Montreal: Rules created to safeguard French-language film and television production in Quebec should be changed if the industry is to grow and build exports, says one of the province’s busiest producers, Aimee Danis, president of Verseau International.

‘We have to open up. Rules that were made to protect us probably will have to be changed so we can also project ourselves to the outside world,’ says Danis, whose 20-year-old company remains at the forefront of Canadian coproduction.

Again this summer, Verseau chalked up more than $6 million in coproduction activity with French partners, producing Amoroso, a Robert Favreau tv movie twinned with the Son et Lumieres telefilm Noces rouges, and Mon amie Max, a $3.5 million feature film starring Genevieve Bujold.

Directed by Michel Brault, Mon amie Max was coproduced in France by Productions Lazennec and is being sold internationally by Cinepix. Danis is hopeful the film will be showcased at the Berlin Film Festival in February.

Despite a shrinking domestic tv market, Danis says broadcaster interest in international coproduction remains sparse.

‘My concern, of course, is that the market here is very small. I’m offered so many coproductions, but the broadcasters here will never go into a coproduction if they can do without. They’ll say, `Sure, that’s interesting, but could you do it without the coproducer.’ ‘

And with even bigger cutbacks at Radio-Canada and Telefilm Canada next year and beyond, Danis says the outlook for many independent producers is grim.

She says making headway in the export market means coproducing and selling medium and bigger-budget drama and broadcasters should reconsider the coproduction route. Says Danis: ‘For almost the same price, broadcasters get two productions instead of one.’

She also maintains that wide scale interest in French feature films suggests French programs will work on Quebec television, and points to the performance of the French miniseries La Revolution francaise. Despite limited promotion, and an initial audience of 200,000 when it went to air last summer on Radio-Canada, the series ultimately drew 800,000 by the end of its run.

The major hurdle in French-track coproductions between Quebec and France, says Danis, is dialect. Still, she says, the best approach is to produce for the home market in an intelligent way, discarding the use of joual (Quebecosi dialect) and strictly local expressions and words.

This was the approach taken on Amoroso, the story of a young Quebec woman whose new husband, a French violinist, has a terrible car accident then lapses into an unending coma. It will be broadcast on Radio-Quebec, Radio-Canada and the hard-to-access France 2 network.

‘I don’t think anybody who sees our film (Amoroso) will say it was produced for the French,’ says Danis.

As past president of l’Association des producteurs de films et de television du Quebec, the Quebec producers association, Danis says government should change the rules so producers can plan over a longer period, not only on a year-to-year basis.

Because projects can only be greenlighted in the year they’re produced, those that are otherwise ready in the fall are not evaluated for production until the new year, in April. And that, she says, effectively pushes their start-up dates back to the fall.

‘The okays are given in the end of July, August. Everything is shot in the fall. It just doesn’t make sense. We have to shoot in the summer.

‘There’s less money than there was and it’s more expensive to do films for television. The (Quebec tv) market is narrow and it’s getting narrower.

‘Telefilm has decided to do more expensive shows. It’s a very reasonable approach. I’m not saying it’s the approach I would take, but you do have to decide at one point where you’re going,’ says Danis.

In addition to Mon amie Max and Amoroso, Verseau is also producing Zap, a new Radio-Quebec series on the trials of high school dropouts and their parents. Psychologists were consulted on the production, which Danis describes as rough-edged and far from didactic.

This month, in association with Producteurs TV-Films Associes, Verseau will produce the $1 million telefilm Embrasse moi c’est pour la vie. Written by Jean-Guy Noel, who will also direct, the film is a comedy with a musical setting.

Projects in development at Verseau include a feature film called Garden of Eden, to be coproduced with Mexico; a low-budget feature called Tucson or Bust from writer Jacqueline Levitin; a feature film comedy from Montreal director Paul Verdy, written by Brian Hart; a new Robert Favreau (Portion d’eternite) feature; and a French-language television series.

In addition, Danis was in Toronto recently for talks with Atlantis Films, Verseau’s coproduction partner on Cat’s Eye, based on the Margaret Atwood best-selling novel. Montreal writer/director Peter Pearson (Bananas from Sunny Quebec) and Atwood have worked on the screenplay and Pearson is slated to direct. The film will be shot in Toronto and posted in Montreal, with key craft positions assigned to Quebecers.

Of the projects currently on tap, Danis is particularly keen on Tucson or Bust, a road movie about three older women who leave Montreal for Tucson, Arizona and the adventure of their lives.

Verseau partners are Danis and Lyse Lafontaine, coproducers on Jean Claude Lauzon’s Leolo, and Roger Forget, a Quebec businessman. General manager and executive producer is Claudette Viau; Daniele Bussy is a producer with the company.