Discuss the significance of TWO of these in relation to the evolution of Canadian Cinema.
Pick the questions you feel most comfortable with according to the requirements and I’d provide the readings, slides or films watched related to your topic of choice.
I’d add more readings as required depending on chosen topic Key Concepts: Documentary Form Indigenous Storytelling Visual Sovereignty Tax Shelter/Policy Genres SECTION A. 10% (5 marks each) Discuss the significance of TWO of these in relation to the evolution of Canadian Cinema. (maximum 250 words for each answer).
1. The National Film Board Act 1939.
2. Tax Shelter Films.
3. Igloolik Isuma Productions.
4. Genre and Canadian film. SECTION B. (15% x 2=30%) Answer TWO of these four questions. Your answer should integrate the readings, discussion and lectures in as much detail as possible (maximum 3 pages). At minimum, you should refer to 3 key concepts, 3 films and 3 readings.
Your answer will be written in essay format, using 12 point font, double space with proper citation of sources (Chicago style guidelines).
1. Jolene Rickard has argued that visual sovereignty is a key term for framing new Indigenous art making practices. As she writes,” As part of an ongoing strategy for survival, the work of indigenous artists needs to be understood through the clarifying lens of sovereignty and self-determination, not just in terms of assimilation, colonization, and identity politics.”
Discuss with reference to the Indigenous films screened in class. OR
2. The founding mandate of the National Film Board has been to “interpret Canada to Canadians.” Discuss the sometimes problematic but ever evolving articulation of the ‘national interest’ at the National Film Board with reference to at least three distinct historical periods, studios, or film movements from the founding of the NFB in 1939 to the present moment, incorporating references to class readings and screenings.
OR 3. In his essay, “Questions of National Cinema,” Andrew Higson argues that “Cinema never simply reflects or expresses an already fully formed and homogeneous national culture and identity.” How have your readings, screenings of films in class and participation in class discussions opened up new ways to think about Canadian cinema? OR
4. Discuss the evolution of film policy from the National Film Board Act of 1939, through the Canadian Co-operation Project, tax shelter years and including the formation of federal and provincial funding agencies in Canada. How has the tension between often antithetical understanding of cinema as a public good with a pedagogic or cultural purpose and cinema as an industry shaped the evolution of these policies? Outline the particular and unique role of the federal government (in particular) in creating the conditions for the survival of Canadian cinema.
