Canada’s Bifurcated Movie Biz

Canada’s Genie Awards for movies was dominated by French Canadian movies this week. “The Genies show was a depressing example of our two-solitudes divide between French and English Canada. After decades of official bilingualism, we are still a land of mostly English-speaking provinces surrounding a separate nation of mostly French-speaking people. The Genies are supposed to recognize the Canadian film industry as a whole. But what I saw on Monday night suggested there really is no national film industry to speak of, because French and English filmmakers and stars don’t even speak to each other.”