Kubasa in a Glass (2006)

Kubasa in a Glass (Canada, 2006) 65 min color DIR: Atelier National du Manitoba, Matthew Rankin, Walter Forsberg.

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One hot weekend in the summer of 2006, Harbourfront Centre had presented two afternoons of Winnipeg films produced by the city’s very healthy vanguard, such as the Winnipeg Film Group and the Video Pool. This event (two different programs for each afternoon) proved to be a grab-bag of styles, from hand-processed films to self-referential videos which deconstruct the image, featuring fine work from the likes of Guy Maddin, John Paizs, Theodore Turner, Deco Dawson, Colin Zipp and many others. Yet for me the highlight was the second show of the Saturday afternoon, in which Kubasa in a Glass, by the collective Atelier National du Manitoba, was a last-minute replacement for their compilation piece Death by Popcorn.

But first, allow a Lester Bangs-ish aside in order to preface the whole corporate versus independent struggle, which made its mark with the switching of titles. In between programs, I was in dire need of coffee, and the closest thing to the theatre was the overpriced food stand by the waterfront, which (God help us) “proudly serves Starbucks coffee”. I asked the slightly confused counterperson if they had any “non-Starbucks coffee” (which I guess is a lot like walking into a Nike store and looking for Adidas), and therefore could only walk away with this French Vanilla Mocha Whatever thing (from which I could only take two sips before throwing it in the garbage). The irony lover cannot ignore the dichotomy of a cultural venue celebrating an independence, yet has a Starbucks down the hall. I’m not naïve- I realize that these events rely on some corporate funding in order to happen at all- especially in the ever-dwindling world of government funding.

This little observation is microcosmic of the glaring program change: an even more ominous example of the corporate body looming over the independent urchin. Death by Popcorn, a collage film comprised of hockey footage taken from broadcast masters that CTV had thrown in the dumpster, was forbidden to be shown because CTV said that the filmmakers didn’t get permission to use the material… that CTV was throwing away! Death by Popcorn had a writeup in the newspaper, and was still listed in the program guide, thus making the replacement film all the more of a surprise.

The alternate choice, Kubasa in a Glass, which had also shown at the 2006 Images Festival, is a compendium of Winnipeg local programming, with cheesy commercials like “The Hills” hawking really loud furniture, dating service ads and Crimestoppers spots. It is anchored with footage by local celebs, namely Bea Broda, whom we see being interviewed by Russ Doern. Ms. Broda is-was an aspiring Hollywood actress, who came back to her native Winnipeg to appear for a gig at the Holiday Inn. This is intercut with her own early morning talk show, which I presume was made after her Russ Doern appearance. Alas, Hollywood didn’t come calling afterwards, and she ended up paying the bills with a local program in “The Peg”. This is just one of the central themes of this amazing collection. Among its many virtues, Kubasa in a Glass is a brilliantly sarcastic look at stardom, which gets darker as it continues. (One aside: in one of Bea’s segments appears some little girl named Chantal Kreviazuk!)

Then there’s the strange case of morning kiddie show host Uncle Bob, a cantankerous old curmudgeon in a cowboy hat, who we learn was so terrible to his crew that they would commonly sabotage props so they wouldn’t work on air, and make him look like an idiot. (Thanks to the omnipresent subtitles, we learn that he was eventually fired for being drunk on live television.) Among the final segments, we see Uncle Bob trying to find a button on a mechanical doll (was this the day he got fired?), and fittingly, we end on another piece with Russ Doern (also an unsuccessful NDP candidate) interviewing hopeful starlet Bea Broda… then learn that shortly after this interview, Doern shot himself!

This movie, told in “10 Acts”, is an ironic commentary on celebrity, but also how “The Peg” represents itself. Cheery “Winnipeg spirit” songs underscore Crimestoppers commercials (all interestingly featuring 16-year-old white males as culprits), and we occasionally see these local celebs lose their minds, as in outtakes of an RV infomercial where the host commonly flubs his lines and starts yelling the F word at everyone or no one. Laurie Mustard and Stan Kolnicek, both brandishing the famous “Winnipeg moustache” (perhaps deified by Burton Cummings), have a weird showdown. Mayor Bill Norrie’s address is recut so that his monologue sounds ridiculous (think of what people online are doing with Dubya’s speeches).

Since the audience was full of “Peggers”, they were in gales of laughter throughout the movie, largely due to their recognition of references meant for those who grew up on Winnipeg local programming, and the “local stars” it produced. To us, it would incite the same kind of knowing laughter if we were watching a compendium of footage with Irv Weinstein, Barry Lillis, Promo the Robot, and that guy from Strikes Spares and Misses. And even though it was subtitled Winnipeg’s Strangest Commercials, they really weren’t that strange, since we also had our share of cheesy local commercials.

On the Sunday afternoon, I had a chance to talk to some of the Winnipeg filmmakers, and they seemed surprised that I actually wanted a copy of this movie! What cultural worth could I get from this feature-length in-joke Well, this movie is not so private that one needs to understand all of the references to get the universal messages of how stardom affects everybody (even those on the bottom rung of the fame ladder), and even though we are seeing broadcast emissions from another part of the country, we still get a feeling of déjà vu.  The chords of Pat Metheny’s “James”, which opens Bea Broda’s show, has that same feel of countless other early morning programs throughout the land. And with this collection of abrasive cut-rate furniture salesmen, drunk kiddie show hosts, and bumbling municipal politicians, we’re seeing dotted outlines in which we can fill our own memories of local stars, late-show filler, and production values from all the junk television that has shaped our culture.

After seeing this, I should have fallen to my knees and praised CTV’s corporate wisdom for yanking Death by Popcorn (however much I would love to see that, too). I cannot help but wonder if, because of their greed, I was enabled to see a film that was even more subversive. Yes, in this weekend, the spirit of independence ended up winning after all.

Kubasa in a Glass should be lining the walls of every Blockbuster, but I think I’ll wait for the Criterion release of The Star Wars Holiday Special to happen first. Since it’s not available through the obvious channels, see it however you can.

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Originally presented in Vol. #1, Issue #18, “Discoveries”. UPDATE: Kubasa in a Glass is now available to view on Vimeo. Unless I missed it, the Chantal Kreviazuk footage is missing in this online version.