When Douglas Coupland said that he did not make public appearances in Vancouver because he didn’t want to be “recognized,” I stopped reading his books. A few years later a colleague from the BBC interviewed him at his home and reported that he was welcoming and polite, so I was willing to consider changing my opinion. The Coupland who appeared in Souvenir of Canada at the 25 Vancouver International Film Festival (produced by Robert Cohen et al.) was thoughtful and affable, eager to share his odd collection of Canadian detritus and his ideas on national identity. Coupland created an art piece called “Canada House” in a soon-to-be-demolished post-war CMHC blueprint home, and his installation captures signs and objects that cannot be understood without knowing the secret Canadian handshake. Some items, like the official mascot ookpik and the invented Canadian greeting chimo, are so secret that I had never heard of them. Coupland meditates on Terry Fox, instructional films on how to build an igloo, Canada’s favourite rock formation (the Canadian Shield), hockey and the Trans-Canada Highway in this film, a nostalgic piece of Canadian auto/biography.