In a memoir-style visual art documentary about his "true and native land", Souvenir of Canada, Douglas Coupland says that at its heart, Canadian reflections and values boil down to an attachment to the land -- and more specifically, a connection with water.
Coupland covers quite a bit of ground in the film, talking about dropping out of university, parents who still don't understand his crazy ideas (though the rest of the world seems to), road tripping, collecting random crap, and working as an unheeded ideas person at a marketing company. Oh ya, he reclaims an old suburban home in B.C. to paint it all white and dress it up in manic nationalistic creativity -- a good excuse for a party -- before tearing it down by the end. There are even clips inserted from genuine educational films produced by the National Film Board of Canada, and a reenacted personal flashback from a relationship breakdown (and moment of inspiration) along the Trans-Canada Highway.
And as the movie is winding down, Douggie tells a story about his father almost getting decimated by a water spout on the West Coast, and clutching for dear life to the root of a giant tree. In a country where very few people actually reside, and much of the landscape still seems as wild and ferocious as ever, Coupland points to a shared passion for the natural resource of water as a phenomenon that is to be expected. As well, he predicts the conservation (hoarding?) of water will be the key to Canada's affluence in the coming decades.
You just might get shivers watching old and staged grainy clips, and stunning multi-coloured fly-bys. This movie should prove to you at least two things: one, you can seem totally insane and still complete amazingly mindblowing shit, and two, just like your aboriginal buddies living up on the reserve (or maybe that's where you're reading this from...) a connection to water is ingrained in Canadians.
As picked up on by Terramia:
we are inseparable and this knowledge binds us together.”
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