It’s been a little over a year since Wayne Clarkson took over the reins as executive director of Telefilm Canada, and it’s been a hectic introduction for the former head of the Canadian Film Centre, the OFDC, and the Toronto film festival.

He began his tenure by crisscrossing the country with both ears bent towards the production community, but the melding of Telefilm and the Canadian Television Fund has taken up most of his time over the past six months. And while he’s had to respond to Auditor General Sheila Fraser’s calls for greater transparency and accountability for the funding agency, Clarkson has also inherited the fallout from the failed New Montreal FilmFest.

Clarkson recently spoke to Playback about his plans for the remaining four years of his term, which includes trying to find a fix for English-Canadian feature film, which claimed a lowly 1.1% market share last year. As part of that solution, Telefilm is looking to hire a dedicated feature film executive and has shuttered its Paris office to redirect resources to boost international sales and coproduction.

Oh, and he’s got a mantra: No New Money.

Did your first year at Telefilm unfold as you’d expected?

Well, the pace of the job was more than I had anticipated. I was looking back over the last year and noticed that I hadn’t been anywhere longer than three nights. Mostly it’s been crisscrossing the country. One of my goals in the first year was to get in touch – not only with our regional offices in Vancouver and Halifax, but also to have an opportunity to sit down with the industry across the country.

What’s been the biggest challenge so far?

One of the big challenges – and one that I’m proud to say Telefilm worked out very well – was the new relationship with the Canadian Television Fund. That was a major undertaking of considerable delicacy and consequence. What I like about it is that it’s good for Telefilm and it’s good for the CTF. And that ultimately makes it good for the industry.

What’s at the top of your ‘To Do’ list now?

The premise that it’s our estimation that there’s not going to be any new money for film and new media in fiscal ’06/07. Everything is strategically based on that premise.

You’ve talked of creating a new feature film executive position at Telefilm.

I’ve been talking about restructuring the selection process in English Canada – from what has by and large been a committee decision – to one in which an individual will rely on the resources and expertise of the regional offices of Telefilm Canada, English language. This individual will be more proactive, transparent, accountable and accessible. But he or she will have the responsibility for making the ultimate decisions.

We’re in the process of finding that individual, and anticipate we’ll able to announce something by mid-April, to have them start before [the Cannes Film Festival.]

You started regular meetings with the industry on specific topics. Has that been beneficial?

We did a focus group at the end of January, focusing on English Canada. We invited producers, distributors, exhibitors, broadcasters, and regulators, and we hired a facilitator to be the neutral force. There were about 30 to 40 people, [including] observers from the CRTC.

I started off the meeting by saying, ‘Okay, everybody, stand up. Put your hands in the air. Say, ‘It’s all Telefilm’s fault. It’s all Telefilm’s fault… Get it out of your system now…’ And then I said, ‘No, it’s not Telefilm’s fault. It’s the distributors’ fault. They pick up my film; they flip it through the broadcast licence. It’s all their fault. No, no. It’s the exhibitors. After two weeks, they throw it out.’

The point – stop the rhetoric. Because if we’re going to continue to function like that in English Canada, we’re not going to get anywhere. I think, having come across the country and met with deputy ministers and ministers of finance and industry, trade, and culture, ‘it don’t wash’ with anybody. So cease and desist.

Isn’t the point that you have to actually produce films that people will go see?

Yes, yes. But not just produce films, because the other priority in English Canada is really going to be scripts and marketing. There’s always a need for more production dollars, but we’re starting from a premise of ‘No New Money.’

Where we have to do better is in the scripts we’re developing and the marketing of the films. I really think those are the two challenges in English Canada.

From our standpoint, the real need in Quebec is production dollars. They face a particular challenge that is almost the reverse of English Canada, where we have greater access to other markets because of the transportability of the language. One of the things we’re having a conversation about is setting up an international sales agent.

So Telefilm will have more of a global presence?

The international role that Telefilm plays is going to continue and grow significantly. Having said that, we’re going to close the Paris office, because there are considerable dollars that we’ve got invested there in terms of bricks and mortar and staff. It seems to us that those valuable dollars can be better spent if they’re focused on specific needs. Let’s put our resources into ventures that can increase international sales, presales and boost coproductions.

What can the provinces do?

I’ve met with ministers from Vancouver to Manitoba and Ontario, and they no longer want to continue to lead this race to the bottom… When the dollar increased a year and a half ago, and the Americans said, ‘We can’t afford to shoot in Canada anymore,’ the ministers of finance in every province lined up and said, ‘Increase our tax credits, increase our tax credits.’ It was almost embarrassing. That’s not going to happen again.

This country is not going to win any race to the bottom for the cheapest labor… You’ve got to get at the front end, where the intellectual property rights matter… If you want to be a service provider, that’s one thing… But to own and control dollars and access dollars at all steps along the way is a much healthier relationship.

Quebec is a great case study.

Ten years ago, [Quebec films represented 7%] of that province’s box office, today they represent 24%. How did they get from 7% to 24%? They have [always had] the same advantage of culture and language, so you can’t lay it off, as we so often do, with that. They did something pragmatic and practical [and also benefited from] circumstances and luck. So there is something to be learned from that.

Maybe that Telefilm and the Quebec funding agency SODEC make a winning combination.

You got it. That leads me to the increased partnership that ties into the provinces. We’re talking about setting up with SODEC – which I hope we can announce soon in the new year – whereby we’ll become a partner in [Quebec public-private funder] FIDEC and extend [its] benefits across the country into English Canada. It’s not going to be the panacea for the problems of English-language production, but every penny counts.

What’s your ideal English-Canadian film in the new structure?

I’ll tell you one that I’m anticipating – Trailer Park Boys. And Silk, which is a coproduction with Rhombus Media, Japan and Italy, directed by François Girard, and Bon Cop, Bad Cop. But Trailer Park Boys is just one of those things – a smart team, something that has a populous appeal, that brings a lot of Canadian talent, that works well at the box office. I love it. God knows we need a little more laughter in our cinema these days.

Although it predates your arrival at Telefilm, do you think the decision to award L’Équipe Spectra the funding for the New Montreal FilmFest was a mistake?

I think everyone – from Spectra to the industry to the private and public sectors, including Telefilm Canada – is disappointed that it didn’t work to everybody’s best efforts, including Spectra’s.

I have to say – having been involved in the start-up of a film festival – I remember the financial chaos of the start of the Toronto festival… Let me tell you, if you go back to the media of that day – it’s many years ago now – it was no less critical than the media in Montreal last year. Financing was no less disappointing or catastrophic. You hang in there. [Are we] disappointed? Yes.

How will Telefilm lend its Montreal festival support going forward?

We’ll continue to support festivals like the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma. We’ve supported it for 34 years. They apply and meet the criteria – why would we stop supporting them now? I would say this categorically – we are not going to go out there soliciting or looking for new applicants for a major international film festival in Montreal. Full stop.

www.telefilm.gc.ca