It’s bitterly cold, raining, and Montreal producer Paul Almond and FFC Completion Guarantees chairman Michael Spencer are bundled in five layers of clothing, trekking through the bushes in Bonaventure Bay. Almond makes a quick survey of some seagulls on the water and is ready to move on. But not Spencer.

‘He stopped, surveyed every last one of them and finally shouted, ‘There it is!,’ recounts Almond, who often makes his bonding deals with Spencer on these annual birding adventures. ‘He’d spotted an Iceland Gull, a unique citing at that time of year.

‘And when Michael is looking for a rare bird he will stop at nothing to find it!’

That same passion, persistence, and keen eye that marks Spencer’s bird-watching has also characterized his 57-year commitment to indigenous film and television production ­ from his first job in 1940 shooting docs for Ottawa’s Crawley Films, as one of the four original members of the Canadian Army’s film and photo unit, through his rise up the nfb ranks, to his instrumental role in creating Canada’s first federally funded agency for independent filmmaking.

At 77, Spencer’s passion for and contribution to the industry is as strong as ever. Just as he’s still tramping through the woods looking for new birds, Spencer d’esn’t run his Montreal office from behind a desk but insists on checking out all the production sets he’s bonding. And, jokes ffc president John Ross, Spencer always takes his binoculars along to get some bird-watching in.

Montreal director Pieter Kroonenburg, who has bonded many of his films with Spencer, also likens his bird-watching skills to his ability to size up producers in a second.

‘Michael has a really good instinct for people,’ Kroonenberg says. ‘He deals with things on a gut level rather than looking at all the reports. And when you’re under the scrutiny of his piercing blue eyes you tell him what the real deal is.’

But Spencer’s greatest legacy to the film industry is his eight-year effort to create the Canadian Film Development Corporation, which he helmed as executive director from its startup in 1968 through the difficult growing pangs of its first decade.

Spencer says his vision of the funding agency was formed in the late ’50s. As the nfb liaison between government departments and the producers, he took an active interest in a heightening conflict between Quebec filmmakers, pushing government film commissioner Guy Roberge to let them produce features through the nfb, and the anglo-dominated nfb brass, which wanted to continue making docs in the style of John Grierson with an eye to producing for the cbc.

‘Everyone thought the only way features could be produced was through the nfb,’ recalls Spencer, who was slowly forming the idea of a separate agency free from the nfb’s strict mandate to interpret Canada to Canadians which could be a vehicle for spawning an entertainment-oriented film industry.

‘I was convinced Canada could create a commercially viable feature film industry,’ explains Spencer, ‘and that meant making and distributing films, getting the money back and putting it into more films.’

Transferred to Montreal in 1960 as the nfb’s director of planning, Spencer set to work to make this vision a reality and, when looking back on Spencer’s daunting quest, the people who followed his struggles during those initial years once again say the same traits which make him such a dedicated birder are the qualities that have shaped his work.

‘He has a lot of patience, he listens,’ says Carole Langlois, who opened the doors of the first cfdc office with Spencer as his special assistant.

Spencer spent six years of intensive, painstaking research to create the agency legislation, recalls Langlois. He read up on all aspects of the international feature industries, made contacts with foreign funding agencies, discussed proposals with producers and government officials, and drew up the nuts-and-bolts legislation which would become the Canadian Film Development Corporation Act.

‘It’s that good eye and stick-to-it nature,’ says Almond, whose Universal Pictures feature Act of the Heart starring Donald Sutherland was the first film the cfdc invested in. ‘He’s an incredible detail man.’

Spencer and Roberge were also kept busy pushing and prodding federal government officials to convince them of the validity of their scheme. ‘Michael was persistent,’ recalls Telefilm Canada executive director Francois Macerola, who started at the nfb in the late ’60s.

The entire filmmaking community backed Spencer’s effort because they sensed his genuine love of filmmaking was melded with a striking pragmatism, says producer Ralph Ellis, who was working in the nfb distribution department at the time.

‘Michael felt the wave of the future was to take as many filmmakers as possible, support their projects, and provide an opportunity for people with good ideas and Canadian stories to express themselves,’ he says. ‘But he also understood that to create a film industry in Canada you had to develop these projects at budgets that were realistic. He knew that in features every film would not be a huge success, but if you turned out a lot of them, chances are exponential, and sooner or later some of them would click.’

But the federal Cabinet was uneasy about the prospects of the scheme. Spencer recalls that he planned the first official cfdc meeting for April 1, 1968, but was told by a deputy minister not to tempt fate and stall the meeting until April Fool’s Day had passed.

But the agency turned out to be far from folly, and during Spencer’s 10-year stint at the helm of the fledgling agency the cfdc invested in more than 200 features, including such successes as Claude Fournier’s Deux Femmes en or and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. The young filmmakers who waited hungrily at the early funding trough recall that Spencer offered support in more ways than just by signing cheques.

‘The cfdc wasn’t some impersonal government agency handing out dollars,’ says Ellis. ‘Michael was a hands-on kind of person. Everyone knew him by his first name, he knew everyone in the filmmaking community, he was supportive, and having been a producer himself he understood the problems involved in making a film.’

Macerola says Spencer was never in his office; he was always meeting with producers at their workplace and made a point of visiting every single production house and distribution office in the country.

