Coopers' Camera

For Christmas 1985, Gord Cooper gives his family a second-hand VHS camera. (He actually forgave a $2,000 debt of his friend Bill Davidson, a home pornographer, in exchange for the camera and some "barely used" VHS tapes--$2,000 which Gord's wife Nancy had earmarked for the family's dream vacation to Orlando.) Almost 25 years later, the footage taped that Christmas, largely by the Coopers' then-preteen son Teddy, is discovered and edited. On display is the dysfunction of the family which also included Gord and Nancy's 17-year-old son Marcus, a seething mess of contradictions; and Nancy's divorced, chain-smoking mother "Nana" Gert. From the opening of presents on Christmas morning, on which it seemed like nobody except Nancy expecting the Orlando trip, got what they wanted, the footage shows the goings-on of the entire day as they welcomed Nancy's two sisters Joan and Bev and their own dysfunctional families; the sisters' father/Gert's ex-husband "Poppy"; and, unexpectedly, Gord's estranged brother Nick, whom he hadn't seen since his and Nancy's wedding 17 years before. Nick's effect on Gord is exacerbated by Gord being temporarily impotent, arguably having a better time with his "Sears girl" than with Nancy.