Ida Makes a Movie

Ida Makes a Movie is a short film written by Amy Jo Cooper and directed by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler. It was produced in 1979 and aired on CBC on September 20, 1980. The story was adapted from the 1974 children's picture book Ida Makes a Movie, which was written by Kay Chorao. It is officially considered the beginning of the Degrassi franchise.[1]

Ida Makes a Movie
Directed by
Written byAmy Jo Cooper
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPhillip Earnshaw
Production
companies
Release date
  • September 20, 1980 (1980-09-20)
Running time
21 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The National Film Board of Canada is sponsoring a movie festival. Ida Lucas is a nine-year-old girl who decides to make a movie about the environment (specifically garbage), and enter it into the festival. The judges, thinking the film is about war, accept Ida's film into the festival finals. For her part, Ida feels terribly conflicted in this situation, unsure if she deserves to win because of a misunderstanding.

Cast
  • Zoe Newman - Ida Lucas
  • Dawn Harrison - Catherine "Cookie" Peters
  • Allan Meiusi - Fred Lucas

Production

In 1979, Schuyler received a copy of the children's book Ida Makes A Movie, written by Kay Chorao, when she requested Earl Grey librarian Bruce Mackey to acquire several books about filmmaking.[1] Mackey was unaware that it was children's fiction about cats,[2] and disregarded it.[1] However, Schuyler became interested in potentially adapting the book into a movie, and planned to fly to New York to meet Chorao.[1] Before leaving, Schuyler sought legal advice from Stephen Stohn, a lawyer who would eventually become her producing partner and husband. Stohn advised her to forego a lawyer and instead propose the deal herself.[3][4] Schuyler purchased the rights to the film for $200, and repurposed the film to be about a girl who enters a movie about the garbage in her neighborhood into a National Film Board-sponsored competition and wins, despite the film being misinterpreted as an anti-war piece.[2]

Legacy

After three more annual specials, the films were turned into the series The Kids of Degrassi Street in 1982. It is retroactively considered the first entry in the franchise.[1]

Bibliography
  • Chorao, Kay (1974). Ida Makes a Movie. New York City: Seabury Press. ISBN 0-8164-3121-3.

References
  1. Ellis, Kathryn (2005). The official 411 Degrassi generations. Fenn Pub. Co. ISBN 1-55168-278-8. OCLC 59136593.
  2. "The real-life story that inspired the 'Degrassi' universe". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2016-04-23.
  3. "Growing up Degrassi". Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  4. Zekas, Rita (2013-10-04). "Degrassi their home away from home". Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2022-02-13.


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