Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary starts off as an amusing little road movie about a film scriptwriter/producer taking the only 35mm print of his film Sidekick on the road across Canada as a way of getting it seen through a government-funded “Alternative Distribution Fund” but it turns out to be a much more serious analysis of the current Canadian film industry instead.

Canadian film industry professionals discuss the eternal question of why Canadian films are not seen. The filmmakers and distributors blame the exhibitors whose cineplexes are showing American blockbusters, while the exhibitors respond with how they need films with a potential to cross over to their audiences. In Quebec, there is more government money allocated to production: the industry is nurtured resulting in the public embracing certain films and the media feeding on the positive. This model appears to work because culturally the output tends to be related to French Québécois culture rather than an English Canadian one. When Michael Sparaga, Sidekick’s writer/producer interviews Canadians on the street, a stereotypical notion of what Canadian films actually are, emerges. The public perception of English Canadian films is that they are character-driven dramas, low-budget, boring and artsy. The people on the street can name their favorite Canadian movie stars like John Candy, Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and Kiefer Sutherland, but cannot name one Canadian film they’ve appeared in. And while Michael Sparaga travels across Canada with his film and gets people to come see it, gets good press, and positive feedback, his film is never commercially released in theatres. It is however available on DVD.

Initially, one would think that this documentary is limited to the problems with Canadian film, it does however have global applications. Canadians are essentially independent filmmakers and their issues of promoting “independent” films are no different from the problems faced by American independent filmmakers who must also compete with studio blockbusters taking up megaplex space. This documentary will foster discussions on how independent filmmakers must go out and generate an audience rather than simply hoping for one. Recommended for anyone dealing with independent filmmaking.