AJL28056 Varieties of Canadian Experience: Canadian Film since 1970

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025

The course is not taught in Spring 2025

Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/25, only registered: 0/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 14 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course offers a comprehensive survey of Canadian Cinema from the 1970s to the present. The course participants explore questions of Canadian national identity as reflected in its film production. While the first part of the course includes a variety of notable Canadian classics by filmmakers who have established themselves as auteurs with a solid international reputation (Cronenberg, Egoyan, Rozema, McDonald), the second part is devoted to watching and discussing recent works by no less interesting- minority filmmakers (Mehta, Shum, Virgo, Kunuk) who in their features explore the various aspects of the Canadian multicultural (and minority) experience. At the end of the course students will have a basic knowledge of the Canadian feature film industry, its principal creators and themes.
Syllabus
  • Week 1: Introduction: Canada and Canadian Cinema Dorland, Michael. So Close to the State/s, The Emergence of Canadian Feature Film Policy. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo, London.1998. (3 - 35) Gittings, Christopher E.: Canadian National Cinema. Routledge, London 2002. (76 - 102) Monk, Katherine: Weird Sex & Snowshoes and Other Canadian Film Phenomena. Raincoast Books, Vancouver, B.C. 2001. (3 23)
  • Week 2: Don Shebib: Goin Down the Road (1970) Gittings, Christopher E.: Canadian National Cinema. Routledge, London 2002. (158-163) Ramsay, Christine: Canadian Narrative Cinema from the Margins: The Nation and Goin Down the Road. In: Walz, Gene. Cross/Cultures 56, Canadas Best Features; Critical Essays on 15 Canadian Films. Rodopi, Amsterdam New York, NY 2002. (3 26)
  • Week 3: Atom Egoyan: Family Viewing (1987) Tschofen, Monique. Repetition, Compulsion and Representation in Atom Egoyans Films. in: Beard, White: North of Everything, English Canadian Cinema Since 1980. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2002.(166-183)
  • Week 4: Denys Arcand: Decline of the American Empire (1986) Perusse, Denise: Gender Relations in the Decline of the American Empire. In: McIlroy, Brian; Loiselle, André Auteur/Provocateur: The Films of Denys Arcand Praeger, Westpoint, Connecticut, 1995 (69-89). Testa, Bart: The Decline of Frivolity and Denys Arcands American Empire. In: Walz, Gene. Cross/Cultures 56, Canadas Best Features; Critical Essays on 15 Canadian Films. Rodopi, Amsterdam New York, NY 2002 (175 208)
  • Week 5: David Cronenberg: Videodrome (1983) Beard, David. Thirty-Two Paragraphs about David Cronenberg, in: Beard, White: North of Everything (144-159) Rotschild, Wayne. The Cronenberg Effect. Beard, White: North of Everything (160-165). Beard, William. The Artist as Monster: The Cinema of David Cronenberg. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo, London. 2001. Grant, Michael, ed. The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg. Praeger, Westport, Connecticut. 2000.
  • Week 6: Patricia Rozema: I Have Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) Parpart, Lee: Political Alignments and the Lure of More Existential Questions in the Films of Patricia Rozema. In: Beard, White. North of Everything, (294-311). Cagle, Robert L.: A Minority on Someone Elses Continent: Identity, Difference, and the Media in the Films of Patricia Rozema. In: Armatage, Banning, Longfellow, Marchessault. Gendering the Nation, Canadian Womens Cinema. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo, London. (183-96) Austin-Smith, Brenda: Gender is Irrelevant: Ive Heard the Mermaids Singing as Womens Cinema. In: Walz, Gene. Cross/Cultures 56, Canadas Best Features; Critical Essays on 15 Canadian Films. Rodopi, Amsterdam New York, NY 2002. (209 236)
  • Week 7: Bruce McDonald Highway 61 (1992) Gravestock, Steve. Outlaw Insider: The Films of Bruce McDonald. In: Beard, White: North of Everything (242-255)
  • Week 8: Deepa Mehta: Sam and Me (1991) Jacqueline Levitin: Deepa Mehta as Transnational Filmmaker, or You Cant Go Home Again. In: Beard, White: North of Everything (270-93) Banning, Kass. Playing in the Light: Canadianizing Race and Nation. In: Armatage, Banning, Longfellow, Marchessault. Gendering the Nation (291-310)
  • Week 9: Mina Shum: Double Happiness (1994) Gittings, Christopher E.: Canadian National Cinema (239-41). Spaner, David. Dreaming in the Rain, How Vancouver Became Hollywood North by Northwest. Arsenal Pulp Press. Vancouver. 2003. (136-141). Banning, Kass. Playing in the Light: Canadianizing Race and Nation. In: Armatage, Banning, Longfellow, Marchessault. Gendering the Nation (291-310)
  • Week 10: Clement Virgo: Rude (1995) Banning, Kass: Conjugating Three Moments in Black Canadian Cinema. In: Beard, White: North of Everything (84-99). Gittings, Christopher E.: Canadian National Cinema (255-62). Banning, Kass. Playing in the Light: Canadianizing Race and Nation. In: Armatage, Banning, Longfellow, Marchessault. Gendering the Nation (291-310)
  • Week 11: Robert Lepage: Le Confessionnal (1995) Dundjerovich, Alexandar: The Cinema of Robert Lepage, the Poetics of Memory. Wallflower Press, London, 2003. (53 -76) Manning, Erin: The Haunted Home: Colour Spectrum in Robert Lepages Le Confessionnal. Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Vol. 7 No2, Fall 1998.
  • Week 12: Zacharias Kunuk: Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner (2001)
Literature
  • MELNYK, George. One hundred years of Canadian cinema. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004, x, 361. ISBN 0802084443. info
  • GITTINGS, Christopher E. Canadian national cinema : ideology, difference and representation. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2002, ix, 338. ISBN 0415142822. info
  • North of everything : English-Canadian cinema since 1980. Edited by William Beard - Jerry White. Edmonton, Alta.: University of Alberta Press, 2002, xxiii, 488. ISBN 088864390X. info
  • Take one's essential guide to Canadian film. Edited by Wyndham Wise. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001, xiv, 272. ISBN 0802083986. info
Teaching methods
Class discussion; independent reading and watching; response papers; student presentations
Assessment methods
Attendance, presentation, reading, in-class tests, written exam;
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught: every other week.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Předmět si nemohou zapsat studenti Bc. studia AJ
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