Best Canadian Screenplays

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

The publication of this first anthology of Canadian screenplays is both
timely and appropriate. There is no question that today Canada has a
distinctive, popular, and entertaining screen culture. Perhaps the most
important fact to emerge from this landmark publication is that
screenwriting is no less an art form than writing plays or fiction. The
five screenplays represented here not only span the formative years of
what is now an internationally renowned industry but also clearly
demonstrate that Canadian screenplays can be just as accomplished as
their American, British, or French counterparts.

The screenplays included in this volume read like a “who’s who”
of modern Canadian screen history. Bill Fruet’s vivid road movie about
the Canadian dream (Goin’ Down the Road) is followed by Clement
Perron’s evocative, imaginative, and deeply sensitive story of rural
memory, Mon Oncle Antoine. John Hunter’s The Grey Fox and Sandy
Wilson’s My American Cousin are two very different exercises in
Western myth-making, while Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal is the
last word in urban intellectual sophistication.

One hopes that other such collections will follow. For now, it is
enough to celebrate the publication of this very significant volume. As
Doug Bowie says in his introduction about Canadian screenwriters,
“Long denied a place in the sun—at least now they have a place on
the shelf.”