Canadian Heritage Committee on May 6th, 2015

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Well, Mr. Noble wants to react, I guess.

[Andrew Noble]

I wanted to add one thing to that. Most of our members have tried—and I've tried myself through an art distribution company—to access the Canadian English market through Telefilm, but Telefilm will not recognize distributors from Quebec to distribute films in English Canada, which is frightful. We can trigger films in Quebec, even English language films in Quebec, but we can't trigger films from producers from Toronto in our own country.

[Virginia Thompson]

At this hearing, I am so excited to know that there are more distributors in Quebec than in English Canada, to my understanding from this meeting today. We need to break down the barriers between us.

[Andrew Noble]

We'd love to be present and to be working with producers in English Canada. Telefilm doesn't allow us to do that.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

We did it for beer, how can we not be able to do it for movies?

[Andrew Noble]

It seems ridiculous.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

My apologies. I had a question for the other witnesses, but I've run out of time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Dion.

Mr. Hillyer, you have up to seven minutes. Thank you.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Oh boy, seven minutes. Let's see if I can pull it off. Probably not.

Ms. Thompson, Virginia, you addressed a little bit of the concern about the fact that most funding is for established companies and that it was generally reasonable, but that sometimes there are situations like yours that are left out.

We've heard other witnesses talk about the fact that—I'm not sure if was for film, for music, or for both—there has been some funding set aside for new artists or new producers.

[Virginia Thompson]

Yes.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

There's a little bit of a worry that money might just go down..... You're throwing money down at hobbyists, which would be nice for the hobbyists, but not exactly what the money is designed for.

How do we balance between that and help new people get into the industry? I'm not talking necessarily about your situation where you're certainly not a newbie, but just in a different industry. That said, do you have any thoughts on how we can help get people into the industry without throwing money away at hobbyists?

[Virginia Thompson]

I look at the system right now, and it's interesting. We fell through the cracks, which is basically..... If you're a young, talented producer with a micro-budget, which is very tiny and means that you can't afford to hire any stars, you can get Telefilm funding. That's great. It gives young talent a great chance. Then I think it's interesting that if you're a producer who has made more than one feature film—so I'm still going to fall through the cracks next year—then you can't get development funding.

I just think that we're in a world now where our audience is screen agnostic. There's talent. There's Canadian YouTube talent that is getting 8 million views. There's television talent that might have something to offer to the future film world. There's young and up-and-coming talent.

I think that trying to create stiff rules and boxes is against innovation. I would suggest that Telefilm try to figure out a way to be more open to interesting people who might walk through their doors. It's tricky, though. I understand why the system is in place; it's because they want to support and build production companies.

I don't have a solution per se, except maybe that you build a little bit more funding, a pot of money for exceptional circumstances, and allow that to teach and to grow because there are a lot of exceptions in this new digital age. Right now there isn't that pot of money; you're always asking for a rule to be changed or broken.

It's being more formal about that and maybe parcelling, not all the money, but a little bit of money in an incremental way, would allow for some innovation.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

From your personal experience or just from what you've seen, how does a young, talented person who doesn't necessarily have the connections but has the passion get to be a movie producer? It seems like it costs a lot of money, and even a micro-budget seems like a lot of money. If someone really feels that this is their pathway, how do they get into it?

[Louis Dussault]

You should ask Xavier Dolan that.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

What's that?

[Louis Dussault]

He will give you an answer, because he produced his first film with his own money.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

So you just have to do it. Is that what you're saying?

[Virginia Thompson]

Yes, they grab their friends. It's actually very exciting what's happening now. I think for young producers and film makers and young talent—even for us going through the system for the first time—there are a lot of walls, there are a lot of barriers to entry. In the new digital age, what you do is just make it. On a kind of micro-budget you grab your friends, you write something fantastic and you can release it online. You can't do it for nothing, but these young people are figuring out a way to do it very cheaply.

It's unfortunate, because I think the system does appear to be a bit skewed to the very established. I find that a little bit frustrating. That's why I'd love some middle ground for creative talent, so that if they've made something fantastic, they can plead their case to Telefilm and say this is an offering I'd like to provide to the.... I think there's value there. There has to be a lot of diligence and proof, and you can't just go out with your hat in hand, and we certainly didn't. But yes, it's a little bit skewed to traditional, old model and it's a bit closed off to new players at any level.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I think part of the problem with the struggle of Canadian film, especially not even new films.... As I mentioned last week, I didn't know until someone mentioned in these meetings that The F Word , the movie, is a Canadian film.

[Virginia Thompson]

Yes, it's a great film.

[Jim Hillyer, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I didn't know that. I probably would have been more eager to see it had I known that. I won't necessarily go to see a Canadian film just because it's Canadian, but all things being equal if I have to choose between a great Canadian film and great other-than-Canadian film, I'll probably pick the Canadian film. Besides doing the right thing is satisfying. You know, I didn't actually win the gold medal but I still took pride in it, and I take pride in a good Canadian film.

Part of the problem is that we don't know about these films. There's funding for production. Is there government funding for marketing?

[Andrew Noble]

There is government funding for marketing. Telefilm provides a marketing envelope for feature films.

I think part of the problem is that in English Canada there's not a lot of screen space for Canadian films. I'm talking about cinema space for Canadian films. I think that's a big issue. It's still an issue in Quebec, but it's less of an issue. We do have a lot more openness, market places are a lot more open to a wide variety of film, including Quebec films. Quebec films score reasonably well in a Quebec box-office, so we actually have a space for our films in Quebec.

In English Canada, that's not necessarily the case. It's very difficult often to get screens, even in downtown Toronto, where you would think there's a mass of screens. I had a film last year that Cineplex had no space for whatsoever, and Cineplex dominates the market in each of the major urban centres.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you.

Mr. Nantel, you have 30 seconds to ask your question.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Prégent, Mr. Charron, you were part of the united stand against the CRTC's decision. Could you please tell us how it could negatively affect film here?

[Sophie Prégent]

Could you clarify your question?