Successful independent films need imaginative, well-written scripts. Plot, incident and character development are essential if a producer isn’t relying on high-end special effects to generate an audience. Yet it was only 20 years ago that a system was established to provide financial aid for scriptwriters to create new material for Canadian cinema.

That privately financed institution was initially called the Foundation to Underwrite New Drama for Pay Television (FUND). Created in 1986, it was the vision of one man, Harold Greenberg, then president and CEO of Astral Media, which owned pay-TV station First Choice. Astral was required to provide money towards domestic production as part of its licensing agreement with the CRTC, but it’s clear that FUND was also very much a product of Greenberg’s commitment to Canadian film. As a producer or exec producer himself, Greenberg’s earlier credits include In Praise of Older Women and Porky’s.

‘The production industry was something that Harold looked at very carefully,’ comments André Bureau, then chair of the CRTC, who, ironically, today assumes that same post at Astral. ‘He came to me at the time to say he wanted to create a fund for scripts, because people investing in movies never [seemed to] have people write good ones. He said, ‘That’s where I want to help.”

The $1 million granted in 1986 by First Choice – later branded as The Movie Network – was merely the beginning of an ongoing investment in Canadian media culture. That amount has grown over the years with the maturation of Astral and the overall Canadian broadcast and production industries.

To date, The Harold Greenberg Fund, as FUND was renamed upon its founder’s passing in 1996, has spent $39.2 million on more than 2,000 English-language projects and assisted in the development of more than 1,600 scripts.

‘We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in Harold’s name,’ notes Ian Greenberg, Harold’s brother and Astral cofounder and current president and CEO. ‘Not only were we the first broadcasters to set up a private film fund, but we are the only ones who support filmmaking at the earliest stages of its development.’

The HGF has expanded as Astral’s broadcast profit centers have grown. After Viewers Choice was added as a pay-per-view service, the Equity Investment Program began in 1990. Projects that the HGF assisted in the development process could later receive financial support prior to production.

‘Too often projects are rushed into production because an investment will go away on a particular date,’ notes HGF president John Galway, who took over the fund last September after heading up Telefilm Canada’s English-language TV sector.

‘That’s not how to make films,’ he continues. ‘If the producer can spend additional time, that’s best.’

Since then, the HGF has provided equity for a number of projects that have justified its participation and enjoyed healthy returns at the Canadian box office, including The Sweet Hereafter ($1.5 million in receipts), Men with Brooms (more than $4 million), Mambo Italiano (more than $5 million) and Water (more than $2 million).

In all, the HGF has contributed equity financing in 123 features and 11 family TV series, and, in another area, has supported 171 training grants. Its training initiatives include a partnership with the Canadian Film Centre Feature Film Project since 1994.

Meanwhile, a francophone program, Le Fonds Harold Greenberg, has been disbursing development and equity money to Quebec writers and producers for the past decade (see story, p. HG4.)

The mainstay of the HGF, however, has been script development. It disburses $1 million each year for what was initially three stages of drafts. Since 1989, a fourth, or ‘senior,’ phase has been added that aids a project’s producer as well as its writer in the final polish stage, when a film is in preproduction.

The Family Film Program was created in 2001 with a $5-million commitment to TV series and films aimed at children and their parents. The program, sponsored by Astral-owned specialty Family Channel, will be administered by the HGF through 2008, at which time it will be reevaluated.

Also launched in 2001 was the Story Optioning stream, which saw TMN raise its annual HGF commitment by $300,000, ensuring that more Canadian literary works would receive a financial boost and be adapted for the screen. As a result, 109 properties by such renowned authors as Barbara Gowdy, Robertson Davies, Anne Michaels and Thomas King have been optioned.

Despite all this growth, the HGF has enjoyed remarkable stability. Its distinguished list of past heads includes Phyllis Yaffe, CEO of Alliance Atlantis, Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda, and Women in Film and Television – Toronto chair Wendy MacKeigan. The present chairs are Bryn Matthews and producer Rock Demers on the French side.

Board members over the years have included: Michael Spencer, the first head of the Canadian Film Development Corporation (now Telefilm Canada); Marlene Smith, producer of the stage show Cats; former National Film Board chair Joan Pennefather; Gemini Award-winning writer Suzette Couture; and Genie Award-winning producer Camelia Frieberg.

While the HGF helps get films and series off the ground that in turn often provide content for Astral specialty and pay services, Bureau insists the fund exists primarily for the greater good of Canadian culture and industry.

‘It’s not for profit – the funds are at arm’s length and any money that comes back is reinvested,’ Bureau says. ‘Every time we can, we give to our funds, because we believe that through that we’re continuing the work that Harold started.’

www.astral.com/en/theharoldgreenbergfund