Where are the movies about great Canadians?

When was the last time you went to the movie theatre and saw a Canadian story?

We don’t mean a movie that happens to be set in Canada or simply features fictional Canadian characters (there are thankfully no shortage of those). Rather, we mean a film based on actual Canadian events and people. Is that the sort of film that audiences even want to see when they go to the cinema?

There are plenty of movies that get produced in the Great White North -- so many, in fact, that Vancouver and Toronto have collectively become known as “Hollywood North” due to the number of films and TV shows produced in each city. Major American blockbusters like “300,” “Pacific Rim,” “Man of Steel,” and more were produced north of the border.

But when it comes to local productions there’s a distinct lack of truly “Made in Canada” movies making their way to the big screen.

Sure, there are Canuck movies about fictional characters, like Denis Villeneuve’s psychological thriller “Enemy,” heist flick “The Art of the Steal,” Brent Butt’s noir comedy “No Clue,” the upcoming “Trailer Park Boys” sequel and the Daniel Radcliffe rom-com “The F Word.” But those films are only incidentally Canadian.

Wouldn’t the story of Sir John A. MacDonald and Confederation make for a compelling “Lincoln”-style historical drama? Could the tale of the ill-fated Avro Arrow make for a the Canadian equivalent of “The Right Stuff”?

What about the Rebellion of 1837 or the life of William Lyon Mackenzie? The FLQ Crisis? The Battle of Quebec? The first winter at the habitation in Port-Royal? The story of Dr. Frederick Banting? The Battle of Ortona? Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s meteoric rise into the public consciousness? The list goes on.

Canadian stories do make it to the big screen occasionally. Recent examples include “Polytechnique” (Denis Villeneuve’s dramatization of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre), “Passchendaele” (the Paul Gross-directed First World War drama), and “Edwin Boyd” (the story of one of Canada’s most infamous criminals and folk heroes). And movies about Mayor Ford and the maple syrup caper are both on the way. But these high-profile retellings of famous homegrown tales are few and far between.

Whether we realize it or not, Canada as a whole has a lot of interesting history that is not being mined. These stories more often than not arrive as low-rent TV movies or hokey CBC miniseries (sorry, CBC!). Is this all we can muster? Other nations (like England, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Japan) with comparable film industries to Canada manage to produce homegrown fare. Where are our stories on the silver screen?

Do you want to see more movies by Canadians about Canadians? Let us know in the comments.