On a journey to Canada’s own cultural Shangri-La, the urban tangle of clustered homes, shopping malls and buildings gradually morphs into a dreamscape of golf courses, country clubs and mansions. Upon entering the rustic, 22-acre Windfields estate north of Toronto, the roar of nearby traffic on Bayview Avenue is replaced by chirping birds.
It’s like a home away from home.
A handful of twenty- and thirty-somethings lounge around on the sun-drenched patio during lunchtime, while others make sandwiches in a small kitchen. There’s enough room for a few stables, tennis courts, a swimming pool and a sprawling stone mansion—all making up what many consider as the country’s Ivy League academy for creative talent.
It is here, away from the city chaos, that the ambitious students who are admitted to this elite club shed the misnomer title “student” and are from then on known as “residents”.
This is where dreams—stories that capture the imaginations of humanity—take shape and become part of the Canadian cultural spirit.
Known as the pre-eminent advanced training and production centre in film, television and new media, the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) manifested in 1988 from distinguished Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison’s dream. He wanted to give talented Canadians an opportunity to shape our culture and social conscience through the medium of films which he believes are “the literature of our time”.
“When we established the Canadian Film Centre some 14 years ago, we wanted to ensure that Canadians would have access to advanced training in their own country. Our goal was to attract the very best talent who would advance their skills at the Film Centre, then go out and make their mark in the industry,” Jewison said in a statement to Digital Journal magazine. “Everyday I hear about Film Centre alumni making new film and television programs, winning awards and taking on leadership roles within the industry—and that’s what it is all about.”
Like a graduate school for creative prodigies, the 85 applicants accepted by the CFC out of the hundreds each year aren’t merely aspiring talent, rather they are emerging talent. Those with the knockout portfolio and the knack for magically setting off storytelling fireworks are initiated into this cozy “A-list” academy.
With the art of storytelling as the CFC’s cornerstone, resident writers, producers, directors and editors get hands-on experience on how to make great stories more than how to use the camera. Its intense practical training includes roundtable discussions, workshops, screenings and business meetings.
The CFC is, after all, where veteran Canadian actress, Sarah Polley, 23, decided to learn directing last year—even after making it big on CBC-TV’s Road to Avonlea series and Oscar-nominated The Sweet Hereafter. It’s the place that honed creative wizards such as Mina Shum (director, Double Happiness), Don McKellar (co-writer, The Red Violin) and Michael Ondaatje (writer, The English Patient). It’s where it isn’t unusual for respected industry players to drop by—such as David Cronenberg (director, Crash), Carol Littleton (editor, E.T.), and Peter Casey (creator, Frasier TV show)—and intimately disclose the realities of the industry with residents.
Modelled after prestigious film institutes around the world including the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, the CFC is highly regarded in film circles in North America and internationally. The CFC is also able to draw on impressive resources and connections within the film industry due to its shiny collection of award-winning alumni and the clout of Jewison. “The reputation of the Centre is kind of a self-fulfulling prophecy—people think it’s a hot place and hot people will go there,” says Brian D. Johnston, film critic and author.
The cinematic butterfly of the CFC emerged from the cocoon of a small and fragile Canadian film industry generally rife with minuscule budgets, poor ticket sales, and U.S. movie dominance.
Back in the 1980s, Jewison—Hollywood director of critically-hailed films such as The Hurricane, Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck—saw such challenges the film industry in Canada was up against. Having to spend the 1960s in the United States and most of the 1970s in England to pursue his filmmaking dream, the CFC founder knew how tough it was to keep talent in this country. He was compelled to start the CFC to contribute to the development of Canada’s own filmmakers and national film industry. He convinced the E.P. Taylor family, who then owned the Windfields grounds, to donate their estate for the CFC. A dynamic community for the advanced training of professional filmmakers didn’t exist at that time in Canada except implicitly with the National Film Board (NFB). The NFBwas once seen as the training ground for directors along with the CBC until it was weakened by government cutbacks over the years.
