Air Canada does not show enough homegrown movies or TV shows and should be regulated by the CRTC, according to Peter Rowe, president of the Ontario chapter of the Directors Guild of Canada, in a Jan. 30 speech to this year’s Genie nominees.

‘Air Canada’s record of showing non-Canadian films and television must end,’ said Rowe, drawing applause from a jam-packed crowd of filmmakers at the Budo Liquid Theatre nightclub in Toronto. ‘[It] must be considered to be a broadcaster and should be regulated, like all other broadcasters, by the CRTC.’

Rowe (The Best Bad Thing) called for in-flight Canadian content regulations set ‘as high or higher’ than those for the CBC.

‘More people are probably watching TV on Air Canada than on some of the more obscure cable networks,’ said Rowe, in a separate interview with Playback, adding that the airline is for many people – tourists, immigrants, business travelers – their first impression of Canada. ‘They get no sense that this is a unique country when they fly in. It looks like another part of the States.’

But Air Canada stands by its in-flight programming and makes a ‘conscious effort’ to screen Canadian hits, according to spokesperson Laura Cooke. The airline is currently showing all five Genie nominees for best picture and buys many shows, films and shorts from the likes of CHUM, Alliance Atlantis, Seville and the National Film Board, and programs in-flight entertainment based on customer feedback, says Cooke.

Deepa Mehta’s Bollywood/Hollywood was also splashed across a recent cover of the En Route in-flight magazine.

Cooke would not, however, put even a rough percentage on the airline’s Canadian content, saying only that ‘it varies.’

Rowe’s speech also unveiled a new program to boost attendance at Ontario-made films. DGC Ontario will buy $2,500 worth of tickets for every film made under its contract and circulate those tickets to area charities and community groups.

‘So many films die in their first week because of not enough promotion,’ says Rowe, ‘so here’s an opportunity to crank up the first-week grosses, and maybe get another Big Fat Greek Wedding out of it.’