Post-9-11 Canucks

>> Benjamin Duffield’s film profiles Canadians living in NYC

by MATTHEW HAYS

For filmmaker Benjamin Duffield, the December “Canada Loves New York” rally was more than just a booster shot for our southern neighbours. The Montrealer decided to take a film crew down and capture his own angle for his documentary, God Bless Canadians.
In the film, Duffield interviewed Canucks who lived in New York about their views after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. “Some felt even more supportive, and didn’t want to leave New York in the city’s hard times,” says Duffield. “But others felt that much of the patriotic response was alienating. Why, some asked, were there only American flags flying when citizens of virtually every country on earth were killed at the World Trade Center?”
Duffield, who graduated from UBC’s film program in ’93 and has been working as a film and TV editor since, is also editing his first dramatic short, Road Rage. It’s based on his own experience being chased through the streets of Montreal for half an hour and has taken the form of a comedy. “I wanted to capture the feeling of being chased, so things have been heightened.” :