Lack of information about CBC’s new documentary unit is rattling the cages of independent filmmakers, who fear the country’s leading doc producer is quietly stepping back from third-party productions.

Doc makers learned earlier this year that CBC had formed CineNorth, an in-house documentary unit headed by veteran producer Mark Starowicz, and worry that the group stands to put a dent in their bottom line by snapping up deals with Witness, Life & Times and other network shows. Many are further concerned by what they deem CineNorth’s ‘secretive’ behavior.

‘CBC is the tent pole of the entire system,’ says Sandy Crawley, executive director of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus. ‘They commission the most important, creative and risk-taking documentaries in Canada…but our fear is they will take them in-house.’

Peter Raymont of Toronto’s White Pine Pictures says the doc community is ‘very concerned.’

‘No one has come out and sat down with the independent film community and let us know what their plans are,’ he says. ‘Why is it so difficult to find out what these guys are up to?’

‘It’s easier to get a hold of the Pope,’ adds Crawley, recalling efforts to contact Starowicz.

Reached at his office, Starowicz insists that CineNorth has nothing to hide. ‘I’m talking to you aren’t I?’ he replies. ‘I mean, we’ve only existed for six months for goodness sake.’

His boss, executive director of network programming Slawko Klymkiw, scoffs at the suggestion that CBC would do anything to hurt its ‘great and brilliant’ history of TV docs, adding he has repeatedly told that to the indie community. ‘Would we just shut that down? No. Never,’ he says, adding CineNorth will turn out only 15% of CBC content, at most.

CineNorth formed early in the summer when CBC split its documentary unit in two – one to do work in-house and the other, headed by producer Jerry McIntosh, to deal with independents.

The unit has no standing budget, says Starowicz, and is funded on a project-by-project basis. CBC will not release further financial details, but Starowicz downplays any possible economic impact on indies, arguing that the network still deals with outside prodcos via McIntosh and that CineNorth continues to hire individual contractors.

The split was prompted in part by the success of Canada: A People’s History, which Starowicz produced, but also by CBC’s lack of recent wholly owned material.

The CBC owns no rights to third-party produced shows, which greatly increased in number over the past 10 years.

‘The vaults are empty,’ says Starowicz. ‘We have a 50-year tradition of documentaries that was allowed to lapse for most of the ’90s. And in this day and age a broadcaster is its vaults.’ CBC needs to own product if it is to compete on the international market, he says.

His group’s mandate is to produce one-off and short doc series, and in particular to turn out projects suitable for international coproduction. A three- to four-hour doc about the history of the Red Cross and a biography of Winston Churchill are among the shows in the works. CineNorth is also working on a longer series The Canadian Experience, a sort of sequel to People’s History, and two hours about 19th century pioneers Susannah Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail called Sisters in the Wilderness.

CBC commissioned 52 hours of news and current affairs docs in its fiscal year 2001, and 61 hours in 2002. Approximately 25 additional hours were outsourced both years for arts and entertainment shows such as The Nature of Things and Opening Night.

-www.cbc.ca