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Report

Highlights of the Year

The Government of Canada reinstated its allocation of $100 million to the Canadian Television Fund (CTF) for 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. The CTF changed its guidelines in 2004-2005, creating broadcaster performance envelopes in order to reward audience success, simplify the application process and reduce administrative fees. The Network is concerned about the impact these new guidelines might have on point-of-view documentary.

An Advisory Group on Documentary Policy, set up by the National Film Board of Canada and Telefilm Canada and later joined by the Canadian Television Fund, commenced work aimed at painting an overall portrait of the situation of documentary. The Group is made up of all, or nearly all, the federal and provincial audiovisual institutions and organizations. It intends to submit a series of recommendations to Liza Frulla, Minister of Canadian Heritage, to assist her in the preparation of a five-year documentary policy starting in the 2006-2007 fiscal year. A progress report was released in April 2005, during Hot Docs.

The new director of Telefilm, Wayne Clarkson, publicly announced his intention to create a funding program for feature documentaries, with a pilot project starting this fall.

Budget cuts were made to Telefilm Canada, Radio-Canada and the NFB. However, on a one-time basis for the 2005-2006 fiscal year, Société Radio-Canada managed to recuperate the amount that was cut last year.

Since 2003-2004, the funding of documentaries at SODEC has increased by $500,000. In addition, feature documentaries intended for general release are now eligible with the financial commitment of a distributor.

Over the past year, Société Radio-Canada has unofficially let it be known that it would soon make more space for point-of-view documentary; we will see what transpires.

The trend for feature documentaries to achieve box-office success continues: The Corporation by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan has earned $5 million to date at the box office and become the second most successful feature film (fiction or documentary) in general release in English Canada. On the francophone side, Ce qu’il reste de nous (What Remains of Us) by François Prévost and Hugo Latulippe, co-produced by the NFB, has earned more than $500,000 and stayed in theatres for more than nine months straight and Roger Toupin, épicier variété by Benoît Pilon was a hit.

The Report by the Comité de travail sur l’avenir de Télé-Québec (Working committee on the future of Télé-Québec) has been filed and we await a response from the Quebec minister of culture and communications, Line Beaucoup, as to how she intends to follow up.

Despite strong pressure from the milieu to cancel the budget cuts to which it was subjected in recent years, government funding for the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund (CIFVF) has not been restored to its original level.

Distributor Cinéma Libre closed its doors, putting many filmmakers and small production companies in a difficult position, as they find themselves without a distributor. A group has been formed under the auspices of the Conseil québécois des arts médiatiques to find a medium- and long-term solution. The Network is monitoring this issue closely.

In April 2005, Distribution La Fête was acquired by FVR Media, headed by president Richard Laferrière. The acquisition secures its future for the time being.

The situation of small production companies remains as precarious as ever.

Cuts made last year to the federal and provincial job creation programs had, and continue to have, a detrimental effect on non-profit organizations, particularly festivals, small broadcasters, and media arts workshops.

Actions undertaken by the Network in 2004-2005

First off, the question must be asked: how has the Documentary Network been useful, even important, this year?

In terms of concerted action, it should be noted that the Documentary Network is the only organization dedicated exclusively to pooling forces in the audiovisual milieu to defend and promote documentary cinema. The Network’s Board of Directors held 12 regular meetings this year—which means that the representatives of 9 major audiovisual organizations met on 12 occasions to reflect on the status of documentary and decide which actions should be carried out in its favour.

Among such actions, the Network filed a brief entitled “Pour une télévision citoyenne — Soutenir et développer Télé-Québec” with the Groupe de travail chargé de l’examen de Télé-Québec.

Since January 2004, following up on its 2003 Forum on theatrical screenings of documentaries, the Network has spoken out several times on behalf of point-of-view documentary to Canadian Heritage and Telefilm Canada. Thus the marketing assistance program for distributors was opened to documentary in April 2004. And this spring, Telefilm’s new executive director, Wayne Clarkson, publicly reiterated his intention to start a funding program for feature documentaries: at the APFTQ’s annual general meeting on April 26, 2005, he announced the creation of a pilot project for documentary starting this fall.

A brief entitled “Documentary Film: Art Form and Projection of Documentary” was submitted to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, charged with studying the Canadian film industry.

The Documentary Network organized the 2004 Forum entitled “Filming Reality: What Training for What Skill?” To make sure the ideas that emerged are pursued, it set up a committee on professional development for documentary filmmakers.

The Network participated in the work of the Advisory Group on Documentary Policy. This committee—modelled after the Network, incidentally—was formed to submit recommendations to the Department of Canadian Heritage concerning a funding program for documentary. The Network also actively participated in the sub-committee on the socio-cultural impact of documentary, which oversaw the study “Breaking New Ground—A Framework for Measuring the Social Impact of Canadian Documentaries,” prepared by Erin Research.

As well, the Network sat on the Steering Committee of the Cultural Human Resources Council to prepare a report on recommended skills for directors and producers of documentary films. This research, along with the Report on the 2004 Forum, enhances and updates the available literature on training documentary filmmakers in Quebec and Canada.

Lastly, the Network held numerous meetings with filmmakers, institutions and organizations in order to underline the cultural, intellectual, social and political importance of point-of-view documentary for the future of our society.

Lucette Lupien
Executive Director