‘We take on projects most people wouldn’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole,’ says Vancouver director Nettie Wild of her latest documentary A Place Called Chiapas, which took three and a half years to complete.

Wild produced the $891,000 film through Canada Wild Productions, a partnership between herself, cinematographer Kirk Tougas and production manager Betsy Carson. The National Film Board took a 22% equity stake in the project and holds Canadian home video rights. Svend-Erik Eriksen produced for the nfb.

The film, which has its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, explores the 1994 revolution in Mexico led by guerrilla/poet Subcomandante Marcos and his group of Zapatista National Liberation Army rebels to protest the plight of the indigenous Maya people. In response, the government sent out 30,000 troops and right-wing death squads.

‘I was intrigued by the idea of an uprising led by a poet who used the Internet,’ explains Wild. His use of the Internet to publicize his cause has given rise to a pop culture following among the 18 to 25 Internet crowd around the world, she says.

To get the project off the ground, Wild’s first hurdle was convincing Canadian funding agencies and broadcasters to carry an $891,000 film on a foreign topic. Wild’s argument was that the uprising began on the first day of the Canada/Mexico free trade agreement, and Canadians, as Mexico’s new official trading partners, ought to be concerned.

The next task was convincing the film’s funders – Telefilm Canada, the nfb, the Canada Television and Cable Production Fund and B.C. Film – that the project required the production crew to stay in Chiapas for five months of shooting. Later, the stay was extended to eight months.

‘The funders went for it,’ she says. ‘That’s extraordinary considering the usual sausage-machine approach to making documentaries.

Wild first pitched the project to arts councils and was awarded $20,000 from the B.C. Arts Council and $15,000 from the Canada Council.

‘I always go to them first,’ explains Wild. ‘Once I have their support then I go to the other funders so I can say I have backers who are behind my vision of the film. This helps lock in my creative control, because so often the dynamic of the deal drives things and you can end up being the minority stake holder in your own production.’

The nfb contributed $182,000, 22% of the budget; Telefilm provided an equity investment of 43% or $220,000 and a non-equity advance of $14,000 against distribution; the cbc anted up a $150,000 licence fee and $45,000 in equity, B.C. Film gave $155,000 in equity; the ctcpf provided $86,176; and $3,587 was picked up from the Rogers Documentary Fund.

Initially, Wild convinced the cbc to license a 70-minute film on the subject, then, during editing, asked if the slot could be expanded to two hours. cbc is airing the two-hour special nationally on Sept. 22.

The nfb gave the production a cut-rate deal for five months of editing at its facilities. ‘A year later we were still there,’ recalls Wild. ‘We also sneaked into the nfb for the sound edit – set up our own sound editing suite rather than renting out a big facility.’

Films Transit is distributing the film internationally and is shopping for an American theatrical deal at tiff. Documentaire du Grand Ecran, based in Paris, is distributing in French-language territories and Friends of the German Cinema is distributing theatrically in Germany.

A date at New York City’s prestigious Film Forum has been booked for Nov. 4, which Wild hopes will lead to a wide u.s. release.

Wild says she is receiving three to four requests a week from other festivals to screen the Chiapas doc. Currently she has two English prints and one each in French and German, so she is strategically selecting which festivals to play the film until more prints are made.

Chiapas will screen in Vancouver on Sept. 18 at the Fifth Avenue, despite the fact that the cbc deal includes an exclusive tv premiere – four days later.

Wild managed to ‘poke a hole’ in the cbc contract by convincing cbc Western regional director Rae Hull that the buzz of a small theatrical release could potentially bolster tv audience ratings.

‘I hope this is a beginning of a trend where the two mediums can help each other,’ explains Wild.

Cable outlets in the u.s. are already experimenting with the idea of tv broadcasts tickling the market for a theatrical release and vice versa.

In a fragmented market made up of channel surfers, Wild says the potential is there for films such as Chiapas to continue their theatrical life after a tv broadcast.