By Jim Slotek

Sharon Corder, who created National Canadian Film Day with her husband Jack Blum, wants to reiterate, she is not trying to get you to eat your vegetables.

“As far as we’re concerned, this isn’t broccoli, this is candy,” says the long-time producer of her national and global annual celebration of Canadian movies. “The people who work here love film.”

If the analogy holds, there are a lot of candy lovers. Practically everywhere you turn on Wedneday, April 17, there will be a Canadian movie – streamed online and on various TV services, and on about 1,500 live screenings across the country, with a further 62 screenings across the world, from Vilnius to Reykjavik to Tijuana. At Carolina Coastal University in South Carolina, they’ll be eating poutine and watching The Rocket, and Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary Trick or Treaty. National Canadian Film Day’s bilingual mascot Maurice the Moose has attended in the past.

(See Liam Lacey’s roundup sidebar on this page).

In some instances, the screenings are taking place in towns and villages so small, seeing any movie publicly is a novelty. “Film festivals, libraries, community centres, museums, schools, military bases, retirement homes,” Corder says. “Somebody described it as, ‘From the cradle to the grave.’”

Even more vividly, she says Atom Egoyan – a regular speaker at events for NCFD and its progenitor Reel Canada – “called it hand-to-hand guerilla combat. We go to the villages and we fight the war. You can’t decide whether you like something if you can’t see it.”

Their relentless pursuit of a profile for Canadian films started 21 years ago, when Corder and Blum grew tired of pessimism, even within their own industry. Reel Canada was a reach-out to high schoolers, exposing them to their country’s own industry.

National Canadian Film Day was, um…

“Eleven years ago, we noted one day in April that we had several screenings across the country in various high schools. And Jack made a joke, saying, “It’s National Canadian Film Day!”

Later, she says, “we had some posters (for Reel Canada) made up. And Cineplex said, ‘If you animate those posters, we’ll give you a free ad for them.’ And the question was what (event) will it be for? And Jack said, “What about National Canadian Film Day?”

“He came to me and said, ‘We’re going to do National Canadian Film Day!’ And I said, ‘What’s that?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know!’”

The answer came with the parties that joined up. Global Affairs Canada began promoting screenings abroad. Communities signed on. Last month, in a pre-event event, Gov. General Mary Simon hosted screenings for New Canadians at Rideau Hall of the English language film Peace by Chocolate and Quebec’s Ru.

And they’ve seen unexpected results from their efforts. “It’s happened several times that some young filmmaker will come up to us. They didn’t know the name of the company, but somebody came with Atom Egoyan to their school, or Colm Feore or Deepa Mehta, and that’s where they first learned that there were Canadian movies.

“We’re not here to train filmmakers as much as to train audiences. But we don’t mind turning on young filmmakers either.”

By Liam Lacey

With 1,000-plus films showing across Canada and internationally, National Canadian Film Day (April 27) is a vastly complicated operation, involving multiple partners and a patchwork of screenings.

In fact, the only way to know what’s going on in your community is to go to the organization’s website use the search bar and hope.

Here’s an overview of some of most prominent events and programs of this year’s festival.

Pre-release screenings:

Across Canada: Ally Pankiw’s drama, I Used To Be Funny, starring Rachel Sennot (Shiva Baby, Bottoms) will show to 22 screens across the country in advance of its June 7 release date. Caveat: None of those screenings take place in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.

St. John’s, Newfound: Director Christian Sparkes’ drama about a supernatural child, The King Tide screens at the St. John’s Scotiabank Theatre.

Toronto: World premiere of Caitlin Cronenberg’s film Humane, with special guest stars Jay Baruchel and Emily Hampshire, at Toronto’s Varsity Theatre. The bad news is no more tickets are available to the public; the good news is the film opens April 26.

Stirling, Ontario: A preview of Melissa D’Agostino’s musical film, Mother of All Shows at the Stirling Festival Theatre.

Vancouver: Darrell Dennis’ Indigenous caper comedy, The Great Salish Heist, VIFF Centre.

In Memoriam Screenings honouring Charles Officer, Norman Jewison and Don Shebib. Toronto: Charles Officer’s Akilla’s Escape, Scotiabank Theatre, Toronto.

Vancouver: The 1997 television documentary, The Life and Times of Norman Jewison, VIFF Centre, Vancouver;

Vancouver and Ottawa: Shebib’s Goin’ Down The Road, VIFF Centre, Vancouver and The Canadian Film Institute, Ottawa, with guests including the film’s Jayne Eastwood.

Partner Screenings: Writer-director Matt Johnson joins the Canadian Film Festival for a screening of Blackberry, at the Scotiabank Theatre, Toronto.

The Vancouver International Film Festival offers a 30th anniversary screening of Mia Shum’s Double Happiness, as well as the The Life and Times of Norman Jewison, Don Shebib’s Goin’ Down The Road and Darrel Dennis’s The Great Salish Heist.

The Oakville Festival of Film and Art present Richard J. Lewis’s adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s novel, Barney’s Version, with producer Robert Lantos and host Daniel Richler.

Reelworld Screen Institute presents a special 25th-anniversary screening of Another Planet, with director Christene Browne, the first Black woman to write, direct and produce a feature film in Canada. (Imagine Carlton Cinemas, Toronto).

imagineNATIVE presents Shelley Niro’s Café Daughter, audience choice winner of the 2023 imagineNative festival, with a Q&A with director Shelley Niro. Brantford Galaxy Cinemas, Brantford Ontario.

The 35th-anniversary screening of Roadkill by Bruce McDonald, followed by a Q&A with co-writer & star Don McKellar, at the recently opened Redwood Theatre in Toronto

A 25th-anniversary screening of Another Planet, the first Canadian feature film directed by a Black woman, followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Christene Browne. (Toronto) at the Imagine Carleton Cinemas.

TIFF presents Philippe Falardeau’s, 2000 film, La moitié gauche du frigo (The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge) followed by a virtual Q&A with Falardeau about the film. At the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Calgary Underground Film Festival presents the 1981 Canuxploitation horror film, Ghostkeeper, with a Q&A with director Jim Makichuk and star, Murray Ord. Globe Cinema, Calgary.

And that’s not all…

Among the many events, both Canadian and international, the festival includes a live-streaming event with 20,000 high school students as journalist Kelly Boutsalis hosts a discussion with director Alanis Obomsawin to discuss her film, Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair and the legacy of the residential schools.

In addition, there are 228 Canadian films available round the clock on various streamers and cable channels (Hollywood Suite, Super Ecran, Crave, Super Channel, APTN, CBC, CHCH, OUTTV, Blue Ant Media, Wild Brain and Game TV.) That long list includes celebrated Canadian films (Les Ordres, Exotica, Nobody Waved Goodbye, Stories We Tell), and less remembered, including 2012’s Vampire Dog, with the title character voiced by the late great Norm Macdonald.

National Canadian Film Day: The Movie Moose is Loose!

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