Miss Canadiana Comes to Halifax
by Sobaz Benjamin
Short Film / 0 comments / 2 ratings / 334 views /
Film Details
Synopsis
Are you an All-Canadian girl who holds her head up high, and proud to be Canadian? If that is true, then you could be the next sash-wearing, tiara-donned, plaque-awarded Miss Canadiana!
Camille Turner is Miss Canadiana, a beauty queen who tours the country with her collection of Canadian memorabilia. Turner describes herself as an artist, curator and cultural producer. She is also a Jamaican-born Canadian. Through her role as Miss Canadiana she explores questions of identity and cultural definitions of beauty, evoking a wide range of reactions from the people she meets as she travels across Canada. Scenes at the Halifax airport and a university art gallery illustrate this range of public reaction.
As she meets with ecstatic fans around Canada she talks of how much her identity changes as she can become a completely different symbol in just a change of clothes. With this she is seen as an immigrant and outsider in the street, but when adorned with her Miss Canadiana tiara she is swarmed like royalty. Upon this juxtaposition she questions the relevance of home throughout the short.
She talks of herself as a blank slate where people can project their own desires. At the same time she describes as not being completely comfortable with fame as she sits in her hotel room surrounded by all types of Canadian snow domes, novelty hats and other Miss Canadiana merchandise questioning the motivation of those who seek celebrity. In interviews with those who come across her, people commend her on her personality and empathy, qualities not often spoken of when one considers a beauty queen bearing the sash of a location in a sequinced red dress.
Miss Canadiana is certainly a glamorous character. Her beauty and radiance is infectious when she meets and greets her fans. Yet it is the symbol of integration, and multiculturalism that really captivates those she comes across as she challenges stereotypes of beauty and nationhood.
| | 
Subscribe to Podcast | Embed Video
User Review