National Canadian Film Day is coming up fast (tomorrow to be exact) and I’ve finally gotten some time to post about the Canadian film enthusiast’s version of Christmas. But how long has National Canadian Film Day been around, and what is the purpose? Well, upon getting an interview opportunity through a press release, I figured things out, and figured more out after my scheduled interview.
REEL Canada started this event over 20 years ago and then they came up with a day to celebrate Canadian films and filmmakers. I would’ve asked them why but as someone who covers Canadian film work in general, it’s a no brainer. However, the reason they came up with such a day is to show just how outstanding the films made here truly are. For me, every day is National Canadian Film Day with all the coverage opportunities I get, but for anyone who wants to celebrate the one and only, it’s April 16.
Anyways, I had to dwell on some of the history and learn just what goes into planning such a day. I did so by talking to Sharon Corder recently and from there I learned some amazing facts regarding this year’s, Elbows Up. Sharon Corder works as a director alongside Jack Blum. Now prepare for an interview and the greatest day of the year.
HNMAG: So it’s my understanding that your company came up with this annual event. Were you involved with the major idea of it?
Sharon Corder: Absolutely. This is our 12th National Canadian Film Day. REEL Canada has its own things that it does, and National Canadian Film Day does this big day. We’re all 1 unit.
HNMAG: As a director at REEL Canada, what do you and Jack Blum do?
Sharon Corder: I’m the artistic director, but what I do is I have to have a finger in all the pies for one thing. And I have to come up with all the ideas and make sure they’re executed, and that includes all our visual stuff and programming and all that kind of stuff. Jack is the executive director and he is in charge of making sure we have money to do this. Also relationships out in the world, etc. Because we’re the kind of organic organization that we are, we’re not as tightly defined in our job description, so a little bit of splashover in everything that everybody in our team of 25 or so does.
HNMAG: What kind of planning goes into making National Canadian Film Day events?
Sharon Corder: We start planning in July-August, and we start reaching out to partners at that point. We start thinking about what our theme will be for the next year, and this year we knew that there was going to be some political stuff going on. When we got here, we didn’t expect maybe as much. We came up with a theme of something to believe in, and with 5 categories of films that we recommend to so many people because there are hundreds and hundreds of Canadian films. Every year we make a spotlight list so that if people are baffled by what they’d like to see, this year there were 60 on the themes of resilience, things to believe in, things worth fighting for and the power of art. Then our partners start responding, and we have a little over 1800 screenings across the country, and 90 screenings around the world in 45 countries. We have relationships with all them, we’re in personal contact with all of the partners everywhere and that includes film festivals, theatres, community centres, military, schools, retirement homes, libraries, just pretty much anywhere you can put up a screening. There’s a lot of that, and we have to come up with our visuals, our ads, there are people in our team doing things I don’t understand because everything has to be online and so there’s so much stuff that they’re doing with coding. We have to create the whole new website every year, because it’s full of all the partners that have to go up, all of the guests. We have 90+ guests this year, that includes all kinds of major people in the film industry and other interesting guests.
HNMAG: How do you adapt given differences and changes throughout the years?
Sharon Corder: Well somebody who used to work with us used to call us nimble and scrappy. That’s what we are, we’re ready to pivot. In 2020, there was a thing called the Pandemic. We got through to March and we had like 1500 or 1200 partners signed up and screenings set, we pivot-canceled the whole thing. For the very first time, we ended up producing a 4 1/2 hour livestream with all kinds of guests like Sandra Oh and Ethan Hawke and Atom Egoyan. It was really too much work, but it was a big success. We know how to pivot, and this year obviously, it’s Elbows Up.
The reason it’s known as Elbows Up is because REEL Canada is encouraging us to stand together and stand up to the United States. It’s an old phrase from hockey legend Gordie Howe, who put up his own elbows to protect himself from opponents in the rough sport of hockey. We’re doing a pretty good job at fending for ourselves so far, because I honestly hadn’t heard about 51st State until just after the interview. I guess we’re getting the message across pretty well, and we just got to keep going in case not everyone got the message because it looks like things are getting more politically awkward. We’ll stay resilient, because it’s what we focus on nowadays.
HNMAG: What other kind of challenges do you come across in your work, especially involving Canadian Film Day?
Sharon Corder: The vastness of this bloody country! We worked with an ad agency a few years ago and they were saying “Who’s your demographic?” and we would say “Well, everybody” and they laughed pleasantly and said “Yes, all our clients say that. But really, who’s your demographic?” and we said, “NO, everybody, and we MEAN that.” So trying to serve everybody in every region of this country because regions alone are so varied, with all the languages that you have. Then you have all of the genders, all of the different people from all the parts of the world who made their homes here. Then you have people who love comedy, people who love horror films. It’s a challenge keeping all of that up in the air and trying to take our job real seriously in the sense of trying to serve all of those constituencies and all of those films. We’re very paticular about our films, we try to recommend things that we believe in.
HNMAG: How many people does it take to organize National Canadian Film Day?
Sharon Corder: 35+. It starts with the whole team, everybody has their stuff they have to do. There are other jobs, like keeping REEL Canada going throughout the year, servicing schools and we also have a program that we’re doing for apprenticeships in job creation so those things continue and kind of shut down in March because we need full attention for everybody at that point. We also hire a lot of people, we needed a driving captain because we have so many people to drive around especially on the day just in Toronto, and people to pick up at the airport because we have to fly people in from other parts of the country. Sometimes from other countries, and just drive them all around. It was a crisis, fortunately it’s been solved, we have someone that’s super capable. We do hire a bunch of people to help with the day in the last month or two.
