Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, my name is Tim Southam. I'm a working director, a filmmaker, and the president of the Directors Guild of Canada. With me is DGC's director of policy, David Forget.
I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you in the course of your current review of the Canadian feature film industry. We are experiencing significant change in the audiovisual sector and commend the committee on its timely decision to review the state of Canadian feature film in particular.
Just as feature dramas and documentary have a special place in the hearts of audiences everywhere, for filmmakers feature film is a foundational art form. Even as other screen genres like Internet and series television become highly compelling media for directors, feature film remains the bedrock form many of us dream most of making.
There are several reasons for this. Some are purely mythological, the desire, for instance, to follow in the footsteps of Truffaut, Spielberg, Campion, Scorcese, Bigelow, Jutra or Cronenberg, but the key reason is that independent feature film is the form that utilizes most completely everything a filmmaker has to offer to the viewing public, as a visual artist, a dramatic artist, and as a storyteller. It's a form that uses the director’s skill set fully, from either writing or working with a writer, through directing actors and composing shots, to sound design and exhibition. It is therefore a form most likely to develop a singular voice and most susceptible of offering a unique viewing experience for audiences everywhere.
Feature film has often been Canada’s best foot forward on the national and international stage.
Unfortunately, despite feature film and documentary's pride of place in the media and in audiences' collective imagination, English Canadian films are becoming orphans in their own land.
Taxpayers who fund these films are denied the ability to access them. Diminished access translates directly into diminished choice for Canadian audiences. Something needs to be done.
Our focus today is on how we can strengthen existing regulatory mechanisms in support of the financing and exhibition of Canadian feature film, particularly as they apply to the dominant trend towards home and mobile viewing.
Much has changed since the last time the standing committee engaged in a study of the Canadian feature film industry in 2006. Most significantly, digital platforms offer more and more ways to access content. Audiences are more in control of the viewing experience and have more choice than ever before. As a result, there is greater pressure on the historical “orderly” marketplace, and as exciting as these new platforms and windowing strategies may be, they do not yet come accompanied by strong business and financing models.
We also note that several key things have not changed since 2006. It merits repeating that in its 2006 report the committee noted, in its words, an “absence of a broadcasting policy to support the promotion of Canadian feature films”. The report further recommended “that the Department of Canadian Heritage...develop a new policy for the exhibition of priority programming on Canadian television” and “that the Government of Canada direct the CRTC to develop a policy that supports the promotion as well as viewing of Canadian feature films, long-form documentaries, and dramas”.
The report got it right, and in 2015, television is still where most Canadians watch movies. The burning question is, where are the Canadian movies in this home-viewing universe?
The Directors Guild of Canada has three specific suggestions in order to more fully leverage home-viewing trends. All three would result in delivering significant resources to Canadian feature film and documentary without requiring the addition of any new public moneys to the system.
The first suggestion is on Canadian feature films and documentaries as programs of national interest, PNI. To ensure that resources for programs of national interest are allocated in line with the government's policy intent, the CRTC should require broadcasters to set aside a minimum 1% of their Canadian revenue specifically to support the creation of original Canadian feature films and documentaries. These revenues should be sourced from within the broadcasters' existing Canadian programming expenditures requirements, but over and above the existing 5% PNI requirement. The result would be increased and sustained support from broadcasters, addressing the chronic meagre licences currently being offered.
We also recommend that, as Canada’s national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation play a more significant role in the licensing and promotion of Canadian feature films and documentaries.
The second suggestion is on Canadian feature films and documentaries on video-on-demand and pay-per-view services. Building audiences begins with having access to the content. The CRTC requires pay-per-view and video-on-demand providers to license all new Canadian feature films that comply with relevant codes as “suitable” for each service. However, the commission has declined to provide clarity on how the word “suitable” should be defined. Greater clarity regarding the term “suitable” would result in increased access by Canadians to our cinema on pay-per-view and video-on-demand services.
The third suggestion is in regard to Canadian feature films and documentaries on over-the-top services. In recent years, Canadian broadcasters have had to compete with new over-the-top subscription video-on-demand, SVOD, services. There is no question that exempting over-the-top SVOD services from CRTC regulation has enabled these services to avoid the system-building requirements shared by other content providers, including any participation in the Canada Media Fund. As a result, over-the-top providers operate as free riders with regard to ensuring Canadian content and culture in the broadcasting sphere.
Enshrining this competitive advantage for a subset of providers makes little sense. As an initial step, the CRTC should again require reporting from over-the-top providers regarding: the level of Canadian programming, including the number of titles, hours, and share of total content; the level of expenditures on Canadian programming; Canadian programs for which rights were acquired in exclusivity; and Canadian subscriber levels.
The financing, production and distribution landscapes for feature film and documentary have been revolutionized by the advent of new viewing platforms and digital networks. Yet none of these developments alter the need for a critical mass of capital to generate first-rate content created by Canadians for Canada and the world.
As additional measures, the DGC believes we must strengthen existing tools such as tax credits, the Canada feature film fund, the National Film Board of Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and reverse cuts made to these instruments and services.
In addition, it is important to follow the migration of audiences toward the small screen, and to more effectively secure the involvement of home services for the financing and dissemination of Canadian feature films, including the traditional television networks and new Internet services.
Mr. Chair, committee members, I would like to thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today, and would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.