ment. Such films were defined as motion pictures
with running times of more than seventy-five min-
utes whose producer and two-thirds of whose “cre-
ative personnel” were Canadian. As a result of the
tax law, many films of varying quality were made in
Canada.
Seeking an Authentic Canadian Cinema Film critic
Ted Magder describes the films produced during
this era as belonging to one of two types—films
geared toward an American audience, such asPorky’s
(1982), and films specifically about Canada, such as
The Grey Fox(filmed 1980, released 1983). The most
famous of these films from the 1980’s wereThe
Changeling(1980),Prom Night(1980), andPorky’s—
the latter of which was the highest-grossing film in
Canadian history, taking in $152 million worldwide.
These films were not popular with Canadian critics,
however, who pointed out that many of them were
not Canadian in content. They may have been shot
in Canada, but they were set in the United States. In-
deed,Porky’swas not even shot in Canada: It was
made in Florida by a Canadian crew. On the other
hand, films appreciated by the critics for their Cana-
dian content, such asThe Grey Fox, did not make
money.
Early in the 1980’s, the Canadian Film and Video
Certification Office changed the definition of “Ca-
nadian film” for the purposes of the tax code. The
office introduced a point system designed to narrow
the previous definition and ensure that more Cana-
dian performers and screenwriters would partici-
pate in Canadian films. The immediate result of the
new restrictions was a decline in the production of
original Canadian films. Several Canadian directors,
such asThe Grey Fox’s Philip Borsos, left Canada to
make films in Hollywood. In the wake of this slump,
Magder notes, the Canadian film industry was faced
with two serious challenges: to maintain “cultural
sovereignty,” creating authentically Canadian films
despite the cultural dominance of the United States,
and to address a financial disparity that existed within
Canadian productions. Most of the profits reaped
by Canadian films went to American companies,
making it even more difficult to cultivate an authen-
tically Canadian film industry.
The Canadian establishment, moreover, became
embarrassed by the content of many of the films
made in Canada to capitalize on the tax breaks. Nor
did Canadian filmmakers experience much finan-
cial benefit when compared to the benefits realized
by foreign-owned “Canadian” productions. As a re-
sult, the government phased out the tax program. By
1987, the deduction for Canadian film investors had
decreased to 30 percent of their investment.Critical Success and “Runaway Shoots” Canadian
film rebounded in the mid- to late 1980’s as a num-
ber of films became financially and critically suc-
cessful internationally. Sandy Wilson’sMy American
Cousin(1985) was a modest success, and Patricia
Rozema’s I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing(1987)
earned raves at the Cannes Film Festival and made
$6 million (having been made for only $350,000). In
1987, Denys Arcand’sLe Déclin de l’empire Américain
(1986;The Decline of the American Empire) was nomi-
nated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Lan-
guage Film, as was hisJésus de Montréal(1989;Jesus
of Montreal), which also won the Grand Jury Prize
at Cannes. Another Québécois film, Jean-Claude
Lauzon’sUn Zoo la nuit(1987), was also a success.
David Cronenberg, who made several popular Ca-
nadian cult films in the 1970’s, as well as 1982’s
Videodromeand the more mainstream filmsThe Dead
Zone(1983) andThe Fly(1986), scored an interna-
tional critical hit at end of the decade withDead
Ringers(1988). Atom Egoyan, who would go on to
more success in the following decade, had his first
critical success in 1989 withSpeaking Parts.
While films of true Canadian content were begin-
ning to make their mark internationally, the shadow
of American filmmaking remained. Somewhat remi-
niscent of the tax-break era, many U.S. productions
found their way to Canada at the end of the decade.
Magder notes that these “runaway shoots” made up
about 50 percent of the films and television produc-
tions shot in Canada and approximately 95 percent
of the ones shot in British Columbia during the late
1980’s, thanks to the lower costs involved in using
Canadian crews and the weaker Canadian dollar.Impact Canadian film in the 1980’s began and
ended with the encroachment of the American film
industry. Beginning with films such asPorky’sand
ending with “runaway shoots” that would continue
into the following decades, the Canadian film indus-
try weathered economic challenges and came back
strong, producing a number of internationally criti-
cally acclaimed films by Arcand, Rozema, Cronen-
berg, and Egoyan in the latter half of the decade.368 Film in Canada The Eighties in America