In its young history, the CFC has trained over 550 professionals for film, television and new media. Through CFC programs, residents have produced over 20 new media prototypes, 110 short films and 11 feature films, which were shown in theatres and major festivals worldwide. CFC graduates have also gone on to work in 184 TV productions and 117 feature films. In addition, the CFC launched its Worldwide Short Film Festival in 2001, showcasing the finest in Canadian and international short films each year.
“Our success is based on the success of our graduates,” says S. Wayne Clarkson, executive director of the CFC since 1991 and the former head of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
The Canadian talent pool that the CFC helps enrich includes critically-lauded filmmaker Clement Virgo. Virgo’s first feature film, Rude, became a reality through the CFC’s Feature Film Project, a program that funds the development, production and marketing of first-time, low-budget feature films. Rude soon got international recognition, screening in film festivals such as Cannes, Sundance and TIFF in 1995.
Charles Johnston, 31, is a graduate of its CTV Prime Time Television Resident Programme in 2000. He was drawn to attend the CFC based on its alumni whose careers had fired off into the stratosphere of the movie and TV industries. “It’s sort of a magic switch,” says Johnston, whose short film, Tete a tete, was bought by CBC this August for a three-year contract.
Emerging young filmmakers like Brad Peyton, 24, found attending the CFC opened more than doors. A graduate of the CFC’s Alliance Atlantis Film Resident Programme in 2001 and Short Dramatic Film Programme (SDFP) this year, Peyton experienced immediate success. His SDFP short film, Evelyn, premiered at this September’s TIFF.
“I’m very excited to be growing up in it [the Canadian film industry] right now. I don’t think the opportunity was there before, but now Canadians are starting to see they have talent here and they need to support that as well,” he says.
Peter Demas says the CFC was vital in his evolution as a director because it encourages the incubation of stories that aren’t necessarily on the mainstream radar. “I think the Film Centre wants to challenge and provoke you and put you in a place where you’re not afraid to express your ideas and who you are,” says Demas, whose SDFP short film, Straight in the Face, also made its debut at the TIFF.
As CFC residents have grown and developed creatively, so has the CFC itself by successfully branching out in the late 1990s to include the streams of television and new media. h@bitat is the CFC’s new media facility focused on developing interactive products and services for the Internet, interactive television and other new media. With start-up new media companies and award-winning prototypes, h@bitat earned an international reputation for its cutting edge programs, such as the world’s first Web-based sitcom called “The Seen”. “The Seen”—created by alumni Denny Silverthorne, Jeremy Diamond and Adrian Carter—combines elements of the sitcom, video game, cartoon and music video.
“The goal with all programs we run within h@bitat is to essentially facilitate the development of people who can creatively use new technology,” says Ana Serrano, head of h@bitat.
Not only has the CFC contributed to the growth of the frail Canadian film industry by carving out its own creative freedom, it has also enriched the country’s film culture. It does not exist to churn out Canadian cultural products by the bulk, or set out to mimic Hollywood fare. The CFC was significant in transforming the bland reputation of Canadian films from being government-approved, politically-correct films into more eye-opening masterpieces, says Katherine Monk, Vancouver Sun film critic and author of Weird Sex and Snowshoes and Other Canadian Film Phenomena (Raincoast Books, 2001).
“The Film Centre may be just another Canadian institution, but it’s changed the so-called goalposts,” Monk says. “Yes, it can still make dull films, but at least we’re doing it for art’s sake.”
With its stellar and consistent track record, alumni have proven that CFC’s essential philosophy to “just tell a good story” can mean success even in the profit-obsessed film, TV and new media industries.
The CFC and other players in the Canadian cultural industries, however, also need more steadfast support from the country to believe in its own talents.
“It’s a beautiful cycle that all begins with faith—faith that we can make it on a world-class stage,” Monk says. “It’s all about believing, and the Film Centre has certainly been the central church behind the current Canadian film crusade.”