HNMAG: What are the different jobs of your team members?
Sharon Corder: Outreach people who help us reach out to partners because as we say, we’re hands-on. We talk to all the partners and if they need help choosing a film, we give them advice on that. They all need help with the distribution rights, and we pay for those, we secure them. Then also if they want an obscure film, if they want a film that is really hard to find we go out and find it somewhere if we possibly can and we usually can’t. If it’s a film that doesn’t have DCP or a copy that can be used anywhere, we try to go get the elements and get one made. Then we try to preserve Canadian films that have gone astray. That’s one part of the job, we have a whole translation department and then we have to do more because we have to do everything in French AND English. We have the data stuff that people do, that’s an area that I don’t begin to understand. All of the data that we put out AND collect. We have the tech support, a great website team out in BC, Vancouver who we could not survive without, who are fabulous. We have to hire coordinators, it’s endless.
HNMAG: Why should Canadian Films be celebrated?
Sharon Corder: Well, okay. Because we’re Canadian, seems that should be a pretty simple answer to that. We all love American movies, I’m originally American. We certainly grew up with Hollywood movies and they’re great. But we live here, and I learned this as an immigrant in my early 20’s. At first I felt it just looked like a different state, and well, it’s NOT. I learned that slowly. I think it’s really important to see reflections of yourself. Like if you’re on social media and sending pictures of your life, you’re not concentrating on sending pictures of the people next door. Hopefully you’re sending pictures of your friends, your family, and pets. Things that reflect your life, and our movies reflect us, what we are, what we look like, how we live, how old it is. We are unique and I mean that’s what this political time is about. We’re not the 51st State, we’re us!
Sharon then went on to explain another challenge as artistic director, being to encompass the huge country and all that it holds. Then she went on to explain how important all the Indigenous content is, and I agreed as I always enjoy watching it. But that was a discussion topic for later on in the interview. Let’s just say it’s major for Canada. It ought to be included, and it always is, making screenings more incredible.
HNMAG: What are some of your favourite Canadian films to watch on that day?
Sharon Corder: I can’t do that! But I have a BUNCH that I love.
HNMAG: Are there any cool moments from past events that were really memorable to you?
Sharon Corder: Yeah, okay, so last year. One of the things we do requires a lot of organizing is we do a live stream in the morning. We reach out to the high schools across the country, and it’s 1500 kids in every province and territory. Last year we had the legendary Abenaki filmmaker Allanis Obamsawin. We showed one of her films, A Tribute to Marie St. Clair, which is a short film but really really good and worth watching. Then we did an interactive interview with her, so we have this whole system set up where the kids across the country can ask questions to her. They can chat with each other, they participate in polls, and all that sort of stuff. Then she insisted that we also have several hundred kids live in the room live with her so she could feel their energy. She was so spectacular, she loved these kids and they loved her back. The chat was full of amazement and love for this woman. How profound and wise she was, it was so interesting to see teenagers respond like that to a 92 year-old person. If you ever have the opportunity to meet Alanis, I suggest you grab it because she’s just one of those truly inspiring people. Another last year was that we did an advance screening at Rideau Hall and we did one in the ballroom, and then one in the tentroom. One was in French and one in English, then we invited brand new Canadians to fill the rooms. We had guests, one was Peace by Chocolate, and America Dad who’s actually in the news these days. He’s a lovely fellow, I can attest. Then there was Ru which is Quebecois and we had the writer of that, Kim Thúy and director Charles-Olivier Michaud. That was one of the most moving things I’ve ever witnessed. Kim Thúy ended up staying for an hour and a half after the Q&A took off. Many of these people were refugees themselves, and then of course, their excellencies, the Governor General, and the Consort General, it was magical.
HNMAG: What do you hope the impact will be for people who get involved on this particular day?
Sharon Corder: I hope it makes them feel good, for a start. I hope it makes them feel that we’re a part of something here and that we’re not second-rate. As an American, I was suprised at the beginning of how Canadians don’t always tout their own. Canadians are proud but they’re very quiet about it. I’m a firm believer that we’ve got some absolutely spectacular talent here. I hope people feel good about that because it’s here for all of us. I hope people feel that our culture is to embrace our stories, to embrace who we are.
HNMAG: Seeing how Canadian is a lot more common now with the way things are going for us, do you feel we’ll also see more Canadian film content coming out?
Sharon Corder: I hope so, the Canadian content coming out is always a matter of money. But I know because I pay so much attention, we’ve got constantly great stuff coming down the pipe. We use always good stuff, and there’s always bad stuff too. But there’s a lot of American stuff I can’t watch, to be honest. It’s just a matter of percentages, but we do really well with our percentages.
HNMAG: And about the Indigenous films, you said a lot more of those coming out lately?
Sharon Corder: Oh, and just some beautiful work coming out this year. Truly that I would put up with these movies. Just some great stuff.
I have to agree with her on that, Indigenous films end up being the ones that I love with a deep passion given their lovely stories, and their professional quality of shooting. There were a lot of other things Sharon also mentioned, such as a Gordon Pinson tribute, and so many people spoke about their experiences with him. There was also how so many people got blown away by the beautiful content of John and The Misses and Sharon herself was grateful to bring forth that film since it was very dear to her.
Now, what are you waiting for? Make some plans and attend a screening in your local area today!
