The dwindling amount of federal money making it west of the Rockies is beginning to spark a renegade culture in indigenous cinema here.

Call it Grunge Film, the cinematic counterpart to Seattle’s notable music scene. In the vanguard, you’ll find young filmmakers who skip the governmental process, slap a few bucks together, rally a small horde of willing volunteers and shoot movies: no Cancon, no rebates, no presales, no distributor, no guarantees.

It’s a situation borne more out of necessity than desire, the grunge auteurs say, but they comprise the only growth segment of b.c.’s indigenous production sector.

Led the trend

Vancouver producer Stephen Benoit led off the non-government trend a couple of years ago with the production of For a Few Lousy Dollars. Gavin Wilding at Rampage Entertainment makes straight-to-video movies like The Lottery and Listen ­ replete with naked females ­ without the help of federal Finance Minister Paul Martin or Heritage Minister Sheila Copps. And Lynne Stopkewich’s necrophilia feature Kissed, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival to rich reviews, was already cut and locked before government anted up cold hard cash.

The 30-year-old producers at Kissmouth, cut from the same risk-taking cloth, are others who have taken the ‘shut up and make the movie’ lesson to heart.

The romantic comedy about women told by men was shot on 16mm in Vancouver this summer for $100,000, while the producers still have to raise post-production financing that will boost the overall budget to $500,000.

The application process for government funding was too onerous and time consuming and the outside influence too stifling creatively, explains producer Andrew Graham. So, through Kissmouth’s German executive producer and star Mathias Kahle, the film sought and got the funding from private German sources. Equipment was borrowed or donated, people worked on deferral or for free (sparking the inevitable debate from the established industry about job standards and such) and the music was sourced through Vancouver bands and a first-time soundtrack composer.

‘I’m a new filmmaker,’ Graham says, ‘and I realize government is a huge barricade. Discouraging even.’ The burgeoning underground movement is characterized by experimental and controversial work, he observes.

In raising the rest of the money, the producers are going to distributors who will be offered the entire world, saving Germany, Austria and Switzerland, says Graham. ‘When we’re this low-budget and unknown, no distributor is going to give us a bigger piece of the pie. We’re being realistic.’

Graham adds: ‘Luck and timing are 90% of the game. Your story is current, or you’re riding on the heels of a trend. We wanted to do it now.’ From the first draft of the Kissmouth script to the last day of principal photography was eight months. The film is destined for the Berlin Film Festival next February.

In the field of television, Vancouver-based Badry Moujais creates and produces Metro Cafe, an entertainment-oriented, weekly half-hour on wtn that shoots in Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York and London, Eng. The three seasons in the can were 50% financed by the broadcaster and 50% by Vancouver-based BTV Productions and Stay Tuned Communications, he says.

Going into his fourth season, Moujais has Toronto’s Catalyst Distribution on side to sell the world rights and will take the show to mipcom next month.

D’esn’t fit guidelines

The concept of Metro Cafe, which is only seen thus far in Canada, d’es not fit the funding agencies’ guidelines, says Moujais. ‘Government is limiting [to] the variety of independent Canadian programming,’ he says. ‘It’s a little on the archaic side.’

Metro Cafe has a peak viewership of 225,000 people per week in the regular season.

Moujais is competing for sponsorship and contra deals to push his $500,000 budget for the coming 26-episode season. Even still, he is not operating in the black, and he feels more at risk than he would if the government backed him. And he is also critical of Canadian broadcasters who, he says, ‘fill their quotas (of Canadian content) and that’s it. Why buy Metro Cafe when you can have Entertainment Tonight for a few hundred a night? [ed. note: really small market cost]’

The reality d’es not change for more established filmmakers. Colleen Nystedt, president of locally based New City Productions, developed and produced Kathryn ­ a Vancouver murder story ­ without a cent of government money. However, viewers of the cbs mow set for airing this fall will not know it’s a Canadian story, a concession made to secure the American partners.

cbs anted up 85% of the budget, while the foreign distributor put up the balance. Under the old Capital Cost Allowance, Nystedt adds, she could have handled the deficit financing herself.

‘It makes me very sad, frustrated,’ Nystedt says, reflecting on the government hassles that block the production of Canadian stories. ‘When you’re selling projects into the u.s. or international marketplace, it is difficult to meet the government regulations of, for example, cavco or the new rebate.’

If American partners feel boxed in by a Canadian deal, they resist it creatively and reduce their licence fees based on what the expected government subsidy is, she says. ‘There is no real incentive to do them (productions) Canadian.’

Nystedt adds: ‘Western companies are seriously hindered (in the government financing game). We have no choice. We have to be more aggressive and inventive.’

Matthew O’Connor of Vancouver’s Pacific Motion Picture says, ‘There is no question that the figures show that b.c. is getting way less than its share of government money. That’s not going to change. Eastern companies have a lock on the government money.’

Little to B.C.

British Columbia Motion Picture Association analysis of, for example, Telefilm Canada, shows that less than 1% of the agency’s funding has been allocated to b.c. companies in the last five years and that tax dollars from b.c. residents (who account for 12% of the nation’s population) are supporting production in other provinces.

O’Connor says the situation is forcing b.c. filmmakers to consider market-driven projects, which will result in less distinctly Canadian product from b.c. ‘That will likely add fuel to the fire that b.c. generates American product,’ he says.

pmp, which has staked its reputation on its service work, is more actively involved in the productions including having creative control and financial participation. But the company’s indigenous work has required the consideration of deficit financing from private sources, tax shelter programs, equity partners, guarantees and broadcast licences outside of Canada.