Genie-winning director sees 'shift away from art' - Anne Wheeler laments state of Canadian filmmaking
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
By Yvonne Zacharias, Vancouver Sun
Eighteen years ago, veteran filmmaker Anne Wheeler made an award-winning classic, Bye Bye Blues.
Starring Rebecca Jenkins as Daisy Cooper, the film tells the story of a wife and mother who returns home to Alberta at the start of the Second World War. There, she learns the Japanese have captured her husband and, to make ends meet, she joins a dance band as a singer.
Just when Daisy is enjoying the fruits of her independence, she is forced to decide which is more important: her burgeoning career or her responsibilities as a wife and mother.
On Thursday, Jenkins, Wheeler and others associated with the film will gather for a reunion to celebrate the making of this little gem that won three Genie Awards (best actress, best supporting actress and best original song) and the Gold Space Needle Award (Seattle International Film Festival).
On the eve of the reunion, Wheeler said she still gets calls all the time about the film. "It was definitely a pinnacle of my career."
But Wheeler, who has been making films for 36 years, was in anything but a celebratory mood as she lamented the state of female directors in the film industry and the state of Canadian filmmaking generally.
The Alberta native reminisced about the heyday for female directors in the film industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Women were encouraged to tell their stories in film. Their numbers in the directors' ranks grew.
But starting in the mid- to late 1980s, their numbers declined. Wheeler, who now lives in White Rock, estimates that only one in 10 directors is a woman.
She cites many reasons for the decline which is not unique to the film industry but has hit other professions that are not traditional for women as well, engineering being another prime example.
"As the economy turns, women are the first to leave," she said in an interview over coffee before heading out to her current job directing a show for an American cable network.
Directors, who are responsible for a film's overall artistic vision, must put in 16-hour days while a film is being shot. It's one of those jobs, says Wheeler, where there is no halfway.
The idealism of the women in the late 1970s and early 1980s has given way to the realistic notion that they can't juggle such a heavy work schedule and raise a family without tremendous support which has not been there for many.
Wheeler cites yet another reason. "The big decision-makers in the film industry are primarily men. They are still working with the same men while women have come and gone. It's kind of the Old Boys club."
It used to be that only women wanted to tell women's stories, but now a lot of men are telling women's stories as well. She says more than half the movies made for the U.S. Lifetime network, which caters largely to a female audience, are made by men. Men have discovered this huge market.
There is nothing wrong with this, said Wheeler, but she feels there is something wrong with the under-representation of women in the directors' ranks.
While making films, Wheeler managed to raise a family, thanks to a partner who was very involved with the children and a decision to remain in her hometown of Edmonton, close to a supportive family.
She also climbed through the ranks of the film world in slow steps, handling camera, sound and editing functions which taught her efficiency. She had been involved in the making of movies for 15 years before she attempted to make a feature. This incremental journey now seems passe.
She is also disappointed that Canadian films have not fared well.
She blames that on a number of factors, including a spate of bad Canadian movies that made it to the box office, turning off viewers, and a lack of marketing. These days, it seems the only way a Canadian movie can fly is if it has a major American star, she said.
Filmmaking has always been an art and a business, but it seems to Wheeler it has become more of a business.
It has become so expensive, said Wheeler, and filmmakers have lost the independence to find their artistic feet by making that first or second film where they had huge freedom as to who was cast and how it was shot. "Everybody has a say now in what take is good. There are a lot of agendas to take into consideration." There has been a shift away from art, she concluded.
"There are a lot of great scripts and projects out there but they don't know how to get off the ground."
The phenomenon is not unique to Canada. Youth in China and Russia, two huge markets, are now drawn to American movies. She recalled sitting alone in a theatre in South Africa watching the Academy Award-winning film Tsotsi, which was shot on South African soil. The South Africans were going to American movies.
She isn't sure what the solutions are but she senses that film making is too reliant on government funding. She feels more private investment and entrepreneurs need to be drawn into the mix.
She also feels the Canadian audience has to start demanding Canadian films.
"Is there going to be one global culture or do we want to have indigenous films?"
