[VHS Mondays] Best Of The CFC

One thing about this Sabbatical- I've been getting caught up on household things I've either put off or didn't have time to do in my previous life. This week I was cleaning "the scary closet", and just in time for this week's VHS Mondays, I found this VHS tape. Vol. 1 The Best Of The CFC, is an offering by Rogers' First Rites label, which distributed Canadian-produced independent films (a redundant phrase, as most of Canada's cinema is independent). My past sojourns into video clearance bins and the like have turned up a couple of their releases (the Tarantino-influenced Trouble immediately comes to mind), but otherwise I don't know much about this banner. A cursory Google search turns up little information, let alone how many titles it distributed, although our friends at Film Trap make a valiant first stab. 

The Best Of The CFC (a Google search does not turn up a "Volume 2"), compiles five short films produced at the Canadian Film Centre, the institution for advanced film studies and production, founded by Norman Jewison in 1988. Featured are: Keith Behrman's Ernest (2002), Vincenzo Natali's Elevated (1996), Andrew Ainsworth's Cleveland Wood's Last Day On Earth (1996), Aubrey Nealon's In Memoriam (2001), and Alex Chapple's The Passion Of John Ruskin (1994).  Re-discovering this tape is rather timely, because lately I've been thinking a lot about when I worked at the CFC while on field placement in college. There is enough material there for a couple of blog posts. Suffice it to say for now, I was there just before Andrew and Vincenzo made these films. I was supposed to have worked as a coordinator on these and the four other shorts that CFC produced at the beginning of 1996. Alas, they couldn't afford to pay me, and I couldn't afford to work free for another six weeks. So, there went my chance to have six professional credits on my resume. (Except for some positions, most of the crew members on CFC shorts were unpaid volunteers. Because of the mystique and prestige surrounding the CFC, and that these films potentially travel the world, these are added incentives for people to get up at 5 AM to lug Seeway pro bono.) 

Among the alumni of CFC residents (writers, producers, directors) are such familiar names as Margot Kidder, Paul Quarrington, Mina Shum and Clement Virgo. Cynthia Dale, Scott Speedman and Sandra Oh are a few of the famous players who have appeared in their films. For some marquee value, the video box for this collection touts the names of Neve Campbell and Mark McKinney (both starring in John Ruskin), plus that of Vincenzo Natali, whose debut feature Cube was made by the CFC's Feature Film Project, just after his work on Elevated, to which this work is thematically similar.  

Still, this got me thinking about how poorly Canadian film history is documented in some areas- especially for short films (that is, those not made by the NFB). You pretty much have to know what you're looking for, and even then, Google searches result in disappointingly little. One time I made a list of CFC titles I remembered checking film prints of in their projection booth, and pasted each of them into a web browser. For many, the returns were disappointingly minute. Additionally, I'd like for there to be a database of all titles that were distributed by First Rites. Hopefully, I can contribute some more HTML to the blogosphere in the near future. With each new generation, there is a cinematic heritage slipping through the cracks that needs to be upheld. Anyway, more on that in a future update. For now, time to pour a cup of coffee and revisit some memories.

What chromium dioxide delights await next week's column? Until then, be kind and rewind!