Canadian Cinema Since The 1980s

‘I discovered Canadian cinema as a young American cinephile looking for something new, something to break the mold.'

So acclaimed American critic David L. Pike opens Canadian Cinema since the 1980s, a lively examination of the most influential filmmakers and movements of his neighbouring nation's cinema over the past three decades, from popular movies to art film and everything in between.

Pike uses his self-described ‘outsider's perspective' to provoke debate and to encourage reassessment of significant assumptions about Canadian cinema: Is documentary realism really the privileged mode of Canadian cinema? Is there a fundamental separation between English Canadian and Québécois cinema, between Hollywood and Canadian cinema, and between popular genres and art cinema? Does Canadian cinema truly operate in isolation from developments elsewhere in world cinema?

Along with in-depth studies of key directors, including David Cronenberg, Patricia Rozema and Denys Arcand, Jean-Claude Lauzon, Robert Lepage, Léa Pool, Atom Egoyan, and Guy Maddin, Pike advances the conversation by positioning Canadian filmmaking at the frontlines of a profound cinematic transformation in the age of global media.

DAVID L. PIKE is a professor in the Department of Literature at American University.