– Coalition seeks changes to CTCPF

The Directors Guild of Canada, actra, the Canadian Conference on the Arts, Societe des Auteurs, Recherchistes, Documentalistes et Compositeurs and the Writers Guild of Canada have urged Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps to reverse a Canada Television and Cable Production Fund board decision dropping the ‘identifiably Canadian’ content requirements for tv mows and feature films.

In a Nov. 19 letter to Copps, the dgc and its partners say the deleted content requirements should be applied to ctcpf-funded tv movies and to projects applying to Telefilm Canada’s $15 million Feature Film Fund.

The coalition says a growing volume of mows and features tailored to the u.s. audience are already produced in Canada, adding these productions benefit from a 25% exchange rate and the 12% federal Film and Video Production Tax Credit.

The coalition wants Copps to appoint three new writer/actor/director representatives to the ctcpf board. They say broadcasters have six representatives on the board, cable has three, producers have three and distributors have one, but their combined 20,000 members have been shut out.

-Sluga named at SOCAN

Ann Marie Sluga has been named director of communications and marketing for the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.