I'll give you a specific example that I think responds directly to your question, but also signifies so much more.
We announced the great Canadian video competition. We did it in partnership with the private sector, because it's an increasing priority in terms of our working relationship with the industry and bringing more money into the industry. Its purpose is to develop and commit to Canadian talent, to make Canadian programs, to tell Canadian stories through whatever platform is commercially viable—and creatively so.
A specific example is called Pax Warrior. Coincidentally, it was developed at the Canadian Film Centre, where I worked prior to joining Telefilm Canada, and it is sold all over the world.
Pax Warrior is a video game based on the tragedy in Rwanda and the work of Romeo Dallaire. The player becomes a peacekeeper, but a peacekeeper who is confronted by the horrors, nightmare, and the choices that a peacekeeper has to make. He or she reaches a roadblock where violence is threatened, so what choices are they going to make? How are they going to act? Very simply and directly, that's an example of the kind of role this nation and the creative talent in it can play.
Interestingly, one of the films I commented on in my opening address was the feature film that just finished shooting on Romeo Dallaire and his experience in Rwanda, and it stars Roy Dupuis. That is going to be available on multi-platform. I see new media as being absolutely crucial in the context of Canadian culture.
I don't pretend to be an expert in video games; I don't pretend to be an expert in new media, but I've learned a lot over the last five or six years. What I would often do to give myself some comfort was reflect back. Say it's 103 years ago, and somebody walked in here and said, cinema is the future of the 20th century; cinema is the future of new talent. If we don't get into filmmaking, we're going to be compromised as a nation, and we're going to be compromised creatively. Apply that to new media—it's comparable.
My son is rather grown up now, but he certainly played with those early on. Fewer and fewer kids are watching television; we know that. Fewer and fewer are going to the movies. They'll go to the movies as a tribal experience. A gang of them will get together, somebody will decide on the film they want to see, and they'll go as a tribe to the multiplexes. They'll play the games there, drink lots of Coca-Cola, and eat popcorn. But more and more they choose to see their entertainment elsewhere, and we have to be there.