But sometimes Spencer was a bit too zealous with his encouraging words, particularly with the filmmakers whom he rejected for funding, laughs Langlois. She says they received numerous calls from producers who had misinterpreted Spencer’s no as a yes because he had been so kind-hearted and supportive while refusing them money.

In its first five years, the cfdc spent the initial $10 million allotment with returns under the $1 million mark and, in hindsight, Spencer laughs at the lofty goals he set out with. ‘We told the government all that was required of them was some money for loans,’ he explains. ‘We even said that we didn’t expect to ask for any more, we were going to assist in the creation of a self-supporting industry.’

With an eye to the burgeoning television scene in the early 1970s and recognizing that the cfdc couldn’t survive on features alone, Spencer asked the government to amend the Canadian Film Development Corporation Act to allow for the support of tv production, paving the way for the Canadian Broadcast Program Development Fund which was formed after his retirement from the agency in 1978.

As to the cfdc’s failure to create a commercially viable feature film industry without the support of tv windows, Spencer says the story might have been different had he, along with his colleagues, been able to persuade Cabinet to adopt quotas designating theater time for Canadian pictures, a regulation they pushed for at the time of the cfdc legislation but were unable to accomplish because of the strong American lobby.

‘Starting in the 1920s, every country in the world started to protect their film industryŠyou can’t get a new industry off the ground without some kind of protection,’ says Spencer.

‘The past has proven it,’ he says, crediting early Cancon regulations for television as kick-starting today’s booming industry.

But with the international feature industry now losing hold over its theaters to American domination, Spencer speculates a worldwide effort to protect indigenous feature filmmaking may be in sight.

And he remains a staunch supporter of cultural protections, especially as international pressures continue to erode these safeguards. ‘People say the cultural industries are smart, they’re clever, they will keep on making Canadian product without protection, and that’s nonsense,’ says Spencer with the same passion and conviction that’s been a trademark throughout his career.

‘We have to keep fighting for our cultural industries. Without them we don’t talk to our own people, don’t tell our own stories, and if our cultural industries disappear, a whole lot of Canadian identity g’es with them.’

Telefilm must continue to evolve to meet these challenges and the twists and turns the industry faces, he adds. And he hasn’t lost faith in that early vision of a completely self-supporting feature industry, musing that maybe one day Telefilm will be less vital for filmmakers trying to get their features to the big screen.

Spencer’s persistence has also shown itself in his own career path. Retiring from the cfdc in 1978 but unwilling to leave the industry he loves so well, Spencer has remained an active voice ­ consulting for the federal government, including its cultural policy review committee, and Telefilm and working in the film bonding business.

He’s also keeping his sharp eyes on the film and tv community as honorary member of the cftpa, actra and the apftq (Quebec’s producers association), as well as a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Genie rules and regulations committee and its Quebec conseil d’administration.

This long-standing commitment has been applauded over the years with an outpouring of accolades, most recently the Jack Chisholm Award For Lifetime Achievement at this month’s Banff Television Festival, as well as the Order of Canada, the Air Canada Award and a lifetime achievement honor from the cftpa.

And just as there are still new bird species to scout, Spencer says his work in the production industry is far from done. ‘I’m still reading scripts, going on setŠkeeping an eye on things.’

They say:

-‘The nfb is John Grierson and Telefilm Canada is Michael Spencer. Spencer is one of the people who have been instrumental in the definition of Canadian culture and the establishment of its cultural institutions. He is someone with a vision who has shared that vision, someone who has credibility and is respected by every single player in the industry.

‘Over the past 30 years Telefilm Canada has invested more than $1 billion in 600 feature films and 1,450 tv programs totaling 7,500 hours of tv production. The corporation has supported the work of 1,200 producers, 1,000 directors, administers coproduction agreements with 44 countries, and the Canadian export value, including service production, totals $1.4 billion. And there’s only one person we must thank and it’s Michael Spencer.’ ­ Francois Macerola, executive director, Telefilm Canada

-‘What’s inspiring about Michael is that he keeps going, he never gets rattled, never gets fussed over things. He has seen so many people come and go, rise and fall that he rides the waves beautifully like some great ocean liner. He d’esn’t let things set him off course. Frightened people tend to blow back and forth with the wind, but Michael sets his course and sticks to it.’ ­ Paul Almond, producer, Quest Films, Montreal

-‘The entertainment business is such that to have longevity really says something. The fact that Michael has not only survived the business but has been successful for so many years is a statement to his talent and integrity. He is one of the pioneers of the modern era of filmmaking in Canada.’ ­ Jon Slan, chairman and ceo, Paragon Entertainment

-‘Michael is a giant in our industry, he has helped grow its filmmakers. I think there are an awful lot of producers today who got their start making low-budget films with his help and have gone on to become names in the business.’ ­ Ralph Ellis, Ellis Enterprises

-‘Michael genuinely loves film. He’ll go to a bad film just because he likes going to films. He likes all the people in the film business, and it sure rubs off.

‘Consistency has been Michael’s greatest contribution to the industry. He’s been a believer in Canadian filmmaking since it was a cottage industry. He has always been working for the industry, sharing his time, knowledge and interest for the industry, and has never given up his enthusiasm for what he thought could be its future.’ ­ John Ross, president of FFC Completions Guarantees