(May 15, 2017 – Toronto, ON) If Canada was a brand, like a soft drink or a car or an airline, what would that brand look like? How would it feel to be associated with that brand? Would you be an avid consumer of that brand or would you be more passive? As brand, Canada already has a great logo, the distinctive red maple leaf. But is there more to all this? CBC thinks so and today has launched a multi-part online series titled Brand Canada.
A production of Big Cedar Films, Brand Canada is described by CBC as “a kaleidoscopic exploration of Canada the ‘brand’ – from the artwork and images that first symbolized Canada, through the building and appropriation of a collective identity, to how the country is viewed today.” With 10 episodes varying in length from two to six minutes, this unique series covers a broad spectrum of stories relating to Canada’s brand.
Big Cedar was founded by award-winning filmmaker Geoff Morrison and each episode of the series is directed by a different, notable emerging or mid-career Canadian filmmaker, including shorts from Josh Raskin (I Met the Walrus), Aleysa Young (Baroness Von Sketch Show) and Tess Girard, whose contribution Canada the Good? premiered at Hot Docs this year. The filmmakers incorporated their own unique style, offering varied perspectives as well as creative approaches. Directors were encouraged to choose a filmmaking form that best suited their subject, rather than follow a prescribed series construct. This process fostered creative exploration and experimentation in a highly contemporary format.
As all 10 episodes are available online, we’ll only detail the first three:
Canada the Good?
Directed by Tess Girard
Official Selection: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, 2017
Simon Anholt, the renowned policy analyst behind the Good Country Index, assesses the international perception of Canada — and whether or not we’re as ‘good’ as we think we are.
America’s Canada
Directed by Aleysa Young
A pop culture-fuelled audit of how American TV influences Canada’s brand — through the perspective of the denizens of Mexico City.
Rant & Rave
Directed by Daniel Roher
How a marketing guru inhaled Canadian identity and exhaled a new Canadian pride in Molson’s seminal TV ad, “The Rant.”
Around here we found Rant & Rave had the same emotional impact as the story it tells about the making of that now iconic Molson’s commercial so many years ago.
Click here for a link to all of the episodes in Brand Canada.
