I think young Canadians are avid to pick up cameras. They want to play in the medium. I don't think we really need to do anything more to encourage it, because it's self-generating. I think that with film, television cameras, gaming, and all of the visual media, kids and teenagers are naturally attracted to it.
I think it's about providing a context around that, which of course festivals like Whistler and organizations like TIFF can do. It's about taking that avid interest and providing historic context and cultural context, and opening young people to the riches of international cinema, to other ways of speaking and other ways of making movies.
There are so many different avenues that one can take. To me, cinema is a gateway into other cultures. It's one of the most efficient forms of international communication. It builds bridges incredibly efficiently. We have a children's festival that shows largely international foreign language films, because here in Toronto it's a very multicultural society. A lot of children are seeing films from the cultures from which their parents and grandparents came.
I think kids naturally are gravitating towards moving images. Our role, an institutional role, is to guide that and give them more context, I guess, and give them more opportunities.