Preface

Stimulated by the recent discovery of ethnicity as an "unmeltable"1 and significant component of modern life, research in the humanities and social sciences has redoubled earlier efforts to investigate the role, impact and inner dynamics of this aspect of Canada's cultural identity. Print has been the chief focus of attention.2 Comparatively little has been done to explore such non-print media as sound recordings, television, videotape, still photography, slides, filmstrips and movies. The need for technical know-how, along with special storage and retrieval requirements, have tended to intimidate the uninitiated and to discourage research in the non-print media. Few critical footnotes, annotations, references and bibliographies are available, and investigators trained to use traditional scholarly techniques usually find it difficult to cope with materials expressed in less orthodox forms.3

Although it is unlikely that a search for information on the Ukrainian experience in Canada would begin with a trip to the closest regional office of the National Film Board of Canada, there is nonetheless a growing, albeit tacit, recognition of the special ability of films to yield data in a unique manner. Film can impart impressions with a sense of immediacy which can be as strong, influential and effective as print forms of communication.

As in other spheres of documentation, however, the line between the true and distorted is often blurred, as Malcolm Muggeridge reminds us:

Has there ever been a more perfect instrument for seeing with rather than through the eye, than the camera? And as it has developed from bleary dagguerreotypes to the latest video product, what multitude of lies it has induced belief in, ranging between the crazy claims of advertising and the sophisticated practice of Orwell's Newspeak and Doublethink, not to mention mounting Big Brother's or Sister's appearances Where Ukrainian Canadian films are concerned, only a small body of literature is available, most of it reviews of individual movies rather than extensive studies of how film has documented the story of Canada's Ukrainians.5 The diversity and range of pertinent materials is great: film footage that relates to Ukrainian Canadians does not always originate in Canada (items 51, 53 and 96, for example, are Soviet Ukrainian productions);6 nor is it necessarily produced by film makers of Ukrainian descent Some of the materials are in unedited form and have never had a public screening; many are explicitly historical in theme or content, others are escapist.

A striking feature of this filmography is the preponderance of films that deal with the Ukrainian Canadian experience in the Prairie provinces (items 69, 80, 81). There is also a significant number of Canadian-made films that mythologize Ukrainian history in the old country and in the Canadian West, and are characterized by what might be described as "ethnographic nostalgia” (items 51, 83, 96). In some instances, the Ukrainian experience in Canada merely provides a backdrop for issues that have little to do with ethnicity. Typical is one of the segments of the National Film Board's The Skilled Worker series (item 33), which focuses on the conflict between the values of traditional craftsmanship and those of industrial society.

It is noteworthy, however, that the movie camera is only rarely used to depict the Ukrainian Canadian experience in a negative or critical manner (items 57, 62). Such films are almost always denounced by the Ukrainian community, for they tarnish the group's carefully constructed cultural self-image by exposing its stereotypes to public ridicule and censure. The best example is Another Smith for Paradise, which parodies the Ukrainian community's predilection for erecting monuments in honour of its national heroes. Despite the outcry against such biased presentations, moments of truth can be detected which deepen our understanding of the Ukrainian Canadian experience.

What emerges from the diverse items in this filmography is a composite image of the Ukrainian Canadian community. Initially, this image was a projection of non-Ukrainian views, as few Ukrainians before the Second World War possessed the necessary background, capital, interest or expertise to produce films. Not surprisingly, the first film on Ukrainians in Canada supported the government's land-settlement policy by showing how well the hard-working immigrants were faring. The intent of Nation Building in Saskatchewan: "The Ukrainians" (item no. 1) can be seen in some of the titles that narrate this silent "epic”:

A story of the perseverence, pluck and progress of one of the many races that are playing a leading part in building up our new Canadian nation. We were four, but now we are one—Canadian. Their fathers came from Poland, Holland, Ukraine and Belgium. At the close of day's work, happy little school children saluting the flag.

Such success stories have been the theme of most movies about Canada's Ukrainians. Supportive of official policy, they have been generally inoffensive, with traditional Ukrainian song-and-dance generously employed to focus on socioeconomic accomplishments or "quaint" customs, religious traditions and art The superficial accent on colourful exotica (item nos. 4, 5, 6), however, reduces the Ukrainian Canadian experience to an impotent, staged production of old-country folkways and obscures its internal dynamics.

It was therefore an important development when members of the Ukrainian community themselves began to film their activities. Organizational events predominated: picnics (item no. 8), conferences (item no. 12), unveilings (item no. 41) and openings (item no. 91) were all dutifully recorded. Behind each was often the sense of history-in-the-making and the importance of capturing the moment for future reference, confirmation and even mythologizing. These homespun, amateur, privately produced films were similar to "home movies," and weddings, bridal showers, birthday parties and casual family gatherings frequently did share the spotlight with footage devoted to community events.

Film makers who came to Canada after the Second World War as political refugees brought with them an awareness of the medium's aesthetic as traditional Ukrainian culture, which is sometimes in conflict with contemporary reality, there is increasingly a trend toward the evolution of a distinct Ukrainian Canadian synthesis that is characterized by elements of cosmopolitanism and universality as well as ethnic specificity. This shift in sensibility has been accompanied by a growth in quality and sophistication that marks the emergence of a new and exciting dimension in Ukrainian Canadian film that is attuned to the cultural demands of all segments of Canada's population and that can lead even jaded appetites to an amazingly rich source of entertainment, instruction, wonder and pride.

Film and Thw Ukrainians in Canada 1921-1980
By Shirley Zaporzan and Robert B. Klymasz (Additional Entries by Jars Balan) (pdf)