The CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund initial round of grants has been announced and results include an interesting statistical blip: of the 107 applications received from the four Western provinces, 19 came from Saskatchewan. Of the 52 projects chosen for funding, nine are from the province.

Sandra Green at the CWIPF says she is heartened by the response from what has been to date the lowest-profile Prairie province.

‘I would suggest that [the number of applicants] showed Saskatchewan’s industry to be in very healthy shape. It surprised me, not just the number but the quality of the applications. We had some very good proposals from there,’ says Green.

Four key components are examined in each application: the extent to which the project reflects the Western experience; the overall quality and distinctiveness of the project; the stability of the financial structure; and the project’s contribution to the Western Canadian filmmaking industry. ‘The evaluation is a composite of all those factors,’ says Green.

‘We were very impressed with the calibre and the number of applications coming out of Saskatchewan and we have been led to believe we’ll see more in the future. I was impressed with the quality and number of projects submitted, especially in relation to the other three Western provinces. It was right up there with Alberta.’

Applicants for the fund included such notables as Regina-based companies Minds Eye Pictures and Partners in Motion, but smaller names carried off several pieces of top-up funding, among them Cooper Rock Pictures with When The Time is Now: The Story of Team Schmirler, Incandescent Films with To The Health Of Us All and Pictograph Productions with Three Days to Kvansing.

Dennis Jackson of Dark Thunder Productions, Saskatoon, says of the $20,000 funding secured for his $304,000 animated film A Wapos Bay Christmas, ‘every little bit helps.’

Jackson, winner of the 1998 Telefilm Canada/Television Northern Canada award for best Aboriginal production in English or French for the six-minute claymation Journey Through Fear, says A Wapos Bay Christmas is based on Journey, which he did as a student. ‘It was originally supposed to be a larger story.’

In the short, a ‘moshum’ grandfather character sees the effects of a changing environment when he goes to check his trap line. ‘Change is inevitable. Aboriginal people are adapters to the environment, where they have no choice but to be,’ says the filmmaker.

The new project – also claymation – is planned as a one-hour Christmas special and takes place on the same trap line, but is set during a Christmas season that looks like it will be a lean one since a forest fire has decimated the animal population.

In the film, three Aboriginal grandchildren set out to save Christmas by gathering more food, but soon ‘find out it’s not as easy as they thought.’ In fact, the kids – aged seven, eight and nine – get trapped in a storm.

Conditional on receiving funding from Telefilm Canada and the CTF, shooting will begin July 1 and continue through August. ‘The eyes and mouths on the characters will be computer-generated,’ which should save some time in the notoriously time-intensive claymation process, Jackson says.

Delivery is pencilled in for November. Broadcasters are the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and the Saskatchewan Communications Network.

Jackson is writer and director on the project; his production partner is Melanie Jackson.

Meantime, Cindy Beland, the new executive director of the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association, says, ‘I think the industry is healthy. We’re putting together the next issue of Storyboard [SMPIA’s magazine] and the production guide [that lists Saskatchewan-based projects in development, production and post], and I am cautiously optimistic as to how the production companies are going.

‘I feel cautiously optimistic based on what I see that’s in production. It looks like a very lively year for our production companies.’ *