Kate Taylor\/ The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n
First-time directors on TIFF’s list of top homegrown movies share what they’ve gleaned so far \u2013 good and bad \u2013 from working in the Great White North.<\/p>\n
Every year, programmers at the Toronto International Film Festival screen all the feature films made in Canada, a category that now numbers in the hundreds. From that long list, they eventually select 10 films for Canada’s Top 10. The mini-festival opens in Toronto in January before touring the country, aiming to introduce audiences to domestic films they may have missed. In 2017, a year in which Canada’s big-name auteurs didn’t happen to have produced films, first-timers dominated the Top 10 list that TIFF announced on Wednesday. The Globe and Mail asked the newbies to comment on filmmaking in Canada: They named some joys (those arts councils) and some perils\u00a0(snow).<\/p>\n
Vancouver native Kathleen Hepburn developed a full-length version of<\/em>\u00a0Never Steady, Never Still\u00a0from a short of the same title. It’s a drama about a woman battling Parkinson’s disease while her son suffers violence and cruelty working in the Alberta oil\u00a0fields.<\/em><\/p>\n How long have you had the idea for your\u00a0film?<\/strong><\/p>\n I started writing the film in 2011, but I wouldn’t say it was an idea I had, it was more a few images that stuck in my head and thoughts I wanted to explore on\u00a0family.<\/p>\n Your best audience member would describe your film as\u00a0\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n An intimate and tender drama about carrying on against life’s\u00a0heartbreaks.<\/p>\n What is the best thing about filmmaking in\u00a0Canada?<\/strong><\/p>\n Having the support of government funding allows for a certain amount of artistic freedom. Though our budgets are more modest than our southern neighbours, the control we have over our own work and creative decisions is immensely\u00a0valuable.<\/p>\n And the\u00a0worst?<\/strong><\/p>\n We have a hard time reaching our\u00a0audiences.<\/p>\n What Canadian director do you most look up\u00a0to?<\/strong><\/p>\n Xavier Dolan, because he is prolific, makes beautiful films and takes risks in order to learn. He’s extremely self-critical, which to me shows how hard he works to get better. I don’t love every film he’s made, but I really love some of them and I admire his ability to get on with the next, because that’s extremely\u00a0difficult.<\/p>\n