''A Place to Stand'' is a 1967 film produced and edited by the Canadian artist and filmmaker

Christopher Chapman Christopher Chapman (January 24, 1927 – October 24, 2015) was a Canadian film writer, director, editor and cinematographer. Best known for his award-winning 1967 short film ''A Place to Stand (film), A Place to Stand'', he also pioneered the m ...

for the

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

pavilion at

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

Québec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, Canada. For the film, he pioneered the concept of moving panes, of moving images, within the single context of the screen. At times there are 15 separate images moving at once. This technique, which he dubbed " multi-dynamic image technique"Konder, G. C., (2004
A Place to Grow
(caption) Accessed January 28, 2007. has since been employed in many films, notably

Norman Jewison Norman Frederick Jewison (born July 21, 1926) is a retired Canadian film and television director, producer, and founder of the Canadian Film Centre. He has directed numerous feature films and has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best D ...

's 1968 film '' The Thomas Crown Affair''. Mr. Jewison has credited Mr. Chapman as the creator of the edit style. The technique can also be seen more recently on television in the series '' 24''. It is said that most of the editing decisions were worked out in an accountant's spreadsheet book and the pencil edit plan resembled flow charts. Chapman has remarked that at one point in the editing process he stood there in the room, bits of footage hanging from clips all around him. He felt crushed by the force of his vision and he was a breath away from quitting. Even at the first screening, Chapman was exhausted and unsure but as he left the room,

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

watching at the back, grabbed Chapman and told him that he was blown away by the film.Leslie Scrivener,
Forty years on, a song retains its standing
, ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' April 22, 2007. The 18-minute film used 70mm stock and was projected onto a 66 by 30 foot screen. It contains no dialogue, but only music by a 45-member orchestra and a 15-member choir.

, Expanded Cinema, http://www.yorku.ca/filmexpo/film.html#placetostand Its theme song, "

A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow "A Place to Stand, a Place to Grow" (''Ontari-ari-ari-o!'') is the unofficial provincial anthem of the Canadian province of Ontario. It was written as the signature tune for a movie of the same name that was featured at the Expo 67 Ontario pavilio ...

", written by

Dolores Claman Dolores Olga Claman (July 6, 1927July 17, 2021) was a Canadian composer and pianist. She is best known for having composed the 1968 theme song for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) ''Hockey Night In Canada'' show, known simply as "The ...

and Richard Morris, and orchestrated by

Jerry Toth Jaroslav "Jerry" Toth (15 November 1928 – 31 March 1999) was a Canadian saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, arranger, composer, and record producer. Life and career Born in Windsor, Ontario, Toth was the son of violinist and cimbalom maker Car ...

, enjoyed great popularity on its own. Commissioned by the Ontario Department of Economics and Development from the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

commercial design studio TDF and premiered at the Expo 67 Ontario Pavilion on April 28, 1967, it was seen by some two million at Expo 67 itself and later by a further estimated 100 million in North America and Europe in cinema release. It was nominated for an Academy Award in two categories:

Best Documentary Short Subject This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

and Best Live Action Short Subject. It won the latter prize, which Chapman accepted on April 10, 1968. The film won the

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

for Film of the Year at the

20th Canadian Film Awards The 20th Canadian Film Awards were held on October 4, 1968 to honour achievements in Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. . pp. 81-83. The ceremo ...

in 1968.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''.

Stoddart Publishing Stoddart Publishing was a Canadian book publisher and distributor, owned by Jack Stoddart, which ceased operations in 2002.UncreditedBook giant Stoddart files for creditor protection CBC News, May 1, 2002. Retrieved 2016-01-15. History General ...

, 2000. . pp. 81-83. In the same year it was screened at the 18th Berlin Film Festival as part of Young Canadian Film, a lineup of films by emerging Canadian filmmakers.

Gerald Pratley Gerald Arthur Pratley (September 3, 1923 – March 14, 2011) was a Canadian film critic and historian. Piers Handling"Gerald Arthur Pratley" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', September 18, 2011. A longtime film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Cor ...

, "In and Out of Cinema". ''

Cinema Canada ''Cinema Canada'' (1972–1989) is a defunct Canadian film magazine, which served as the trade journal of record for the Canadian film and television sector. The magazine had its origins in the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC), which beg ...

'', September 1968.

References

External links

*
A Place to Stand
, 1967, Archives of Ontario YouTube Channel {{DEFAULTSORT:Place to Stand 1967 films Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners Expo 67 Canadian short documentary films World's fair films Films shot in Ontario Canadian avant-garde and experimental short films Documentary films about Canada Best Picture Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners 1960s English-language films 1960s Canadian films