Identity and Alienation: Exploring the Toronto New Wave
Anne at 13,000 Ft. premieres in-person at FACETS (1517 W. Fullerton Ave.) on September 17th, 2021 after an 18 month hiatus. This film explores some of what we all have come to feel through the COVID-19 pandemic, a longing for meaning after isolation. In honor of reopening and the Chicago Premiere of Canadian director Kazik Radwanski’s film, we at FACETS would like to begin by going through a brief history of the Toronto New Wave and the movement’s films of past and present.
Often, as film enthusiasts, when we think “New Wave” our minds jump to the Nouvelle Vague, or what is referred to as the French New Wave. However, as we know from that era, these waves come and go. This is not a forever state, and these filmmakers move on and evolve from their original conceptions and roots. So, it isn’t surprising that the Toronto New Wave, which developed in the 1980s and early 1990s, is having a revitalization period. Now, there is a next generation led by a few plucky Ryerson graduates making films on extremely low-budgets, which has led us to Anne at 13,000 Ft., a film that deals with themes related to mental illness and the identity and alienation of a young Toronto woman.
Toronto New Wave
The Toronto New Wave or New Canadian Cinema movement developed in the 1980s and early 1990s. Directors like Peter Mettler and Atom Egoyan chose to reject the typical Hollywood drama conventions and focused on a pursuit toward identity in their films. As a group, they were tight-knit and founded themselves on collaboration, often helping each other on their work. As a collective, they were not focused on rule setting, but were defined by their handheld camerawork, natural light, and long takes. These early works focused largely on producing an image of Toronto as a general location compared to American cities like New York, which has clear and memorable iconography.
Now, the next generation, who is colloquially referred to as the “MDFF crew’’ or “Medium Density Fibreboard Films” crew, are taking the helm from the predecessors on a similar, but ultimately new vision of what Toronto New Wave film is and can be. The Toronto cinema of new is one that is extremely personal and adept through micro-budget filmmaking. These filmmakers are on a tight budget, but produce films that focus on personal identity, external struggles of belonging, while also rebranding what a Canadian film can be.
Below you will find a variety of films from the original Toronto New Wave. Forerunner Directors such as Peter Mettler, Atom Egoyan and Patricia Rozema, who brought the Toronto New Wave to national and international attention. Additionally, some of the filmmakers that are reinvigorating the Toronto New Wave will also be featured alongside their predecessors as a way of showing where Toronto has been and what direction they have taken in the 21st century. So grab your popcorn, and delight over a watchlist never before seen!
SCISSERE
DIRECTED BY PETER METTLER
Peter Mettler, the one who seems to be the originator of the Toronto New Wave, was himself a Ryerson alumni. In 1982, Mettler directed his first feature Scissere, about a heroin addict who has been in and out of psychiatric rehabilitation and who imagines himself as three random strangers he encounters. These encounters all take place in Toronto and show three different lives all interweaved for seemingly no reason beyond this patient’s search for identity. This patient, Bruno Scissere, is frightened about his release into the real world, and completely unsure about his identity, takes refuge in imagination and obscurity.
Through visceral filmmaking techniques, opening with a 12-minute impressionistic montage of images such as the sky, and different parts of nature all colliding into the walls of a psychiatric clinic, this is a film that embodies the do-it-yourself and rejection of formulaic conventions right at the get-go. This film focuses much on how these three stories, and characters, interweave: a heroin addict seeking his next dose, a young mother taking a day to herself, and an entomologist who discovers a new species of moth. This film kickstarted the 1980s Toronto New Wave, and is an example of the kind of identity-oriented cinema these filmmakers were attempting to achieve.
Rent Scissere now from FACETS.
NEXT OF KIN
DIRECTED BY ATOM EGOYAN
The next filmmaker featured, Atom Egoyan, and his debut feature film Next of Kin, is another film that examines the identity of the protagonist. A young man, Peter Foster, feels unloved by his own parents, they consult a therapist who videotapes them. Peter, looking at the tapes, finds one of an Armenian family who gave their son up for adoption before they immigrated to Canada. Foster convinces this family that he is their long-lost son. In terms of locales, this film opens in Toronto’s Pearson Airport, an opening location that instantaneously makes us think of the lack of identity, movement from place to place, that came to be an important motif in many of Egoyan’s films.
When thinking about the Toronto New Wave, this film fits into the idea that the lack of identity, and the anxieties about what is to come, lead characters to curious places. In terms of traditional convention, this plot seems out of the ordinary. It is not conventionally “Hollywood” and it takes us into real-life situations, into the world of an immigrant family. This film, like Scissere, has characters search for their own meaning and identity outside themselves.
Rent Next of Kin now from FACETS.
I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING
DIRECTED BY PATRICIA ROZEMA
Patricia Rozema took a 5-week course at Ryerson University in Toronto for 16-mm film production. This aligns her with her fellow Toronto New Wave companions, having spent time at Ryerson, her film, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing has an anti-authority motif. The main character Polly is an unlikely protagonist, in that she is not a well-connected and fairly ordinary person. She, like many characters on this list, searches for her own identity, this time through photography.
Landing a position as secretary in an art gallery, Polly idolizes her boss, Gavrielle, for artistic abilities, but later learns that she is not what she claims to be. The anti-authority message, the low-budget, the auteurist lens of Patricia Rozema, all make this film a member of the Toronto New Wave. The warm reception this film received at Cannes, and the subsequent denial to US distributors, show this film as a statement against a Toronto known simply as “the Hollywood of the North.”
