Constance Dilley

First book review of Crosscurrents, written by Michael Dorland (photo), former editor of Canadian Journal of Communications. Vol44, No. 1 2019. This is in many ways a book of firsts. The first English-language book to be published by the Presses de l’Université du Québec, as part of its series on Publics & Culture. The first detailed study in English of Quebec film policy, and the first to write that history in full recognition of the role played therein by English-Montrealer...Continue reading

13. Summarized from Crosscurrents For the next 20 years, the battle in the province of Quebec was to convince the government that it needed to create a framework lawa loi cadreto serve the interests of filmmaking. Today, we take for granted that production, distribution, exhibition, and classification are all part of the same business, but not so in 1964. It’s was André Guérin’s special mission to explain the need for a loi cadre to the government. As if to help him, the ...APC addressed another brief to the premier of Quebec in March, 1964. It was rigorous, crafted by two authors trained by Jesuits: Jacques Godbout and Hubert Aquin. It dealt with the difference between the private and public sectors: the private sector would create profits, they wrote, while the public sector would make films that were more risky, more avant-garde. A similar brief was also sent to Ottawa, and the APC garnered a meeting with Simon Reisman from the department of Industry to discuss the economics of filmmaking at length. Other briefs followed, but this is dry stuff for a Facebook post. (In the department of anecdotes, Gordon Sheppard worked in Lamontagne’s office at Secretary of State during this time. He would go on to write Aquin’s biography Ha!: a self-murder mystery after Aquin’s suicide in 1977. A renown writer, Aquin was vice-president of the Rassemblement pour l’independence nationale (RIN) in 1964 and jailed for subversive activity. Photo: Hubert Aquin.) Crosscurrents is available at Renaud Bray, Paragraphe, and Argo (Montreal), and Ben McNally and tiff bookstores (Toronto). Also, on Amazon.ca. See more

12. Summarized from Crosscurrents We forget what it was like when organizations in the film industry had no paid staff. The Association professionelle des cinéastes (APC) compensated for the lack of support with energetic strategies to get its messagethe need for a feature film industryto the politicians in Ottawa. In February, 1964, they copied a brief to the Secretary of State Maurice Lamontagne and to several other federal ministers. To their great surprise, Maclean’s ...Magazine got hold of the brief and ran a cover story about how disillusioned Quebec’s filmmakers were with the government and the National Film Board. Flabbergasted, the APC went public, dissociating the organization from the article. The Globe & Mail amplified the dispute. But there’s no bad publicity, and the government took note. The Prime Minister along with the ministers of Commerce, Industry, External Affairs, and Forestry all wrote backin Frenchto thank the filmmakers for their brief. Maurice Sauvé even penned a note, saying, I know personally almost all of the members of your committee and request that you convey to them my best regards. How small was the world of les collèges classiques It may seem odd today, but no copy was sent to the provincial minister of Cultural Affairs. At the time, MAC simply thought of movies as a vulgar entertainment and had no room in its mandate to care for filmmaking or filmmakers. In the shadows, André Guérin was building his own strategy at the censor board to awaken the province to the filmmakers’ need. (Photo: Maurice Lamontagne) Crosscurrents is available at Renaud Bray, Paragraphe, and Argo (Montreal), and Ben McNally and tiff bookstores (Toronto). Also, on Amazon.ca. See more

11. Summarized from Crosscurrents In April 1963, André Guérin became head of the censor board and the provincial film office. He organized research on the film industry for the Conseil d’orientation économique du Québec, working with Guy-L. Coté and Arthur Lamothe. By July, he was asking Claude Jutra and the APC to prepare a normative study on cinema in Quebec as well as a sociological, psychological and economic analysis of the human factors of production. Was the APC so... nerdy? None of the members of the APC had been schooled in cinema, other than the training they got at the NFB. There was a lawyer, a doctor, several teachers and many writers and Guérin didn’t underestimate the APC’s ability to produce results. By November, a 5-volume 350 page study set the film industry firmly in the sights of Quebec’s developing economic planning. (Photo: Guy-L. Coté) Crosscurrents is available at Renaud Bray, Paragraphe, and Argo (Montreal), and Ben McNally and tiff bookstores (Toronto).

10. André Link, co-founder of distributor/producer Cinepix in 1962, thought he knew why Guérin joined the anemic provincial civil service: the [behavior of the] censor board was positively scandalous. The board would order cuts, only done at night. Distributors paid for the cuts in cash at horrendous prices. If the distributor made the cuts himself, the film was rejected. Not only was cutting the film aesthetic barbarism, it was a scandalous way of exto...rting money from distributors. "Les enfants du paradis" and "Hiroshima mon amour" were among the victims. The archives confirm Link’s conclusion: that Guérin was on a mission to drag Quebec into the 20th century. (Link on the right with co-founder, John Dunning). Summarized from Crosscurrents. Available at Renaud Bray, Paragraphe, and Argo (Montreal), and Ben McNally and tiff bookstores (Toronto). Also Amazon.ca. See more