INSIDE

– Perspective: Channel 4 Begins p. 1

– Hanley documents the festival p. 27

– There’s more than just barbeque on the spit: Pat Ferns gets roasted p. 32

– Canadian Rockie nominees: who from home is going up against the international heavyweights p. 34

– Stand up for the Comedy Cabaret p. 40

In an eye-crossing, jet lag-inducing calendar of international events which includes endless cycles of acronyms and enough festivals to choke an elk, Banff is a relative oasis of calm. The TV people have time to screen TV shows for a change, and the shop talk includes issues beyond ratings and rights. Television, often dismissed by the critics as hackneyed and asinine, gets treated to ‘artsy’ dialogue too often reserved for film.

It might be the venue ­ huge snow-topped rocks and the big sky can’t hurt ­ but there’s something about Banff which lets fresh air into debates on tough subjects. In last year’s Two in a Room, Channel 4 and the CBC took an earnest look at an alternative doc proposal called Planet Queer before the CBC blinked first.

As the uniquely coprod-fertile festival broadens to cover more of the world more of the year, Banff’s tradition of friendly irreverence and casual squeaky-clean Canadian-ness will be its best defence against any global growing pains which might challenge its collaborative consciousness. It’ll still be a beautiful place to make a deal.

* * *

‘You look at him and you say to yourself, ‘This is a harmless man.’ And you make a mistake.’

Ask someone about the Banff Television Festival’s president and ceo Pat Ferns, anyone. Chances are you’ll be bombarded with synonyms for benevolent.

‘He’s a kind man, a generous man,’ says longtime friend of Banff Laurier LaPierre, president of Frog/Grenouille Productions. ‘He’s a marvelously helpful and friendly man,’ adds Richard Price, chairman of Primetime in Britain.

But even the most cursory glance at a list of Ferns’ achievements leaves you with a very clear impression ­ this man is effective. Ask about that, and you’ll get the good stuff.

‘He’s sharp, he’s keen, and he knows how to bamboozle, threaten and cajole. All tremendous skills for what he d’es now, and invaluable as a producer,’ says LaPierre. ‘He’s severe as hell.’

The marriage between Banff and Ferns is acclaimed by anyone who’s seen it in action. While this is his first fest with the title of president and ceo, Ferns and the festival go way back. He was its chairman for five years, and he’s since been named honorary director for life.

‘It’s nice,’ says Price. ‘He’s been giving Banff 110% for years, at least now he’s getting paid for it.’

But the reason Ferns and Banff have become so closely tied has as much to do with his unique career as it d’es with time punched in. It seems only fitting that a man with a label like ‘the father of Canadian independent production’ be the ambassador for a Canadian initiative which celebrates international television that’s far beyond the banal.

Born in Winnipeg in 1945, Ferns was educated in England, picking up a degree in economics from Cambridge and a Master’s degree in social sciences from Birmingham University. His love affair with television and production began in 1968.

Ferns started at the cbc, and moved through the ranks like a speed demon. He was director of research on The Public Eye, then a producer for CBC Weekend, then a senior producer on CBC Midweek. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, in the meantime he produced, directed and wrote a number of network programs.

‘He’s an amazingly energetic guy,’ says Patrick Dromgoole, chairman of Patrick Dromgoole Productions in the u.k. ‘I hugely admire that because I’m big and idle myself and I hate to do anything.’

Ferns and Richard Nielsen left the cbc in 1972 to form one of the earlier Canadian independent prodcos. Nielsen-Ferns Limited was associated with Intervideo, a Montreal-based facilities outfit. In 1976, Torstar bought up the company, and eventually the name was changed to Nielsen-Ferns International.

The company’s credit list was and is impressive. Over eight years, the pair produced series like A Third Testament with Malcolm Muggeridge, a coproduction with John McGreevy called Cities, and Newcomers/Les Arrivants, a project with Gordon Hinch which was sponsored by Imperial Oil and lauded at the time as the most ambitious Canadian drama project to date. Ferns himself was the executive producer on Portraits of Power with the New York Times, and two series featuring naturalist Gerald Durrell, The Stationary Ark and Ark on the Move.

