What does it actually mean to be Canadian? This humorous documentary, featuring interviews with a who's-who of famous media related Canadians, hopes to find the answer.
BEING CANADIAN chronicles the real-life quest of Robert Cohen, a proud Canadian, who left his hometown of Calgary and moved to the U.S. to start a career as a TV comedy writer. He started noticing how people outside Canada knew very little about his beloved homeland. After decades of ignorance, insults, and indifference, he decides to do something about it. Rob sets off on an epic personal quest, driving across Canada from East to West, to confirm the country he identifies with is still as he remembers or changed. Interwoven with this journey are interviews with a variety of famous media personalities along with Canadian commoners he meets along the way. His deadline? Midnight on Canada Day, in Vancouver. Common topics dealt are Canadian culture of kindness, Inferiority complex and passive aggressive behavior, Roots of Canadian humor, Canadian circus, Partition of Quebec, Canada's national game, food, contributions...etc. Imagine 'Sherman's March', but wearing a toque and along the lines of xenophobe's guides !
Canadian Robert Cohen, raised in Calgary, has carved out a successful career in Hollywood, largely as a writer for television sitcoms. As an "alien" in a dominant culture like the mass entertainment business in the United States, Rob strives to answer the question, "what does it mean to be Canadian?" He hopes to find the answer by driving across Canada in nine days from northeastern Nova Scotia to Vancouver, that last day being Canada Day (July 1), the anniversary of the country's confederation, stopping along the way not only to soak in Canadian culture, but to talk to people about their specific view. As a side mission, he also tries to answer some more specific age old questions about Canada and Canadians, some borne out of stereotypes which he either tries to support or debunk by talking to some of his celebrity friends (Canadians and Americans alike), some "experts" in the field in question, and Joe and Jane Public on the street.—Huggo
