TIFF Selects 150 Essential Works in Canadian Cinema History

Congratulations to the Vtape artists included in TIFF’s “150 Essential Works” list!

In October 2016, Toronto International Film Festival Director and CEO Piers Handling announced a co-presentation between TIFF, Library and Archives Canada, Cinémathèque québécoise, and The Cinematheque in Vancouver. Running throughout 2017, this free programme will present moving-image installations, special events and guests, an extensive online catalogue, and screenings across the country, all based on a list of 150 Essential Works in Canadian Cinema History, compiled through a national poll of industry professionals, filmmakers, scholars, critics and artists.

Handling writes, “Canada on Screen is the most ambitious retrospective of our country’s moving-image heritage ever attempted. How appropriate that this venture should happen during the Canadian Sesquicentennial, in light of what the Centennial in 1967 did to awaken us to our own identity. Canada’s moving-image heritage—features, shorts, documentaries, animation, television, experimental works, music videos, commercials, and moving-image installations—is known only partially to all of us, but we have made some of the world’s most important films in all of these areas. This programme of the Essential 150 will allow us to showcase the best films in a country-wide celebration throughout 2017. Enjoy—and discover!”

In the category of Experimental Film and Video, Steve Reinke’s The Hundred Videos, Lisa Steele’s Birthday Suit – with scars and defects and Sackville I’m Yours by Colin Campbell. Zacharias Kunuk’s Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner appears In the list of best Features; in the Moving-Image Installation category, Vera Frenkel’s …from the Transit Bar is one of only six works listed; and, finally, John Greyson’s The Making of Monsters is included in the Shorts category.

image credit: Vera Frenkel … from the Transit Bar, 1992