Volume 11, Issue 1 / January 2007

Two of Offscreen‘s pet subjects make up the bulk of this first issue of 2007, Asian and Canadian cinemas. Appropriately enough, these two areas are interconnected through The Vancouver International Film Festival, which has been at the forefront of exposing cutting edge Asian cinema to the rest of the world. Instrumental to this festival’s high profile among followers of Asian cinema is the man responsible for programming the Asian section, Tony Rayns. Both are featured here, with Mike Archibald profiling the festival and interviewing Rayns. In his festival report Archibald focuses on what he sees as an ossification of a primary ‘arthouse’ style of the past ten or so years, the static, long take camera aesthetic. Among the many subjects Rayns discusses during his interview is his decision to step down as programmer of the Dragons and Tigers programme for the past fifteen years. The spotlight then turns to Canadian cinema, with Felix Rebolledo casting a perceptively critical eye at Jennifer Baichwal’s documentary on the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky, Manufactured Landscapes. In his analysis Rebolledo evaluates the merits of an overtly aesthetic approach to a social/political subject. One of Canada’s preeminent film scholars, Peter Harcourt, presents a small sample of the extensive work he has done on Québécois cinema, in this case an essay on the recent video work of Jean Pierre Lefebvre. The issue concludes with an overview of what is quickly becoming a common ‘space’ for film viewing, the internet/computer, with my piece “Film on the Internet: Cinema on the Electronic Highway.” Will the internet truly lead the way toward the future of cinema, or will it be merely another in the long line of film viewing sites? (Donato Totaro, ed.)