation and revitalizes our engagement with Canadian cinema in the contemporary moment, presenting focused case studies of films and filmmakers and contextual studies of Canadian film policy, labour, and film festivals. Contributors trace key developments since 2000, including the renouveau or Quebec New Wave, Indigenous filmmaking, i-docs, and diasporic experimental filmmaking. Reflecting the way film in Canada mediates multiple cultures, forging new affinities among anglophone, francophone, and Indigenous-language examples, this book engages familiar figures, such as Denis Villeneuve, Xavier Dolan, Sarah Polley, and Guy Maddin, in the same breath as small-budget independent films, documentaries, and experimental works that have emerged in the Canadian scene. Fueled by close attention to the films themselves and a desire to develop new scholarly approaches, Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium models a renewed commitment to keeping a vibrant conversation about Canadian cinema alive.-Provided by publisher.
Contents
Introduction: Towards a renewed critical optics for contemporary Canadian cinema -- PART ONE: FEATURE FILMS AND FILMMAKERS -- 1 Speaking across borders: Xavier Dolan and the transnationalism of contemporary auteur cinema in Quebec / Robinson, Ian -- 2 An equivocal auteur: gauging style and substance in the films of Denis Villeneuve / Carruthers, Ian -- 3 A "momentary melancholy": female desire and the promise of happiness in the cinema of Sarah Polley / Horeck, Tanya -- 4 Indigenous women's cinema in Quebec: the works and words of Mohawk filmmaker Sonia Bonspille Boileau / Bertrand, Karine -- 5 Le cine´ma a` l'estomac: Denis Co^te´ and the new wave of Quebec cinema (2004-19) / Sirois-Trahan, Jean-Pierre -- 6 Fluid privilege: reading "Canadian" water in wet bum (2014) and sleeping giant (2015) / Vanderburgh, Jennifer -- 7 Toronto's new diy filmmakers / Davidson, David -- 8 Northern frights: Canadian horror in the twenty-first century / Leeder, Murray -- PART TWO: DOCUMENTARY AND EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKING -- 9 Beauty day and the crises of self-directed work / Meneghetti, Mike -- 10 Mythologizing Manitoba: the negated truth of my Winnipeg / Siegel, Miriam and Keil, Charlie -- 11 Indigenizing the archive: souvenir and the NFB / Roberts, Gillian -- 12 I-doc and my-doc: bear 71 and highrise as Canadian documentaries / Feldman, Seth -- 13 Diasporic sights: trauma and representation in recent Canadian poetic cinema / Browne, Dan -- 14 dominique t. skoltz and new states of cinematic matter / Wilmink, Melanie -- PART THREE: CANADIAN FILM CONTEXTS, FESTIVALS, AND INDUSTRIES -- 15 A taxing culture: reconsidering the service production / Acland, Charles R. -- 16 collective action! unions in the Canadian film and television industry / Coles, Amanda -- 17 Making room: international co-productions and Canadian national cinema / Lester, Peter -- 18 Troubling Toronto queer festivals: transgressions in and of queer counterpublics / Mitchell, Aimee -- 19 From showcase to lightbox: programming the national on the festival circuit / Burgess, Diane
