Montreal: Director Jean-Claude Lord may have been feeling just slightly cursed by bad weather – unlike last summer – as he huddled with press and crew in a suburban Ile Perrot basement against torrents of rain.

There was no possibility of exteriors on this particular day, so the director, his cast and crew disappeared indoors, somewhere down the street, to press on with the filming of Lobby, a nine-hour Productions Sovimage tv dramatization of the world of professional lobbyists and their impact on political decision-makers.

Slated for broadcast on the TVA Network this fall, the series opens with an episode on the incendiary subject of Native women and conjugal violence. The storyline has the women left out of an new deal struck by the federal government and the male-dominated Indian Band Council.

The practices of other big-time pr spenders are also on the table – the pharmaceutical and medical industries, the genetic research and nuclear power industries, and powerful international business lobbies.

Lobby is being produced by Vincent Gabriele on a budget of $7.2 million and was scripted by Michelle Allen (Tandem, D’Amour et d’amitie, Graffiti) with the help of an impressive research team, Normand Lester, J.C. Le Floch and Pierre Nadeau.

The star of the series is Isabel Richer in the role of Alex, an impassioned, self-assured 30-something lawyer, professional lobbyist and mother of two.

Although she is tad young as a top-level government lobbyist, Alex has the benefit of a well-connected, political, bourgeois family – and a feminist determination to boot.

According to writer Allen, Richard’s character is constantly pushed to outperform her older male colleagues, which she does.

‘I think Isabel is one of the best actresses that I have ever directed,’ says Lord (Sirens, La Grenouille et la baleine). ‘I just sit there and take great pleasure watching her act. She’s not a superwoman.

Normand Fauteux plays Alex’s beleaguered husband, Yves Corbeil is her suave and impenetrable father, Diane Arcand plays her serene mother, Karina Aktouf is her very intuitive best friend, and Michel Forget plays a cynical mentor. Louise Portal, Rene Gagnon, Gaston Lepage, Annette Garant and James Bradford are also featured.

Lobby is being filmed with two 16mm shoulder-held cameras and many of the same crew members from Jasmine, the 1995/96 police series directed by Lord and produced Pierre Gendron and Lise Lafontaine.

Gabriele says he pitched Lobby to Tele-Metropole execs, who liked it so much they asked him not to pitch it elsewhere. After some early research, the producer says he knew he had a viable property in hand.

‘The minute you get involved in lobbying you have two forces facing each other,’ says Gabriele, who’s also producing the 13-hour Canal D historical crime anthology Des Crimes et des Hommes.

Gabriele says the broadcasters and funding agencies have only so much money available, and as a result, Lobby is nine hours instead of the traditional 13, a trend he says may well become the norm.

‘We were the first ones (in this market) to develop the notion of a miniseries with Les Grands proces. With six hours we allowed the broadcaster (tva) to cover the sweeps,’ he says. A second season for Lobby is in negotiations.

Selected craft credits go to delegate producer Andre Dupuy, pm Nicole Hilareguy, dop Yves Belanger (Jasmine), art director Louise Jobin, sound editor Viateur Paiement, picture editor Claude Palardy at Montage Metaphore and casting agent Lucie Robitaille.

Projects in development at Sovimage include Babylon, a four-hour police story based on a real-life rcmp sting operation of money launderers, and two docudramas for Radio-Canada, one on the Molson family legacy.

Sovimage is going international, with two documentary miniseries in development with French partners and talks in progress with hbo on a made-for-tv movie.

‘It’s in the normal development of a production company,’ Gabriele says. ‘We can’t remain uniquely in the domestic market.’

Sonolab is handling lab duties on Lobby while Supersuite has scored the post and transfer assignment.

The series is being shot over 70 days, mainly in Montreal and environs as well as Ottawa and Morocco.

Investors include Fonds des Cablodistributeurs, Fonds Maclean Hunter, Telefilm Canada, sodec, both tax credits, Dunkin’ Donuts and two still-to-be-named corporate sponsors. LRB