Joe Clark

neat.

There's a lot of that between Joe Clark and John Diefenbaker and even the original Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau.

The way that all of these guys are talking to each other, it is completely different from how we see it today.

It's very mannered and very paused and yet seemingly just as ridiculous.

And if you've seen any of his earlier shorts, this is kind of more in line with the way those movies look.

But I think it's a very smart way of linking the evolution of image politics, of ideology, political theater it's it basically traces ten years or approximately ten years in the lead-up to Mulroney's becoming the Prime Minister which is this kind of back and forth between Pierre Trudeau and Joe Clark, right? Well, Joe Clark and also

Diefenbaker, John Diefenbaker.

Dief the

I think that that wasn't something that I both liked and found frustrating about the film because I...

If you're going to do an archival documentary about electoral politics in an emergent era of visual mass media, There's a risk that I think you can end up sort of leaning on horse race stuff, leaning on superficial image-based politics.

And the movie sort of exalts in optics and in the narratives of Mulroney and his... his camera charisma, the jaw that walks like a man, is the good line in the movie, versus the rather more Joe Clark or Joe Who, as he's called throughout.

There's a good bit where people on a panel show have no idea who he is, and he's like, he's the next Prime Minister of Canada, ma'am.

First black MP ever.

In 1979, Joe Clark wins the election for the Conservatives and Link goes into cabinet as Minister of Labour.

He's the first black cabinet minister in Canadian history.

There is a moment – I still laugh when I think about this.

Yeah, we sort of imagined it as like some sort of parallel campaign song written by Kraftwerk, you know.

Finally, the marriage between Joe Clark and Kraftwerk, right?

At last, you know, the two have finally met, you know, only in film, which is really important.

The first place I wanted to start, it's a very kind of simple question, but you posted on social media that, you know, you went through 80,000 individual archival pieces, and I don't know if you're even including the stuff that you shot on 16mm for the animation.

He watches things so deep.

He has like vast cinematic appetite and he really pushes the envelope, you know, of like what constitutes a cult film.

and uh that's really exciting he's a real daredevil and you know like i i think that's one of the reasons why midnight madness is one of the most dynamic and exciting programs at tiff you know um so i personally think it's kind of the perfect spot for this movie you know the the movie is um i mean you know it's too narrative to really be an experimental film it it is yes a documentary but you know uh not in any kind of normal way um you know it's it's way too interested in joe clark for all the you know red carpet star fucking that happens in the main program so you know like where does it go you know like uh if anywhere you know so i i really i i i have to salute peter's courage um I mean, it is on some level the subject is perhaps an improbable, you know, kind of an improbable subject for that particular crowd.

But at the same time, the movie is very psychedelic.

Just a few messages here.

Joe on PEI sent some photos and we talked about this before, but Here was proof.

He had put two packages of meat there.

One's Australian beef, one's Canadian beef, literally half the price in the grocery store for the Australian.

And he just said, how is that possible when it's shipped all the way across the world? I don't have an answer for that, Joe.

I'm thinking it must just have something to do with the tax regime.

Yeah, well, and this is where taxes and import tariffs and all that kind of stuff all comes into play.

So he basically just oversaw an election and lost.

The political spouses who have put pen to paper describing their experience.

First, and famously, Margaret Trudeau, then Maureen McTeer, who was married to Joe Clark, and most recently, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.

And a pollster flashback, 60%, the percentage of Canadians who had positive feelings towards Sophie in 2016 at the peak of Trudeau mania 2.0.

This was actually five points higher than those satisfied with Trudeau's performance as prime minister.

It speaks to a very specific era of clear alliances and shared existential priorities.

The Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Joe Clark and Ambassador Ken Taylor on the ground, essentially made the calculation that the lives of those six Americans were indistinguishable from the lives of six Canadians.

It was a huge risk.

A staggering risk.

So are some of the others, but they fit themselves into a regular conservative caucus.

They'd be very comfortable under Stephen Harper, under Brian Mulroney, under Joe Clark, but not under Carolyn Finlay.

Sorry, George.

Maria in Vancouver.