By Caitlin Decarie

For most business stories, writers are urged to follow the money.  For stories about film and television in Canada, the story is more often about finding the money rather than following it.

Tales of devastating funding slashes, disappearing grants and just plain insufficient cash are all too familiar.  In recent years however, deep cuts piled on other economic stressors have reached a critical level for some aspects of the industry.

“[The Conservative government]cut 14 different programs,” says Pablo Rodriguez, official opposition critic for Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.  “They could never justify these on budget reasons.” A total of $46.1 million was cut to the arts, says Rodriguez.  “It was obviously ideological cuts because basically, they wanted to have some kind of control.”

Rodriguez speaks with a strong passion about Canadian arts and how it impacts our culture.  “Realize that culture is important for Canadians – it’s about us.  It’s our present and future,” says Rodriguez.

Training for the movie sector was cut by $1.5 million, and the Independent Film and Video Fund program which was primarily funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, was cut on April 1, 2009 without justification, says Rodriguez.  “That was money that was very well used and it had a real impact on our creators, especially in the documentary sector,” he says.  “Money was essential to prepare generations of directors, producers, filmmakers.”

“It was a really bad decision and it hurt Canada and our reputation internationally,” he adds.

[pullquote]“That’s been the mandate of this particular government – no new funds.”
Ira Levy, executive producer[/pullquote]

The Independent Film and Video Fund financed films in various communities across Canada that focused on issues such as community outreach and social or educational issues.  Ira Levy was on the board of directors and a co-chair for the fund and is now executive producer and partner of Breakthrough Entertainment in Toronto.  He believes the fund was extremely important to industry.

Levy says there wasn’t a lot of funding for grassroots films unless it was being made for commercial television and then it would have a much larger budget and more established filmmakers.  The fund was one of the last resorts for an independent film producer or director, says Levy.  With over 50 filmmakers being funded each year, the final projects would reach thousands of Canadians.  Levy says the fund’s budget was between $1 and $2 million each year and that money would be dispersed between these 50 projects.  “From that point of view I think it was very successful as a project that would very efficiently use the funds that it had and get it into a lot of different film and video projects,” says Levy.

The Independent Film and Video Fund exclusively financed novice filmmakers, allowing talent to find their path and get off the ground.  The fund’s alumni include Atom Egoyan and Laszlo Barna, producer of Intelligence and Da Vinci’s Inquest.

The unique characteristic of the Film and Video Fund was its accessibility to anyone in Canada.  “You just had to have the right passion and the right idea,” says Levy.   What little amount of money the fund could contribute whether it was just $10,000 or as high as $50,000, it would have a large impact, says Levy.

The fund was literally “cut off at the knees” as Levy says.   “I think that [Canadian Heritage] unfortunately assessed that particular fund as being redundant, which in my opinion it is anything but because it was unique,” says Levy.

“There has been an effort to try and revitalize a new 2.0 or 4G model – if you will – of the fund but it’s hard,” says Levy who laments  “that’s been the mandate of this particular government – no new funds.”

Where’s the money? Canadian Heritage suggested Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board, but Levy says that’s not the solution.

Ira Levy of Breakthrough Entertainment - Photo by Caitlin Decarie

“The mandate for Telefilm is to get five per cent of the Canadian box office for Canadian films so it is clearly trying to invest in more commercial films,” says Levy.  Unless it was a feature film project, independent producers and directors might have a hard time getting their project funded by Telefilm.  It’s small budget for independent works is mostly used for art house-type projects.  “This is great but not what the Film and Video Fund was doing,” says Levy.

The National Film Board is certainly beneficial if you already work for them. Otherwise, a budding filmmaker is going to have some trouble, says Levy.  However, the contradiction is clear.  If you are working for the board then you aren’t an independent. So this really isn’t the place for an independent to be looking for funding.

Canadian Heritage says arts funding has increased since Stephen Harper has been prime minister.  From 2007 to 2008, the Treasury Board led a strategic review – “a rigorous process to ensure sound management” – of Canadian Heritage. This resulted in funding for two programs to be re-allocated. This included the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund.

New funding is perhaps tied to new media. In the spring of 2010, the Canadian Television Fund transformed to become the Canada Media Fund, says Levy.  Now all projects for the CMF need to have a convergence element, such as an iPhone application, in addition to the television show or film.  Unfortunately, Levy says, the Film and Video Fund wasn’t able to make this transition and it would have fit in perfectly with the mandate.

“You can’t think of shows as a linear narrative medium anymore,” says Eva Ziemsen, film and television production program co-ordinator at Humber College in Toronto.  The new element has to be interactive and will most likely involve new media.  “I think almost every funder in Canada has adopted some kind of changes in relation to the new media strategy or realm.”

Ziemsen, who teaches courses on women in film and television among others, revamped her curriculum last year to incorporate new media and emerging technologies into the funding seminar.  “There used to be a workshop on emerging technologies but now I’ve had to inject everything about new media into the funding lecture because that’s where it starts.”  The structure of funding has trickled all the way down to how students are being trained and educated.

“You have to look at [the change] as positive,” says Ziemsen, “otherwise you become one of those disgruntled people who say, ‘oh, it’s all going haywire.’”