During the 1970s, Ferns began to earn his ‘father’ title. The push was on to build a genuine independent production sector in Canada, and the effort was led by Ferns in his Canadian Film and Television Association persona. He lobbied for the creation of an independent production division within the cbc, and it happened. He argued before the crtc for Telefilm Canada’s Broadcast Fund, and it happened. He believed that awards would raise the profile of Canadian television, and eventually the Gemini Awards were created and the Academy of Canadian Cinema became the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. The word ‘potent’ springs to mind.

‘He’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met in my life,’ and keep in mind this comes from ctv’s Arthur Weinthal, no slacker himself.

The 1980s were the years of Primedia, the next Nielsen/Ferns alliance after both left Nielsen-Ferns in 1981. Ferns took over Primedia in 1985 when Nielsen left to pursue a writing career, and then promptly sold a minority interest to Primetime plc, becoming an affiliate of Primetime/ RPTA Group.

‘He was always putting all the money he made back into production,’ says Primetime’s Price. ‘The production was the focal point, and if he didn’t make any major cash but he made a good production, he was happy. And he made first-class projects.’

Dromgoole, who collaborated with Ferns on a three-way coproduction called Frontier, admits the programming was top-notch, but not very lucrative. ‘We had about 20 other foreign sales involved by the time we put it all together, and we realized by the time we started it that there wasn’t a cent of profit in it for any of us. It’s the usual gag. You start with the idea of having some surplus, but once you get moving you’ll do anything to keep it rolling. You end up selling every right that exists just to get it made.’

Some of Canada’s most memorable television was born of Primedia. On the drama side there’s Billy Bishop G’es to War, Glory Enough for All (with Gemstone Productions), Northwood, Passion and Paradise and Countdown to Looking Glass. Arts programs included The Merry Widow, Alice, La Boheme and Prizewinners.

Primedia continued an association with Gerald and Lee Durrell with four more series, and Ferns was executive producer on The Life Revolution, Brain Sex, Dinosaur! (with Walter Cronkite), Blood and Belonging and Anatomy of Love.

‘Pat was one of the first producers who didn’t sell programs outside Canada but went around the world and picked up bits and pieces of money through coproductions,’ say Weinthal. ‘And he did it in a program category ­ arts and information ­ which isn’t necessarily easy, rather than The Country Music Awards or something. His projects had social and political significance, they were thoughtful and thought-provoking.’

Again, the Primedia years also included much advocacy on Ferns’ part. He founded the Association of Canadian Film and Television Producers and was its first co-president in 1984. For five years he was chairman of Banff. In the meantime, Ferns forged a cooperative venture with DLT Entertainment and Don Taffner called Comedia, and in its first two years created 150 hours of programming.

Primedia forged partnerships with Annette Cohen (hence Primedia Pictures), Claude Heroux (hence Primedia/Heroux Productions) and Nick Orchard (hence Soapbox Productions). In 1991, a distribution arm was added in the form of Primedia Releasing. In 1994, P.S. Production Services bought out Primedia, and Ferns joined the Banff staff in 1995.

What Ferns brought to Banff was an authentic appreciation for good television, the enormously successful market simulation, and a huge, huge Rolodex.

‘He’s good at detail,’ says Price, ‘and where the market simulation is concerned, because he has this huge, wide range of contacts and has produced just about everything, he’s got the knowledge to guide it better than anyone I know.’

‘He knows everybody!’ says LaPierre. ‘Not only because he’s brilliant and magnificent and charming as hell, but because he’s lived so long. He’s been several times around the block.’

And now, as he embarks on yet another festival, an exercise Ferns himself describes as ‘danger in another form,’ his friends and colleagues impart some advice.

‘Although he might go on with Banff until he kicks the bucket, I hope he d’esn’t overwork himself,’ says Price. ‘He should perhaps learn from an old fogey like me and turn off occasionally.’

‘He’s very sensible, but he g’es flat out,’ says Weinthal, ‘and that g’es for eating and drinking and working. He wakes up every morning and runs until he drops. He might get tired.’

‘He has a marvelous wife who puts up with him and only God knows why,’ says LaPierre. ‘He should hang on to her.’

Mr. Ferns, taking a brief hiatus from his favorite seat on Air Canada, will be front-and-center at Banff, giving broadcasters the business all over the mountains and in the market simulation. He’s less worried about burning bridges these days.

‘I can be a little rougher with them now, it’s nice. But that’s just because I’m not actually selling them anything of mine anymoreŠ.’