‘Canadian History in Film’ Excerpts from a Roundtable Session on ‘Canadian History in Film’ organized by the Canadian Historical Review at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association, 27 May 2000, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta

CHR Forum: 'Canadian History in Film' 331 'Canadian History in Film' Excerpts from a Roundtable Session on 'Canadian History in Film' organized by the Canadian Historical Review at the annual meeting ofthe Canadian Historical Association, 27 May 2000, University ofAlberta, Edmonton, Alberta Introduction THE EDITORS For more than half a century, the National Film Board of Canada has played a unique role in putting Canadian history on film. Recently, however , a number of important developments have occurred which are greatly expanding the range and diversity of how Canada's past is portrayed visually through film and television. The Bronfman Foundation 's Heritage Minutes; the arrival ofthe History Channel, History Television , and the new French-language network Historia; and, in particular , the multi-million-dollar-CBC/Radio-Canada co-production Canada: A People's History, which captured record-breaking national audiences during its screening on CBC television throughout 2000 and 2001, along with a proliferation of independent filmmakers committed to bringing Canadian history on screen, all represent a critical growth in the use of film and television for the understanding, dissemination, and interpretation ofCanadian history. Over the past three years, the CHR has recognized the growing importance of film and other non-print media by launching a new section specifically devoted to Visual History Reviews. At the Canadian Historical Association annual meetings held in Edmonton in May 2000 we organized a roundtable session, chaired by historian Gerald Friesen, that brought together filmmakers, documentary producers, and historians involved with film and television for a dialogue over the use of these visual media for understanding our past. What follows below are the opening remarks offive ofthe panelists: Gene Allen, James Cullingham, Adam Symansky, Bill Waiser, and Larry Hannant. GENE ALLEN GENE ALLEN is senior producer and director ofresearch for the CBC Television /Radio-Canada co-production of Canada: A People's History. This thirty-hour documentary series on Canada's past was broadcast nationally on both networks beginning on 22 October 2000. Allen has been a producer in news, current affairs, and documentaries for CBC Television The Canadian Historical Review 82, 2, June 2001© University ofToronto Press Incorporated 332 The Canadian Historical Review and CBC Radio since 199r. Before that appointment, he worked at the Globe and Mail, where he held a variety of jobs including foreign editor and Ontario political reporter. He has an MA in Canadian history from York University and a PhD from the University ofToronto. In the covering note that Gerry Friesen distributed outlining the subjects for discussion in this session, he began by stating the theme as 'film and television as a means of communicating and interpreting history.' He then went on to suggest a number of interesting questions we might address, and Larry Hannant added several more. Unfortunately, I didn't get much beyond the first statement because I think the basic idea ofcommunication - specifically, what is communicated , how it's communicated, and to whom - is a good way ofgetting at some ofthe fundamental questions around the way professional historians and film and TV producers work together. Those of you who are familiar with French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu 's book On Television1 know that he doesn't think much of the medium. One ofhis typically provocative statements is that, by insisting on presenting only material that can be readily understood by a mass audience, television is restricted to repeating received ideas, instead of saying anything· new. In television, Bourdieu says, 'communication is instantaneous, because, in a sense, it has not occurred.' (29) Whether you agree with Bourdieu or not, I think his comment gets at something important that is often played out in the dealings between professional historians and TV producers. Most producers share a set of deeply entrenched views about how information is to be communicated to a mass audience. In particular, they are deeply attached to. the narrative mode, to telling stories, to telling the audience what happened, and what happened next, and how it turned out. And they're most comfortable when they can populate these stories with identifiable individuals with whom, on one level or another, the audience can identify. Certainly, the history series I've been working on for the past several...