For those who don't know, I'm Canadian. Born, raised, love my home. I am also a filmmaker and screenwriter. And I have never really wanted to move to Hollywood to join the establishment and make movies. I might have a tiny thought about it when I was a teen, but those days are long past and frankly, I love my country and don't see why we can't have a film industry that works like other film industries such as Hollywood, Bollywood, the UK or any other civilized nation in the world that has it's own self sustaining film industry.
Now there may be things I don't know about, in fact I can guarantee there are things I don't know about. But my definition of a self sustaining industry is this; private investment in feature films, little to no government involvement, no restrictions on distribution in Canadian theaters or abroad, no restrictions on type of content created such as the government restrictions on providing funding only for films with "Canadian" content (and the definitions are vague at best, I have been asking for years what constitutes "Canadian" content, French language, stories about hockey, uh, I really don't know.).
Now this isn't to say that we haven't had some private investment into home made films, for example BON COP, BAD COP was made here with private investment money, and it received some limited release in Canadian theaters. There have been others as well, and the indie industry has produced a lot of horror from filmmakers such as BLACK FAWN FILMS out of Guelph, Ontario. But for the most part, our movie theaters are stuffed to overflowing with Hollywood movies, and more Hollywood movies. Nothing wrong with that. I like those movies and they are fun and entertaining. But don't know if you have noticed, there is a lot of Canadian grown talent in those movies and behind the scenes and many Hollywood films are filmed here (we give great tax cuts and rebates and rates to American owned film companies).
So, what's the deal? We have the talent, but we also have risk averse investors. Let's be honest, film is a risky business, but if other countries can do it, why can't we?
We need something like Seed & Spark here in Canada (they only accept US based filmmakers, at least so far and why not, they don't owe anyone else anything).
We have crowdfunding, but getting funding to film is not the only issue. You need the money for advertising and a distribution contract from a major theater chain (or find every single indie movie theater in the country or just rent theater space and show the movie yourself, but again, money). You need big name stars (lets be honest, if you want to compete you need the names, and perhaps some of those very successful CANADIAN Hollywood stars would be supportive of their own country, so long as you pay them), killer scripts, fantastic production values. All of this is possible, isn't it? And if not, why not?
So, here's my dream...
I want to run my own little indie film studio, make movies on any topic in any way I like for an audience of my choosing, I want my movies and the movies of every other wannabe Canadian filmmaker to be shown nation wide (it's achievable for one screen to support Canadian content, right? Other countries protect their filmmakers, we should too), I want our industry to start and grow and eventually be self sustaining.
Nothing against Hollywood, but there is no reason we can't do this.
So, who's with me?
Viva la revolution?!
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