Douglas Coupland IS a “Souvenir of Canada”

So this is the film review I did for my Canadian Film class...

What is a Canadian?” This has been debated and left people dumbfounded for so long that it has essentially become a complex philosophical debate. Some of us define ourselves as Canadians by what we are not (ie. Americans!). Some of us define ourselves as hockey playing, beer drinking, Bob and Doug McKenzie type folk. We try to define ourselves as a bi-lingual country, but the average Canadian is definitely not. So who out there can solve this mystery? Should we really be concerned? Well… perhaps we should. It couldn’t hurt right? And who better for the job than…(drum-roll please)… Douglas Coupland! Now you may be saying to yourself, “Who is Douglas Coupland?” Or… you may be saying to yourself, “He’s Canadian?” Or just plain and simply, “Why him? Didn’t he write that Generation X book based in Palm Springs?” Well, yes he is Canadian and yes he has written many books based outside of Canada, and yes, he has lived outside of the country for some time. But in his own words, ‘after being in dozens of other places, now I only want to be here.”
Douglas Coupland has two visually spectacular books called Souvenir of Canada and Souvenir of Canada II and this film is titled and based on those visual art books of lost and current Canadiana. Being born in 1961, he was a child who grew up in a Canada that was trying to get to know itself. In 1967 Douglas was 7 years old and this was a time when, in his words, “Canada went nation crazy!” Montreal hosted Expo ’67 that year which showcased to the world who Canada is to the rest of the world. This time also saw the invention of Ookpik, which are ambiguously native owls made of seal skin. It was “native and new and bi-cultural too” as the song in the background says. Canada also tried to create its own greeting for hello. That word was “Chimo.” Douglas said he himself even used the word. It lasted about three weeks in 1970.
Coupland refers to several things that link us together. The first example he gives are the National Film Board films that used to be shown in every school across the nation. He refers to it as “30 minutes of Soviet-style torture.” These films were used to educate people about the country in an attempt to help us gain a vision of our home and native land. He also refers to being asked to draw the Canadian flag in school and how impossible it was to draw the maple leaf. These are the kind of childhood memories we all share as Canadians and a nostalgia we can all relish in. Perhaps the most distinct icon of our past that Coupland discusses is Terry Fox. Coupland says “he is exceptional, in that he is only Canadian that all Canadians agree on.”
There is one part of Coupland’s which he appears to feel little connection to himself personally but could not avoid is hockey. He starts by saying how we as “Canadian’s think of ourselves as decent, gentle people… but then there is a flip-side to all of us… Hockey!” “It’s in the water.” Nothing excites Douglas’ brother more than a collection of great hockey fights. Coupland jokes to the fact that there is nothing else like hockey fights where you can get away with such barbaric behavior saying, “The internet will pick up the slack, it’s hard for this stuff to compete with beheadings on Al-Jazeera.”
Coupland’s major project in the film is his building of Canada house. He chooses a CMHC home in Vancouver. CMHC (Central Mortgage Housing Corporation) homes were designed by the Canadian government after World War II and the blueprints were given to developers and were built all over the country. Once chosen, he plans to paint the whole house white and fill it with Canadian artifacts, such as those shown in his books. You’ll notice him early on banging the walls, testing it out, because he claims, “I want to get used to the notion that I can treat it like an art supply instead of being really precious about it.” He fills the house with pictures of Terry Fox’s prosthetic leg side-by-side with the Canadarm. He includes wooden couches with flannel coverings, power lines in the garage, Canada geese littering the house, a pin-up of #99, and several pictures from his books framed on the walls.
Perhaps the most interesting and Canadian element of the film is Coupland talking about his family and his upbringing and his own experiences. Part of being a Canadian is not having the same experiences as everyone else. We are so large geographically and there are so many different climates and views from our backyards that we cannot possibly feel a complete connection with someone who lives 2000 kilometres away from us. An important part of being a Canadian is being different from your neighbour and that there is a lifetime of things to see in our vast country alone. There is so much land uninhabited and it is often the goal of many Canadians to make time to drive across the country. Unfortunately it is not easy and takes a lot of time. We are not Holland. We cannot ride a bike across the country in a day.
Coupland remembers his own journey across the country and his connections with nature while hunting with his father and brothers. Coupland gives a glimpse of his relationship with his parents and the struggles he had growing up because his dad did not approve of his choices.
There is not a lot of music in the film, but if you’re at all a fan of recent Canadian indie-rock you will recognize in the opening the delightful sounds of Broken Social Scene. Throughout the movie there are sprinkles of Vancouver’s New Pornographers and original music by New Pornographer and solo artist A.C. Newman.
Coupland never actually gives his audience the answers they are looking for. At the end of his art show he claims to be feeling a pre-mature nostalgia. He knows he is going to be nostalgic about the house and his family and people in his life. It is this feeling that makes us all want to know who we are as Canadians. We want something to look back on and to have felt a part of. The things that bring us together and the things that separate us are what makes us who we are as Canadians but also as individuals. Coupland’s last message is very powerful and heartfelt. “We are the land and the land is us. And that is our closest link. O’Canada.” So now do you think Douglas Coupland is the right person to tackle this infinitely debatable question?