A List of Canadian Films

A few words about good movies from the Great White North

“The Log Driver’s Waltz,” dir. John Weldon

It is Canada Day! They used to call it Dominion Day, but then the ‘80s happened and we got an actual constitution and that wouldn’t do anymore. July 1 marks the official date of confederation, in which colonies in British North America formed the union known as Canada. The place I was born! Not a perfect country. Plenty problematic, to use the old parlance. Still, I take some measure of pride in whatever luck made me Canadian. It’s a pretty good country, all things considered. One of the better ones, I’d say, not that I’m speaking from a position of authority. But I’ve been to other places, and when I come back to Canada, it feels like home, which is what counts.

To celebrate Canada’s birthday, I’ve decided to put together a list. It’s a list of Canadian films. This isn’t a list of the best Canadian films (I’m not well-educated enough on our national cinema to do anything like that). It’s not even a list of all my favourite Canadian films. It’s just a list. Of Canadian films. The list features films that I like, that are Canadian, that popped into my head, and that I think you should check out. In a sense, they are films I think about when I think about Canadian film (complimentary), as opposed to films I complain about when I complain about Canadian film (derogatory). But it’s not an exhaustive list. It’s not meant to signal anything, really. This is not a new CanCon canon. It’s just some good Canadian films you might consider watching today, on Canada’s birthday, or another day, whenever it’s convenient.

Happy Canada Day! Enjoy!

The Heart of the World - Guy Maddin, 2000

For the 2000 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, a number of filmmakers were commissioned to make short films to play before the features. Guy Maddin, one of our most unique stylists, made “The Heart of the World”, a six-minute piece of perfection. It tells the story of a woman, the object of affection for two men. She is also a scientist who has discovered the world is in danger of a literal, and fatal, heart attack. The Heart of the World. Inspired by the old Soviets like Vertov, the film manages to pack in an incredible amount of plot, cut with astonishing rapidity. Silent movie style on steroids.

Skip Tracer - Zale Dalen, 1977

From deep in the heart of the tax shelter era comes this great Canadian classic. Skip Tracer is about a repo man who begins developing a conscience. Though fitting happily under the Canuxploitation label, the movie is surprisingly heady, and even touching. Plus, it’s got that old low-rent charm. I first saw the film a few years back on a 35mm print at the Royal, and since then Justin Decloux over at Gold Ninja Video has spruced it up with a great Blu-ray release. But it’s also on YouTube, in shitty, VHS quality. An equally appropriate way to watch it.

I Thought the World of You - Kurt Walker, 2022

Kurt Walker is one of the great voices of the new new Toronto New Wave, and in 2022 he debuted one of his best, most satisfying short works, “I Thought the World of You.” The film is a documentary, about the Canadian musician Lewis, who released some albums in the ‘80s that nobody listened to, but were later re-discovered int he ‘00s. With little information to go on about the artist behind the music, Walker constructs an image of him through the musings of his fans, and a voyeuristic idea of access. The film beautifully captures the parasocial experience of music discovery. It’s also streaming on Mubi.

Things - Andrew Jordan, 1989

The best thing to ever come out of Scarborough, Andrew Jordan’s Things is a a singular experience. Shot on Super8, released on VHS, the movie looks like absolute shit. Its plot, about two friends visiting a relative only to be attacked by strange creatures resulting from a mad doctor’s experiments, makes absolutely no sense, follows no discernible logic, to the point that it starts to feel Lynchian. Not aping Lynch, but actually Lynchian. It also features porn star Amber Lynn, delivering a tacked-on performance only a step above hostage video. The movie has been adopted into the “so bad it’s good” canon, but I wouldn’t really slot this movie next to the likes of The Room or Miami Connection. You see, Things is a more honest piece of work. Its weirdness has real intent, born out of a group of guys just picking up a camera and deciding to make something. That’s Canadian spirit. Watch it on Tubi!

Viking - Stéphane Lafleur, 2022

A group of volunteers is recruited as an alternate team of space pioneers. They represent a replica, emotionally speaking, of the actual space crew. Their purpose is to react to various scenarios, providing the mission leaders a better understanding of how to approach and deal with potential conflicts among the crew up in space. To say much more would give away the funny, sad twists and turns of the plot. This is a perfect example of the kind of (French-)Canadian film that plays at TIFF and eventually feels like it disappears off the face of the Earth. It also embodies that feeling of existence in ephemerality. Viking is a charming, beautiful little movie. Available in the US on Kanopy.

Canadian Pacific I + II - David Rimmer, 1974/75

A railyard through a window. Water and mountains in the backdrop. Trains and ships cross the frame at various times.

David Rimmer made two of these films, in 1974 and 1975. The second is the same as the first, essentially, only from a different window, a different vantage point. Higher up. I first saw these films in a unique setting, at an experimental shorts presentation in the back of a bar, projected on 16mm. Making it extra memorable was that the projectionist had rigged up both Canadian Pacific films to play at the same time, side-by-side. A mesmerizing experience of the Canadian industrial landscape.

Action: The October Crisis of 1970 - Robin Spry, 1973

You can hardly get more Canadian than Quebec separatism. In 1973, just a few short years after the October Crisis, the NFB produced the great documentary, Action: The October Crisis of 1970. The film is, like its title, a straightforward affair. Monotone voice-over narrates archival footage of the FLQ’s terror attacks and kidnappings and the response by the Quebec and federal governments at the time. Told with cold distance, the documentary attempts to be a fact-first rendering of the crisis, leaving interpretive work to historians and the audience. What it presents is a country reaching a boiling point, and viewed decades later, exists as a great work of a very Canadian notion of neutrality and objectivity. Check it out on the NFB site.

Log Driver’s Waltz - John Weldon, 1979

Speaking of the NFB, there is a wealth of amazing documentaries and animation available in their collection, and perhaps the most Canadian of all is the short film “Log Driver’s Waltz.” It starts as live-action, in fact, transforming into a simple, delightful, moderately annoying, and slightly embarrassing piece of Canadiana. Beyond its hokey imagery, the animation itself is fantastic, with great colour pencil work, and watercolour backgrounds and shading.

Stories We Tell - Sarah Polley, 2012

Sarah Polley’s documentary Stories We Tell, about her mother and a shocking family secret, remains one of the best films I’ve ever seen. It is, as the title suggests, a film about the stories people tell, and their function, as archive of memory, as means of processing, as exertions of power, and as forms of connection. I cry every time I watch it. It also reminds me so much of Canada, bouncing as it does between Toronto and Montreal, often in locations I recognize and feel attachment to myself. Watch it at the NFB.

Sudden Fury - Brian Damude, 1975

Another tax shelter classic, about Fred, a crazy guy trying to get his wife to go along with his latest business venture, only she’s not having it. After arguing and arguing about it on the road, they get into a crash, and Fred leaves his wife behind, hoping she’ll succumb to her injuries and the elements. But when another man attempts a rescue, Fred concocts a plan to set him up for the murder (and a few more), only things quickly get violently out of control. Sudden Fury is pure pulp, with an exploitation spirit, and an intensity unmatched by most other Canadian movies of its era. Or since, frankly.

See You Later - Michael Snow, 1990

Couldn’t do a Canadian movies list without Michael Snow on it. In See You Later, a man gets up from his desk and puts on his jacket and says goodbye to his secretary and walks out the door. This perhaps 30-second long action is slowed down and stretched out over nearly 18 minutes. An endurance test, I suppose, but one whose lengthening of time coalesces into a surprising catharsis at the image of the man at the door, framed something like an old Western hero. And then the door closes.