Cinema Canada (Sep 1981)

without emotions, and what is needed with information is a little bit of emotion.” Whereas it is true there can be no culture without emotions, it is even more obvious that there can be no valid cultural process without sufficient access to the cultural product. And this is where the NFB's visibility problem translates itself into a distribution problem. For the most part, the theatrical distribution channel in Canada has locked out the NFB and the independent Canadian producer in favor of the American product. The economics of the situation now dictate that the NFB must explore the distribution channels offered by the new technologies in the electronic media. Distribution through the electronic media Sandra Gathercole, former chairperson of the Council of Canadian Filmmakers, and CRTC consultant, said ata recent symposium on the NFB held at the University of Toronto, that the future of the NFB lies in television, or more generally, in electronic distribution systems. “To trace the decline of the social influence of the NFB,” claims Gathercole, “would be to trace the rise of the influence of TV... But we should not confuse this fact with not needing the NFB. We need the Film Board, the Film Board needs TV, the Film Board needs the country, but the country and TV need the Film Board even more.” So far there has been some conflict of interest between the NFB and the CBC, due more perhaps to a series of anomalies and petty jealousies than to anything else. The Board complains that the CBC does not give sufficient exposure to the NFB product, that it is poorly promoted beforehand, that it rarely receives prime-time coverage, and that some of the NFB’s best films are even rejected outright. One such film, according to Kish, was Mike Rubbo’s Waiting for At 42 years of age, the Board has, perhaps unkindly, been compared to a “Grande Dame” suffering from institutional ifnot constitutional middle age. Fidel (1974), which the CBC rejected on the grounds that it was “amateurish.” “Next week the New York Times gave the film half a page, calling it the best film ever made on Cuba; and after seven years it is still going strong,” claims Kish. Donald Brittain admits that since he left the Board to work for the CBC twelve years ago, his films have always been assured of prime-time coverage, with enormous publicity behind them. But he understands the CBC’s exasperations with the Board, citing the NFB’s disrespect for sticking to air-date deadlines, or its bad track record in adhering to film running-time limits. The relationship of the French Production section of the NFB to RadioCanada is much more amicable. Director of French Production, Jean-Marc Garand, estimates that over the last three years the French unit has co-produced 35-40 films, which Radio-Canada agreed to pay for sight unseen. Currently they are'in co-production on two features and a docu-drama series. Still, Garand would like to see a better access to Radio-Canada’s grid in terms of getting the films televised on a pre-ordained dates, in particular time slots. Despite the fundamental differences between the mediums of television and film, NFB distribution people are nevertheless well aware of the writing on the wall, and have finally begun to make some headway in the television market. Director of distribution Bill Litwak talked enthusiastically about Vidéotron, “the most interesting of the on-going experimental distribution projects.” Vidéotron is a Montreal-based, ondemand video service with approximately 30 channels at the present moment. The Vidéotron library holds about 600 NFB titles. Subscribers phone in and ask to see any given film which appears in the catalogue at a certain time. They are in turn told to switch on to a selected channel at a prescribed time. According to Litwak, NFB films are proving to be extremely popular. As we move into the era of TV “nar rowcasting” with increased channel capacity on the vertical as well as horizontal bands, it will be possible to have more and more special channels devoted to certain subjects. Naturally there was great optimism that the CBC-2 and Télé-2 channels, originally scheduled for Fall 1982, would have been potentially significant for the exposure of NFB and other Canadian ae Theoretically, the CBC would have had the support of the government and the CRTC to tap those presently underexposed and fallow cultural resources. And a userpay service could have conceivably generated considerable revenues — which in turn could have been implemented to commission work from independent Canadian producers. Litwak still envisions the second networks — when and if they are approved — as scheduling regular series of NFB films each week, programmed around specific themes, At this point, he sees CBC-2 and Télé-2 as much more realistic ways of getting NFB and Canadian films to the public than pay-TV. Canada is presently the most ‘cableized’ country in the world, and as such, the NFB knows that it is in its best interest to explore this potential market. According to Litwak, cable TV is now utilizing NFB films on an ad hoc basis, primarily as filler material. But he would like to see NFB films on cable ina much more concerted fashion. One of the things distribution is looking into for the next fiscal year is to select an area of the country for a pilot study, and with the cooperation of a cable company in that area, to start programming NFB films on a regular basis. A lot more money will be invested in promoting this project because one of the factors restricting the viewing of cable is adequate prior information of what's to be televised, and the fact that the competing major networks put a lot of money behind promotion. Built into~ this pilot study would be a feedback -mechanism to identify the viewers and measure the impact of the films. Says Sandra Gathercole: “The fundamental problem in this country is that we have a very sophisticated distribu William Litwack tion capacity to carry imported images of another country. We do not have now, and have never had, the capacity toproduce and distribute the kind of product that speaks to ourselves. We have managed to sit with the NFB, one of the greatest film resources in the world, and not use it. The fact that 1% of prime time of the national network is devoted to the national film agency is ridiculous. If we are serious about maintaining a presence in the North American media market that is coming at us, we just cannot afford not to use the resource which is the NFB.” Theatrical distribution If it’s a question of how to best utilize the NFB product, should the film purist cringe in horror as the deathknell is sounded for theatrical screenings of NFB films ? Are we to mutely accept that in future the NFB will discharge its mandate primarily through television ? “Personally I think a mechanism has to be found to create incentives for the distribution in Canadian cinemas of Canadian films,” says Bob Verrall. “Quotas and levies on the box office have been talked about for years. We appear to be the only country in the world that doesn’t consider we should be doing something like this. We watch hundreds of millions of dollars cross the border southward each year, and we go on pretending we can be an equal partner without some regulation which will create the necessary (Canadian) market.” Many lobby groups such as the Council of Canadian Film Makers, the Canadian Conference of the Arts, and past Secretaries of State, have put a lot of thought into how legislation in favour of Canadian films could be worked out. But somehow it never gets past the talk stage. Says Verrall: “We know there are people in provincial governments who are ready (to table legislation) but somehow it never gets looked at as a priority of the first reign. Whether the Applebaum-Hébert Commission (The Federal Cultural Policy Review Committee) will be the instrument remains to be seen.” Indeed the situation for Canadian film is as adverse today as it has always been, with the distribution system totally dominated by the Americans. But as Jacques Bobet predicts, “When you try to reverse patterns of cultural domination (through government legislation), it translates very quickly into money, and then you will see the resistence you are met with.” Bill Litwak notes that this type of cultural legislation would not be final because it comes under provincial rather than federal jurisdiction. “So if this legislation for creating incentive measures does happen, it would happen ina few provinces but not necessarily across the country. It is by no means an easy area, but we have been trying to increase an awareness of the problem.” The theatrical distribution issue is at best thorny and sensitive. But let us not deceive ourselves. The Canadian product, even if it was given the extra push it needs to make the commercial screen