Rent I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing now from FACETS.
POETRY IN MOTION
DIRECTED BY RON MANN
Ron Mann’s Poetry in Motion is a documentary display of the Toronto New Wave collaboration. Atom Egoyan, Bruce McDonald, and Peter Mettler all worked on the film, having done certain tasks for Mann. The film is an anthology of contemporary poets that were considered post-Beat Generation and has interview segments with Charles Bukowski that present the contemporary (at the time) landscape of poetry.
Although a documentary work, Mann’s piece is one that came as the Toronto New Wave came into being. It is a work to be examined in that it brought the future players of this loose-knit group together and is an excellent examination of poetry and art itself.
Rent Poetry in Motion now from FACETS.
ROAD KILL
DIRECTED BY BRUCE MCDONALD
Bruce Mcdonald is another notable original Toronto New Wave filmmaker. With his first feature film Roadkill (1989), we follow Ramona (Valerie Buhagiar) who searches for Children of Paradise, the most notable band from the label she works for. This search leads her all over Ontario meeting a cast of strange characters along the way.
While watching this film, one could guess that this is a part of the art-house or indie scene. The low-budget type filmmaking, reminiscent of Jim Jarmush, make this most certainly an indie picture. The search for a band that simply disappeared on tour, is one search that could mirror the lack of identity in the large landscape of Canada that the early Toronto New Wave filmmakers were so keen on.
Rent Roadkill now from FACETS.
THE BROOD
DIRECTED BY DAVID CRONENBERG
David Cronenberg is one of the most notable Canadian filmmakers, so it would be difficult to not include him on a list about Canadian cinema. A point of distinction between the filmmakers on this list is that Cronenberg was working in his genre of “body horror,” and that he moved to the United States to create film while some of his fellow Toronto filmmakers stayed back.
Made in 1979, The Brood predates the beginnings of the Toronto New Wave, but surely influenced the filmmakers to create through his popular auteurist reach. The film was made in Toronto the year prior to release and is about a man, his mentally ill wife, and a therapist that hides them away. The Brood has murder in its backdrop as well as alienation, all of which might have links thematically to the Toronto New Wave movement. So give it a watch if you are looking for something horrific and Canadian!
Rent The Brood now from FACETS.
MS SLAVIC 7
DIRECTED BY SOFIA BOHDANOWICZ
Finally, we come to the more modern end of the spectrum. As we know now, there is a group led by filmmaker Kazik Rafwanski known as the “MDFF Crew,” a group that plays with the lack of identity in the landscape of Toronto, with some even using Toronto iconographically and as the subject of their films. With Sofia Bohdanowicz, a filmmaker part of this contemporary new wave or new-new wave, comes MS Slavic 7.
The connection between this and the film from our upcoming screening Anne at 13,000, is that Deragh Campbell is in both films as the starring role. However, in MS Slavic 7, we see a character seeking letters of their Polish Grandmother, which is partially autobiographical to Bohdanowicz’s own life. For this reason, there is an identity component to this piece, and one to check out to get acquainted with more filmmakers of the contemporary new wave.
Stream some Sofia Bohdanowicz films at damovie.com
THE DIRTIES
DIRECTED BY MATT JOHNSON’
Matt Johnson, actor in Anne at 13000 Ft. and part of the “MDFF Crew,” directed his film The Dirties in 2013. The film is a comedy centered around two students, Matt and Owen, who are victims of bullying. Some indicators that this is a part of the Toronto New Wave is the found footage style with handheld camera work associated with the new wave— the narrative is also very personal. Additionally, the film was done with only a $10,000 production budget (they needed much more to get the film made).
Interestingly, this film was done with money that was all out-of-pocket, a shoestring budget is typically associated with this contemporary new wave. The Dirties also garnered praise from many film festivals and directors such as Kevin Smith, so it was able to make a return. If you are interested in something more comedic in the Canadian realm, go ahead and check out the Dirties!
Rent The Dirties now on Prime Video.
POSSESSOR
DIRECTED BY BRANDON CRONENBERG
Like a few films on our list, Deragh Campbell makes an appearance in Possessor (2020) directed by Brandon Cronenberg. A Ryerson alum, like many other Canadian filmmakers of the Toronto New Wave, Brandon is following in the footsteps of his father by making a psychological horror film. Although not specifically tied to the “MDDF Crew” Brandon is a Canadian filmmaker that has a legacy in filmmaking with his father, who was an auteurist filmmaker during when the Toronto New Wave was just beginning and after it was established.
In Possessor, Tasya Voss (Andrea Riseborough), an assassin who goes into other bodies to murder for hire, thematically follows the Toronto New Wave in that each time she imitates others she further detaches from her own identity. If you would like to explore Canadian cinema and you are familiar with David Cronenberg’s work, looking at his son’s film might just be worth your time.
Rent Possessor now on Prime Video.
Pre-order your tickets now for FACETS‘ first in-person screenings in 18-months, Anne at 13,000 Ft., opening Friday, September 17, 2021 and playing September 17-19 & 24-26.
Christian Mietus is an Editorial Assistant Intern at FACETS. He is a Senior working towards a B.A in English General Writing (Creative and Professional) at Lewis University with minors in Film Studies and Russian Language and Culture. In 2019, his poetry was published in both the WINDOWS fine arts magazine and in the City Brink literary magazine. In May 2019, his collaborative project, “Assimilation through Sound” was chosen for the Stephany Schlachter Award at Lewis University. Christian is a film lover, some of his favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrzej Wajda, and Krzysztof Kieslowski.