The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

the cultural practices and tastes of the moviegoing Canadian public. In later pages of the
same chapter he dissects the “overemphasis” on d/e, particularly, “on commercial
exhibition as a symptom of the ailing status of Canadian film in public and policy
discourse” which has “led to a substantial misinterpretation of the ‘problem’ of the
national cinema culture.” (Ibid, p.183) Part of this misinterpretation, at least for Acland,
is in the underestimated and understudied habits and tastes of Canadian audiences. The
conversation is then shifted to the commercial and cultural landscape(s) of Canada, with
details on Alliance Atlantis, a Canadian d/e company recently acquired by US-based
multinational financing firm Goldman Sachs and partner CanWest Global. At the time of
writing the merger had gone through and reports of increased “foreign control” of
Canadian media is found in mainstream media. 12
In discussing d/e problem sets in Screen Traffic, Acland successfully
problematizes a simple political economy analysis of domination/subordination and
mixes in the cultural currents of the Canadian public, drawing on Bourdieu’s treatise on
taste (Distinction, 1986), as well as his conceptual framework for habitus (1990).
Ultimately, this new direction that Acland and others are embarking on is a post-
hegemony discussion – where the age-old arguments of Hollywood’s grip on Canada’s
cinema is acknowledged but not poured over and centred as the defining aspect of this
country’s cinema landscape. 13 Indeed, much of the history of cinema, especially issues
around distribution and exhibition, has been acutely constructed and dismantled through
12
The latest reportage on this acquisition/merger/consolidation is found in Rita Trichur’s Toronto
Star article, “Alliance Atlantis faces protests over buyout.”
(http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/246376, accessed August 22, 2007)
13
This is a refreshing turn, and the inclusion of culture as a mitigating factor in market-based or
political economy argumentations is reminiscent of Miller et al’s excellent work on Global
Hollywood, where both leftist-based critics and conservative puritans are skewered.
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