Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium Lee Carruthers 9780228015949

At the turn of the millennium Canadian cinema appeared to have reached an apex of aesthetic and commercial transformation. Domestic filmmaking has since declined in visibility: the sense of celebrity once associated with independent directors has diminished, projects garner less critical attention, and concepts that made late-twentieth-century Canadian film legible have been reconsidered or displaced.

Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium examines this dramatic transformation and revitalizes our engagement with Canadian cinema in the contemporary moment, presenting focused case studies of films and filmmakers and contextual studies of Canadian film policy, labour, and film festivals. Contributors trace key developments since 2000, including the renouveau or Quebec New Wave, Indigenous filmmaking, i-docs, and diasporic experimental filmmaking. Reflecting the way film in Canada mediates multiple cultures, forging new affinities among anglophone, francophone, and Indigenous-language examples, this book engages familiar figures, such as Denis Villeneuve, Xavier Dolan, Sarah Polley, and Guy Maddin, in the same breath as small-budget independent films, documentaries, and experimental works that have emerged in the Canadian scene.

Fuelled by close attention to the films themselves and a desire to develop new scholarly approaches, Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium models a renewed commitment to keeping the conversation about Canadian cinema vibrant and alive.

Lee Carruthers is associate professor of film studies at the University of Calgary.

Charles Tepperman is associate professor of film studies at the University of Calgary.

"Canadian Cinema in the New Millennium convenes a diverse symposium of critical interventions on the last twenty years. A renewal of critical activity is exactly what we need right now, and that's what this terrific collection gives us." Jerry White, University of Saskatchewan and editor of The Cinema of Canada

"This rigorous academic anthology is broadly fuelled by the idea that Canadian cinema post-2000 - or at least that with a strong sense of national identity - didn't capitalise on the '80s/'90s international breakthroughs of directors like Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg. The how and why of the situation are explored alongside case studies of hotshot auteurs (Sarah Polley, Xavier Dolan, Denis Villeneuve). There are also compelling essays on the rise of Indigenous directors, festival funding, Canadian horror and a 'new wave' of Quebec cinema." Total Film