Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema 1895 - 1939

by Peter Morris

Other Canadian film producers concentrated their efforts on short productions, mostly in government or commercial companies such as Associated Screen News of Montreal. The works of Gordon Spalding, Bill Oliver, and Albert Tessier are discussed in this context. Morris concludes with the founding of the National Film Board which, under the dynamic guidance of John Grierson, was to breathe new life into a moribund industry. In a postscript Morris explores some of the reasons for the unique development of Canadian film making — particularly its use of natural settings and documentary when virtually the rest of the world's industry was following the Hollywood pattern of studio location and fictional plots — and examines the relationship of the early industry to later developments in Canadian film making. At a time when Canada's cultural industries are struggling to survive in the wake of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States and under the threat of Free Trade with Mexico, Embattled Shadows makes essential reading.

350 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Justin Decloux · Rating 4 out of 5]

My star rating is observant of the fact that this book goes into incredible detail of the birth of Canadian Cinema

The problem is that it's pretty dull.

Peter Morris relishes the few brief moments where an interesting feature or company bears fruit (The Viking), but they're pretty far between, and most of the text is made up of newsreel or industrial companies that popped up and quickly faded. The real lesson is Canada has always been bad at sustaining any kind of film industry out of a belief that it should be educational, a fear of trying something interesting, and a plague of moneymen who have zero interest in sustaining anything.

[Buckey Grimm · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the early books written about the beginnings of Canadian Film History, at a time when the earliest days of the History of Film in Canada was still not well known. It is obvious that this was written at a time before any real exploration into the extant history was undertaken, as Peter Morris acknowledges from the outset, this book was meant as a beginning, to start the process of researching these beginnings. The writing seems much like the early history, quite fractured, the tendency being to touch on a specific subject, and move to the next subject without resolving some of the gaps in history. It has become a bit dated (published in 1978) as many early histories do since over time new scholarship comes along to fill in the gaps, but as a starting point it helps provide a snapshot into a look at the state of Canadian Film History at that time.