McMaster Film Board ‘a milestone in development of Canada’s film community’

It’s common knowledge that McMaster has produced some of Canada’s funniest actors: Martin Short, Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, among them.

What’s not so well known, however, is that in the 1960s McMaster was also home to a group of flourishing filmmakers led by future frat-comedy innovator Ivan Reitman and avant-garde filmmaker John Hofsess.

Inspired by the example of American independent filmmaking, the McMaster Film Board made films that reflected the turbulence of the sixties, reflecting both the technological and spiritual themes of the Canadian imagination, as well as the radical theories of sex and love that were taking root in the era’s intellectual culture.

Fellow filmmaker Stephen Broomer is hoping to shed some light on the story of the McMaster Film Board with his new book “Hamilton Babylon.”

Broomer, who has restored several McMaster Film Board films, will discuss the book at two upcoming talks in Hamilton and Ottawa.

Read: The McMaster Film Board’s Indelible influence on Hollywood North 

Hamilton Babylon traces the history of the MFB from its birth as an organization for producing and exhibiting avant-garde films, through its transformation into a commercial-industrial enterprise, and into its final decline as a show business management style suppressed many of its voices.

The Hamilton talk, a Lager Lecture, is scheduled for Feb. 22, while the talk at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre is scheduled for Feb. 28.