Lost Heroes

Plays Cinematheque on March 22 at 4pm as part of the Gimme Some Truth documentary festival.

Lost Heroes is a documentary about Canadians missing the point, about the dilemma that is central to the failure of so much Canadian content: trying to define what it means to be Canadian.

Exploring the world of Canadian superheroes, the film notes how as early as World War II, Canada stopped importing comic books (and other non-essentials) from the US to save money for the war effort. Since, Canadian writers and illustrators have been trying to create a quintessentially Canadian superhero. The vacuum created by the embargo on American comics was filled by war-time crusaders with a Canadian flair, such as Brock Windsor, Canada Jack, and Johnny Canuck. When the war ended, American comics returned, and Canadian superheroes have been fighting to reenter the collective consciousness ever since.

Stylistically, Lost Heroes is nothing to write home about. It’s a mixture of talking heads and images of comic book panels. It’s typical of any made-for-TV doc, and to be fair, it serves the subject matter. But the funniest and most interesting parts of the picture are the questions it raises about Canada’s tragic lack of self-awareness.

I lost count of how many maple leaf-emblazoned sets of tights I saw in Lost Heroes. The idea that the key to a successful Canadian superhero is his overwhelming Canadian-ness illustrates a bigger problem in our pop culture. The most popular American superheroes, like Batman or Spider-Man, aren’t defined by their nationality. That we think ours must be is why so few catch on. Nearly every year, a tepid English-language Canadian film is seemingly pushed on Canadian audiences, announcing, “This is the big Canadian movie this year!” Whether it’s the new Paul Gross vehicle or the latest Trailer Park Boys retread, it seems like we just can’t learn: good Canadian art is interesting because it’s art, not because it’s Canadian.

Published in Volume 68, Number 24 of The Uniter (March 19, 2014)

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