From far and wide

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This article was published 24/06/2017 (3271 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there were one word to describe the sesquicentennial-celebratory CTV documentary Canada in a Day, it would definitely have to be…

Aw, shucks. No doubt about it:

Canadian.

This two-hour TV event, which airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on CTV (and, for that matter, CTV Two and also streams online at CTV GO), adopts a widely used and infallibly effective format — compiling video clips submitted by the public to create a snapshot-in-time portrait of a place or situation, employed to great effect by feature-film director Ridley Scott on the acclaimed film Life in a Day — to create a coast-to-coast-to-coast portrait of Canada that is at once broadly expansive and intimately personal.

In creating the finished product, director Trish Dolman (Daydream Nation, Foreverland) was undoubtedly more engaged in the processes of selecting and sorting than she was with traditional shoot-and-edit documentary production. The raw materials, in the form of video clips that comprise the variously themed scenes in the film, were contributed by Canadians at home and abroad in response to CTV’s call for Canada in a Day submissions last year.

The only stipulation, it seems, was that all the submitted clips had to be shot on the same day — Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. And Canadians seem to have been quite captivated by the idea, as CTV received more than 16,000 submissions for Dolman and her team to compile, view, sort and eventually assemble.

Of course, the network’s press materials offer a wealth of “Fun Facts” about Canada in a Day:

● Family-themed videos received: 1,861 (most common subject matter)
● Wedding videos: 301
● Birthday videos: 283
● Hockey videos: 283
● Videos showing rainbows: 34
● Military-themed videos: 100
● Birth videos: 2
● Engagement videos: 2
● First-date videos: 1
● Breakup videos: 1
● Countries outside Canada from which videos were contributed: 22
● Languages in which videos were recorded: 18
● Number of consecutive days required to watch all videos submitted: 13

Beyond that, however, what makes Canada in a Day an interesting film to watch is its down-to-earth ordinary Canadian-ness. There isn’t all that much in the way of flash and excitement (other than the obligatory fireworks-display clips) in this just-another-Canadian-day compilation; rather, it’s a bunch of Canadians doing (and talking about, often in the ubiquitous digital-age selfie-stick posture) pretty mundane things such as waking up and getting the kids ready for school, commuting to weekend-shift work (literally doing the Planes, Trains and Automobiles thing with boats, horses, bicycles and ATVs added to the mix), visiting with family and friends and engaging in a wide variety of recreational pursuits.

It isn’t, however, all maple syrup and high-fives. Canada in a Day has a few poignant moments and also offers a couple of rather pointed opinions about the 150th-anniversary celebration. One recurring segment follows a newly engaged couple, of mixed ethnicity, who ponder the daunting prospect of visiting the groom-to-be’s traditional parents to introduce the in-waiting bride for the first time. The encounter is fraught with closed-culture peril, and produces an ending that is less than ideal.

There’s also a video submission by a young indigenous woman whose assessment of Canada’s first century-and-a-half is a seething recitation of the abuses, betrayals, violence and outright lies that have been conspicuously absent from the official Canada 150 materials. “How can you guys live with yourselves?” she asks.

Manitobans’ voices are part of this in-a-day exploration of Canada — among the film’s wide variety of submissions are nearly a dozen scenes, both silly and serious, from contributors in Winnipeg, Selkirk and Shellmouth.

By the time it ends with a blazing last-ticks-before-midnight display of northern lights, Canada in a Day has returned to its celebratory and slightly sentimental tone.

It is, of course, just one of dozens of 150-themed programs and specials; many more will follow during this week of sesquicentennial festivities, but it’s probably safe to say that Canada in a Day will rank as the most straightforward, simple and gosh-darn-it-Canadian of them all.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @BradOswald