[email protected]
The reunion screening of Bye Bye Blues will be held Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Vancity Theatre. The public is welcome.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007
By Yvonne Zacharias, Vancouver Sun
Eighteen years ago, veteran filmmaker Anne Wheeler made an award-winning classic, Bye Bye Blues.
Starring Rebecca Jenkins as Daisy Cooper, the film tells the story of a wife and mother who returns home to Alberta at the start of the Second World War. There, she learns the Japanese have captured her husband and, to make ends meet, she joins a dance band as a singer.
Just when Daisy is enjoying the fruits of her independence, she is forced to decide which is more important: her burgeoning career or her responsibilities as a wife and mother.
On Thursday, Jenkins, Wheeler and others associated with the film will gather for a reunion to celebrate the making of this little gem that won three Genie Awards (best actress, best supporting actress and best original song) and the Gold Space Needle Award (Seattle International Film Festival).
On the eve of the reunion, Wheeler said she still gets calls all the time about the film. "It was definitely a pinnacle of my career."
But Wheeler, who has been making films for 36 years, was in anything but a celebratory mood as she lamented the state of female directors in the film industry and the state of Canadian filmmaking generally.
The Alberta native reminisced about the heyday for female directors in the film industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Women were encouraged to tell their stories in film. Their numbers in the directors' ranks grew.
But starting in the mid- to late 1980s, their numbers declined. Wheeler, who now lives in White Rock, estimates that only one in 10 directors is a woman.
She cites many reasons for the decline which is not unique to the film industry but has hit other professions that are not traditional for women as well, engineering being another prime example.
"As the economy turns, women are the first to leave," she said in an interview over coffee before heading out to her current job directing a show for an American cable network.
Directors, who are responsible for a film's overall artistic vision, must put in 16-hour days while a film is being shot. It's one of those jobs, says Wheeler, where there is no halfway.
The idealism of the women in the late 1970s and early 1980s has given way to the realistic notion that they can't juggle such a heavy work schedule and raise a family without tremendous support which has not been there for many.
Wheeler cites yet another reason. "The big decision-makers in the film industry are primarily men. They are still working with the same men while women have come and gone. It's kind of the Old Boys club."
It used to be that only women wanted to tell women's stories, but now a lot of men are telling women's stories as well. She says more than half the movies made for the U.S. Lifetime network, which caters largely to a female audience, are made by men. Men have discovered this huge market.
There is nothing wrong with this, said Wheeler, but she feels there is something wrong with the under-representation of women in the directors' ranks.
While making films, Wheeler managed to raise a family, thanks to a partner who was very involved with the children and a decision to remain in her hometown of Edmonton, close to a supportive family.
She also climbed through the ranks of the film world in slow steps, handling camera, sound and editing functions which taught her efficiency. She had been involved in the making of movies for 15 years before she attempted to make a feature. This incremental journey now seems passe.
She is also disappointed that Canadian films have not fared well.
She blames that on a number of factors, including a spate of bad Canadian movies that made it to the box office, turning off viewers, and a lack of marketing. These days, it seems the only way a Canadian movie can fly is if it has a major American star, she said.
Filmmaking has always been an art and a business, but it seems to Wheeler it has become more of a business.
It has become so expensive, said Wheeler, and filmmakers have lost the independence to find their artistic feet by making that first or second film where they had huge freedom as to who was cast and how it was shot. "Everybody has a say now in what take is good. There are a lot of agendas to take into consideration." There has been a shift away from art, she concluded.
"There are a lot of great scripts and projects out there but they don't know how to get off the ground."
The phenomenon is not unique to Canada. Youth in China and Russia, two huge markets, are now drawn to American movies. She recalled sitting alone in a theatre in South Africa watching the Academy Award-winning film Tsotsi, which was shot on South African soil. The South Africans were going to American movies.
She isn't sure what the solutions are but she senses that film making is too reliant on government funding. She feels more private investment and entrepreneurs need to be drawn into the mix.
She also feels the Canadian audience has to start demanding Canadian films.
"Is there going to be one global culture or do we want to have indigenous films?"
[email protected]
The reunion screening of Bye Bye Blues will be held Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Vancity Theatre. The public is welcome.
Back to articles