"Here is
the quintessential Hancox 'personal documentary,' a film in which
both the production and role of traditional documentary and autobiographical
filmmaking are thrown into question. Using his camera to record
a visit out east by train to spend Christmas with the family,
Hancox .... used his familiarization with the annual ritual as
a form of a script... Although we see the journey through the
subjective judgment of Hancox’s eyes, it is his intent to
transfer the material from original event to camera, to editing,
and finally to the audience, so that the personal content of the
film... becomes universal.” Michael Wade, Ontario Film Studies,
Cinema Parallel
“It is
the honesty of portrayal which is staggering, for instead of an
idyllic image which many filmmakers present of themselves, Hancox
presents (and thus, sees) himself without cinematic make-up...
with ‘wild sync’ sound (reminiscent of an early film),
and with the use of only available natural light.” Richard
Stanford
“Home
for Christmas is a unique exploration of the Canadian mythos—winter,
trains, booze, the family and solitude. In penetrating the essence
of the mythical, Hancox has combined the home movie with the technological
epic, to achieve a profound filmic archaeology of the warmth of
Northern existence, in the Pierre Perrault sense, that if you
are cold in this country, you must be a tourist.” Michael
Dorland
“The most
hotly debated of all the personal films shown at the Grierson.”
Ontario Film Association Newsletter
Available
from:
Canadian
Filmmakers' Distribution Centre
37 Hanna Ave. #220
Toronto, Ontario Canada M6K 1W8
telephone: 416-588-0725, e-mail: bookings@cfmdc.org
web: www.cfmdc.org
(printable
version of description)
Reviews,
Articles, Text & Notes:
Dear
Rick Letter
Home
For Christmas by Rick Hancox, August 18, 1978 Autobiography:
Film/Video/Photography ed. John Stuart Katz (Toronto: Art Gallery
of Ontario, 1978)
Application
for Home for Chrismas Grant
Final
Report to the Canada Council on Home for Christmas
Thoughts
on: Alternate Film: Rick Hancox’s Home for Christmas, Budworks,
Island Memories by Neal Livingston, January 8, 1979
Application
for Canada Council Grant
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