Product Description

This books traces the inscription of nation across Canada's film history, from early films of colonisation and white settlement to contemporary Canada's diverse multicultural output.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4917105 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .0 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
"The addition of of this title to the growing list in the series is most welcome."
-Bruce A. Austin, Communications Booknotes Quarterly
"Through close textual readings, Gittings' valuable study examines the ways in which Canadian films reflect and refract social forces of their times and address contemporary issues of representation and nation."
-Blain Allan, Queen's University
..."presents a fresh and uncompromising angle on Canadian cultural history while it traces the social implications of its stories on film. What emerges is a close and sympathetic analysis which focuses on the difficulties facing a national industry dominated by its powerful neighbour, the politics of representation internal to a multi-ethnic and multi-racial society, and the positive effects of strategic investment in local stories as well as the indigenisation of international genres."
-Graeme Turner, University of Queensland

From the Back Cover
Canadian National Cinema explores the idea of the nation across Canada's film history, from early films of colonisation and white settlement such as The Wheatfields of Canada and Back to God's Country, to recent films like Nô, LE Confessional and Map of the Human Heart. Through a series of case studies of both-well and neglected-Christopher Gittings uncovers the tensions in Canadian cinema between white Anglo and Native representations, and between Francophone and Anglo-Canadian narratives. Engaging with questions of inclusion and exclusion, race and representation, gender and sexuality, he shows how access to the production of cinematic images has determined who is represented and how.
Following the changing images of the 'founding nations' from early ethnographic films like Saving the Sagas to documentary, experimental and feature films by contemporary First Nation filmmakers, Canadian National Cinema traces Canadian cinema's continuing reinvention of the nation.

About the Author
Sean Brierley was a Lecturer in mass communications at Liverpool John Moores University and writes a regular column for Marketing Week.