Telefilm Canada and the CBC have teamed up to create a $2-million fund to back feature documentaries. The Theatrical Feature-Length Documentary Program is the first collaboration of its kind between the broadcaster and funding agency, and will support the development, production and completion of full-length docs in 2005/06.

Telefilm will commit $1.5 million to the program, with CBC picking up the remaining $500,000. The CBC’s commitment will benefit English-language productions only. Two-thirds of all monies will be awarded to English-language productions, and the remaining one-third will go to French-language docs.

‘We’ve been hearing from filmmakers for a number of years that they’d like to have some dedicated money for theatrical documentaries,’ says Karen Franklin, Telefilm’s director of English-language operations. ‘They felt feature-length documentaries were being lost in the shuffle, and not adequately financed or recognized by the system.’

Telefilm boss Wayne Clarkson publicly made the creation of such a fund one of his top priorities when he took over the job earlier this year.

Franklin says Telefilm and CBC realize that $2 million is not a lot of money when considering how many quality feature docs are waiting to be developed, but adds that this pilot initiative could help pave the way for a larger funding program in coming years.

‘We will be able to see what works and what doesn’t work by the nature of the pilot program,’ she says. ‘If and when we have the opportunity to get some more money to have a larger program, we’ll have [the program’s bugs] already sorted out.’

According to Barri Cohen, vice-chair of the Documentary Organization of Canada, she and the filmmakers DOC represents are ‘thrilled in principle,’ but are still unsure about the new program.

‘Although we are very pleased in principle with the announcement, we have to study it closely before it gets underway,’ says Cohen. ‘As a pilot project, hopefully it will be open to revision. I know there is good consultation underway with filmmakers across the country under Telefilm’s initiative, and we’re going to participate vigorously.’

Cohen adds that her reservations about the program lie almost exclusively in the CBC’s involvement, saying she hopes the funding will legitimately spawn a number of theatrical documentary releases, rather than new content for CBC Newsworld programs.

Franklin contends that the fundamental idea behind the program is to get Canadian feature docs into theaters, and says CBC is firmly committed to that goal regardless of whether or not the films receiving funding air on CBC or Newsworld after their theatrical run.

The announcement came during last month’s 2005 Banff World Television Festival.

In a related but separate announcement at Banff, the National Film Board says it will be earmarking an additional $800,000 for feature-length docs this fiscal year – $400,000 by way of The Documentary Channel and $400,000 for theatrical documentary copros from the NFB.

Telefilm has also announced that it has found an additional $1 million in the Canadian Television Fund reserves for English-language programming in the Development Financing Special Initiatives Stream. The Ontario/Nunavut office has been accepting applications since June 30 for the $284,000 available to the region. Western Canada has been allotted approximately $543,500, while the Atlantic region will divvy up roughly $75,500.

One final note from Telefilm’s Montreal office: the deadlines for French-language feature film project submissions are now Nov. 14, 2005 (with the results to be announced in February) and March 20, 2006 (results to be announced next June). As of now, there is no announced third deadline for the ’06/07 fiscal.