Hollywood hurts English-speaking Canada

PANAJI: Canadian cinema has been affected by Hollywood only as far its English-language films are concerned since the French-speaking Canada, which includes Quebec, is still generally secure and unaffected by the influences from North America, film personalities said today.

Jeremy Peter Allen, Director of ''Manners of Dying'', said the English-speaking areas were affected not because of the affinity of language but because all the best artistes were picked up by Hollywood studio who paid much more.

Denis Boivin, who directed ''Hold on to Your Hat'', replying to a question at a press meet during the ongoing 35th International Film Festival of India, said he had attempted in his film to show sometime about the Anishnabe people in Canada. This was his first feature film.

Gautam Hooja, who is associate producer of ''Manners of Dying'', said the film industry in Canada had survived in spite of Hollywood because of its uniqueness in dealing with subjects which touched the common man.

He revealed there were a total of eleven feature and 12 non-feature films in the IFFI here, marking one of the largest-ever packages of films from Canada going overseas. In fact, a total of six films are being screened in the Canadian Showcase, apart from five other films from that country being screened in the 'Cinema of the World' section.

Hooja, who is associated with the Montreal-based Indo-Canadian Films International, said more Oscar winners from Canada had come to India than to any other country.

The festival has a rare retrospective of twelve short animated films produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the word-renowned documentary and short films institution curated especially for Goa by Hooja.

Included in this retrospective are several Oscar award-winning films by some of the greatest animation specialists in the world, including two films -- 'Paradise' and 'Divine Fate' -- by Ishu Patel, who was at the National Film Board for 30 years.

United News of India