Toronto: The docmakers at Media Headquarters (Le Mozart Noir, Modern Marriages) have hooked up with author and visual artist Douglas Coupland to make Souvenir of Canada, a 90-minute adaptation of the latter’s bestseller for CBC.

The project is a bit of a concept piece, says director and MHQ principal Robin Neinstein, in that the book is a collection of photo montages and brief essays about assorted Canadiana – nontraditional bric-a-brac like stubby beer bottles and bilingual cereal boxes. Readings from Souvenir, by Coupland, will form the spine of the doc and will be intercut with more elaborate cinematic sequences and animation. MHQ is currently looking for animation companies.

‘I really connected with Doug’s sense of trying to compile a new vocabulary about Canada,’ says Neinstein. ‘He understands narrative and he understands visuals. It would be crazy not to involve him.

‘This is not your parents’ NFB film.’

The National Film Board does own a piece of it, however, as do CBC, Telefilm Canada and Canadian Television Fund, all of which put in for the ‘healthy but not glamorous’ budget. Neinstein and DOP Chris Romeike (Tina in Mexico, Pitch) shot Coupland’s segments at one of his installation pieces in B.C. during the spring. Production will wrap in Toronto in time for delivery in 2005.

It is the first of Coupland’s books (Generation X, Hey Nostradamus!) to be adapted. Coupland released Souvenir of Canada 2 earlier this month.