Ho Kanada! (1995)

Tourism is the world's biggest industrial activity. It employs hundreds of millions of people. It's a 3.5 Trillion Dollar a year business — a figure second only to the Gross National Product of the U.S.A.

Japanese tourism is leading the planet. By the end of the decade there will be more than 20 million Japanese roaming the world, from Sydney to Milan, from London to Paris - across Europe, Asia and North America. Whom among us has not experienced busloads of Japanese tourists speeding from famous sight to famous site. Or large groups taking endless photos and home-videos of everything that moves and anything that doesn't? Are you willing to meet them halfway?

Ho! Kanada (CBC broadcast version entitled, international version is called Fast Forward) is a zany documentary that chronicles the experiences and adventures of a group of these tourists, their souvenir video-maker and the filmmakers themselves. Literally joining them 'on the bus', we set out upon a lightning-quick journey. Along the way we take a funny and warm-hearted insider's look at national stereotypes, recording the way the Japanese see us, how we see them, and ourselves.

Narrative

When filmmakers Barbara Doran and Peter Wintonick thought to check out the continental cultural divide between East and West, they didn't expect to bridge the gap easily. Along the way, they debunk some myths and confirm others.

What do the Japanese see in Canada? What's the magnetic pull from the Far East? And what's our take on this land of ours? Bolstering our feeling of national pride comes naturally after watching the Japanese embrace the country. The possibilities seem endless when the film team meets Masaaki Kagami, a Japanese transplanted in Alberta. He specializes in making souvenir videos for Japanese tourists. The filmmakers follow Kagami — host, guide, interpreter and videographer — following visiting Japanese.

With sound boom and camera in tow, Doran and Wintonick first travel from Montreal to northern Japan in pursuit of interviews with Japanese visiting Canadian World Ð a Disney-like theme park with false-front stores, Inuit and Mounties, and a cloned replica of Anne of Avonlea's famous Green Gabled House. They ask them to imagine just what the "real" Canada is like.

The intrepid duo join Kagami and a Japanese group on a first-time tour of Canada Ð Vancouver to Banff, to Niagara Falls, and on to P.E.I.'s Green Gables. The film chronicles what they see and learn. Through this group, and their interactions with Maasaki's video camera, the viewer vicariously re-experiences the awe and majesty of our own country, and our dreams as a nation.

HO! KANADA is an investigation of national stereotypes. The film records the way the Japanese see us, and how we see them and ourselves. Everyone is given voice — it is a shared and mutual investigation.

The film illuminates what Canada represents, and how interaction can change individual and national perceptions. The overall guiding principle is humour, which more than any language can break down barriers and humanize international understanding about "the Other".

Clip

Broadcasts & Theatrical Releases

* 1995 — CBC Newsworld

Credits

Written, Produced and Directed: Barbara Doran and Peter Wintonick
Associate Producer: Francis Miquet
Videographers: Francis Miquet, Peter Wintonick, Masaaki Kagami, Werner Volkmer
Sound: Barbara Doran, Peter Wintonick, Mark Achbar, Hiroshi Sano
Editor: Peter Wintonick
Music Composed, Arranged and Performed by Toshimi Mikami
Sound Design, Edit and Mix: Maurice Apelbaum

Distribution

Canada:
Mongrel Media
1028 Queen St. West
Toronto, ON
M6J 1H6
Canada
Tel: 416 516 9775
Fax: 416 516 0651
Toll-Free: 888 607 3456
info [at] mongrelmedia [dot] com

World TV Sales:
Films Transit
Jan Rofekamp
252 Gouin Boulevard East
Montreal. Quebec. Canada H3L 1A8
Phone (514) 844 3358
Fax (514) 844 7298
janroekamp [at] filmstransit [dot] com

All Other Territories, Markets, and Media:
Necessary Illusions
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Montré al, Qué bec, Canada H2T 2S2
Téléphone: (+1) (514) 287-7337
Télécopieur (Fax): (+1) (514) 287-7620
E-mail: info [at] necessaryillusions [dot] ca