That's right, I'm choosing this very noisy news moment to jump in to the fray even though my little blurb can't hope to be heard over the reports of the long-awaited capture/assassination/burial-at-sea of the World's Most Wanted Man. Nor can it hold a candle to the Orange Wave blowing political winds of change (and shamelessly mixed metaphors) across an unexpectedly electrified Canadian electorate. In fact, it probably can't even stand toe to toe with whatever "shocking" thing happened on Celebrity Apprentice last night...
But share it I will, because my news is really more like a feeling. An intuition if you will - based on anecdotal, if carefully catalogued, observations. Coming off the circuit of Canadian cinema these last few months, I'm getting the feeling like there might be the first whisperings of a gentle, yet persistent shift in perception...
And if you listen very closely - that's it, with your ear pressed firmly to the ground or the tree - you too might hear the earliest, most primordial creakings and yawnings of a new trend emerging. In one word, that trend is ...
Chicks.
Canuck Chicks, to be geographically exact. Making movies. Gaining in numbers and recognition and respect. Starting, slowly but surely, to take their rightful place in this country's cinematic landscape.
Case in point: In these last few weeks alone, no less than FOUR feature films by Canadian female writer/directors have opened in Canadian (and some U.S.) cinemas : From Katrin Bowen's "Amazon Falls" to Deborah Chow's "High Cost of Living" to Penelope Buitenhuis' "A Wake" to you know who's film, it's slowly starting to feel like women's voices and views are occupying a slightly more proportionate amount of theatrical real estate than ever before! Maybe the captain of the Orange Wave, Jack Layton's whole "proportional representation" thing is catching on in more than just the political arena...
Anyway, as "Dolly" leaves Regina and Charlottetown and heads to Ottawa - with stops tonight in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Friday in Hudson, before moving on to Winnipeg in June, etc. - it feels more and more like we're coming home.
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