Controversial documentary series

financed entirely by presales

Montreal: Filmmakers with hard-to-finance projects, juggling controversial subject matter with the limited potential of the Canadian marketplace, might consider the strategy adopted by DLI Productions and veteran Quebec exporter Jan Rofekamp for their three-hour documentary series, For God, Country and Coca-Cola.

Production began Sept. 1 on the $1.4 million doc series, a look at Coke’s symbolic role in the harmonization of global cultures. Based on Mark Pendergrast’s book of the same name, the series is scripted by Pendergrast and Irene Angelico, who’s directing.

According to the filmmakers, the marketing acumen behind Coke, not to mention its nutritional value, is really the story of America’s self-awareness, fueled by the ‘self-righteous promotion of sugary rhetoric and ideals, which do not always live up to their image.’

Rofekamp, Films Transit president and associate producer of the series, says the program is being financed entirely by presales. After many unheralded years of flogging Canadian documentary, tv movie and feature film fare around the world, notably to Channel 4 in the u.k., Rofekamp says he was able to convince the Brits to commit to a third of the production’s budget.

‘We are not just selling completed programs, we’re using our contacts with people we’ve sold over the years to finance new production,’ he says.

cbc has invested in the program’s development, while negotiations are underway with Arts & Entertainment in the u.s and France’s Canal Plus.

dli president Abbey Neidik is producing. The delivery date is May 15, 1996.

A 100th celebration

Ninety-nine years ago, the Lumiere brothers invented something called the ‘cinematographe,’ a scientific invention which profoundly marked the art and commerce of the 20th century.

To celebrate cinema’s centennial, Cinematheque Canada, along with the Conservatory of Cinematographic Art of Montreal and the Canadian Film Institute, has undertaken the enormous task of putting together a list of the best 100 films of all time.

The organizers are asking professionals in the film industry, journalists, university professors and the film-going public to help in this daunting endeavor.

The Top 100 list will be tabulated and published by year’s end, says Serge Losique, Cinematheque president. The films will then be showcased in 1995 in a series of public screenings across the country.

Film professionals and the public alike are invited to send their lists to Maggie Letucca at the Conservatory of Cinematographic Art in Montreal, or to Tom McSorley at the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa.

Going Bananas

It’s a wrap for principal photography on Anna Banana, an eye-opening new kiddies’ sitcom from executive producer Claude Godbout and Productions Prisma.

Shot in Ultimatte videotape compositing technology, the $3 million majority Canadian series is coproduced with g.u.m. of Cologne, Germany, and uses life-like puppets and a mix of computer animation and real and 3D sets and props.

The star, Anna, replete with yellow ribbons and pigtails, freckles and the energy to wear down an army, sounds like a great role model for the new age. Described by her creators as ‘sneakier than Dennis the Menace, and smarter than Doctor Doogie, Anna is a spunky, lovable but exasperating six-year-oldÉas cute as a button but as horrible as she is adorable.’

Cast includes Mom, little brother Dweezle, best friend Muffin, grade one teacher Miz Mizerie, and arch enemy Ordoe, known in the French-track version as the detestable Eustache, ‘La tache.’

Shot at Prisma’s stv studio in Montreal, the series was conceived and scripted by Paul Risacher. Peter Svatek is director/creative consultant and Richard Angers and Helene Girard directed. The puppets are the creation of German artist Ute Krafft. Christine Troie is production co-ordinator. Executive producers are Godbout, Joanne Forgues and g.u.m.’s Stefan Lichter. Judith Hasselmann is creative supervisor.

The slick post job on the series is compliments of Postproductions Buzz and Les Animations Drouin, both of Montreal.

Produced in association with Canal Famille and Family Channel (Canada), with the participation of Telefilm Canada, 26 half-hours of Anna Banana are ready for mipcom and are being distributed worldwide by The Multimedia Group of Canada.

Prisma’s 1994 slate is worth about $8 million and includes 65 new 15-minute episodes of Pacha et les Chats iv (Kitty Cats), 100 half-hours of Les Zigotes, a new Canal Famille children’s variety show coproduced with Jacques Blain of Modus tv, and 39 half-hours of a new bartered car show called Automag Plus, produced for Tele-Metropole and syndicated nationally to Baton Broadcasting, cfcf-tv Montreal, cfto-tv Toronto, cjch-tv Halifax and others through Jacques Bouchard’s Multimedia Group.

Bravo! Bravo!

Cheers to the ties that bind and the good news from CHUM Ltd.’s new arts specialty channel Bravo!, which has signed a multi-film deal with Montreal’s Antenna, the distribution arm for producers Agent Orange and Cine Qua Non Films.

Bravo! program director Paul Gratton was in town for the Montreal International Film, TV and Video Market earlier this month, where he announced an acquisition and presale agreement for more than 25 films from the two companies.

Titles include Bernar Hebert’s critically acclaimed LaLaLa Human Steps dance expose, Le Petit musee de Velasquez, and a prebuy for the director’s next film, Le Songe du Collectionneur de gammes, a performance piece on Hungarian composer Bela Bartok featuring the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and artistic director/conductor Charles Dutoit.

Also on the program: three productions from Cine Qua Non producer Michel Ouellette, a visual arts collection on avant garde contemporary theater, and four new films adapted from the works of Canadian, American and European choreographers and composers.