Thin Ice

Thin Ice captures the zany imagination of Bruce McCall, revealing his journey from a 1940s boyhood in small-town Canada to present-day success as a New York writer and artist. McCall, who made his name in the pages of the National Lampoon and Esquire before becoming a favourite of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, has been called a god and a genius by admirers such as Steve Martin and Stanley Kubrick.

Based on his memoir of the same name, Thin Ice is also the story of every Canadian who's ever heard the siren call of the great land to the south to pursue the American dream. For McCall, "Canada had no Empire State Building, no Hoover Dam, no Golden Gate Bridge... American kids got whistles, rings, glittering prizes in their cereal boxes; all we got was: Not Available in Canada."

Shot in a style that evokes the man's stylish wit, this film underscores the contradictions in McCall's character: He left Canada for the big show decades ago, but Canada has yet to leave him.