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Government bureaucracy in action : a history of cinema in Canada 1896-1941

University of British Columbia

If film is seen as a powerful cultural agent which has transformed society from the outside, it would be a mistake to underplay the counter-valent influences in which social, political, and cultural concerns, the very fabric of human reality, have shaped the history of film. "Government Bureaucracy in Action: A History of Cinema in Canada," examines those forces, especially that of government, which shaped the film industry from its initiation in Canada to the creation of the National Film Board. Little consideration has been given to the aesthetic qualities of Canadian film since proportionately few films have ever been shot for artistic purposes and this is particularly true in the Canadian context. While the history of film in Canada is a unique record of government involvement in what has traditionally been regarded as. free enterprise in other democratic nations, from the outset film was an international communications media and as such, Canadian film development was shaped not only by internal considerations, but also by the external forces of the world-wide film industry. Since very little has been written about film in Canada, a heavy reliance has been placed upon studying the evolution of cinema outside the nation, especially in Britain and the United States, the two countries which exercised the greatest degree of influence over the development of Canadian film, and examining through primary Canadian sources whether or not the patterns of cinematic growth established elsewhere held true in the Canadian setting. The findings which are presented here in five essays, each of which explores one aspect of cinema in Canada, indicate that while Canadian attitudes and concerns about the film media mirrored those of other countries, such sentiments were modified by other uniquely Canadian considerations. The most pressing of these factors, that of safeguarding the Canadian identity from the bombardment of American cultural values permeating the country via the Hollywood movie, coupled with other considerations, allowed the nation's governments to assume responsibility for film development in the country. This alliance of politics and art was from the outset fraught with problems, not the least of which was the incompatability of the short term results desired by politicians and the long term process necessary for the development of a viable motion picture industry. Under the circumstances, the bureaucrats with cameras who worked within the poorly conceived, piecemeal, government film operations, could neither enrich the fabric of Canadian culture nor stem the tide of American entertainment movies which flooded the screens across the country.

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2010-03-17

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21960

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University of British Columbia

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