Trouble for Tommy

CBC is facing criticism from the DGC and WGC for yanking a repeat screening of Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, and for pulling the DVD from shelves.

The move followed complaints from descendants of 1930s Saskatchewan politician Jimmy Gardiner, a man depicted in the miniseries as a boozy arch-conservative. He was, in fact, a teetotaller and a Liberal.

But veteran director John N. Smith (Random Passage) and screenwriter Bruce Smith (The Investigation) are crying foul, complaining that CBC did not inform them of the cancellation and defending their project as a valid interpretation of the story of Tommy Douglas, a man best known as the father of Canadian medicare.

‘I’m absolutely appalled that the CBC would take such a major step without letting me know. We never had a chance to defend ourselves. My reputation has been hurt,’ says Smith.

The directors and writers guilds also issued complaints. ‘It’s not a documentary, it’s a drama,’ says DGC exec director and CEO Pamela Brand. ‘The CBC must have heard of dramatic licence. In places like the Soviet Union, there was one official version of history, and everyone had to follow that one version. There are many views of historical figures, not simply one.’

CBC spokespeople did not return calls by press time.

Atkinson elected TIFF chair

Paul Atkinson has been elected vice-chair and chair elect of the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s board of directors. Atkinson – CEO of digital media solutions outfit Casero – will take over as TIFF chair as of June 2007 when Allen Karp steps down.

Karp will remain on the board.

Cablers win ad ruling

The CRTC ruled last month that cable companies can now advertise their own services – such as mobile Internet packages – in the ‘local availabilities’ slots on U.S. channels such as CNN, and A&E, following a petition by Rogers Cable, Shaw Cable and others. Previously, the slots, two minutes per hour, could only be used to promote Canadian specialty channels.

Humanitas for Stokes, Haggis

Writer Michael Stokes scored points for his work in children’s animation last month, picking up the Humanitas Prize for screenwriting for an episode of the CG series Miss Spider and Her Sunny Patch Friends. The episode, ‘A Froggy Day In Sunny Patch,’ was cowritten by Steve Sullivan and Alice Prodanou.

Prizes also went to Canadian-born filmmaker Paul Haggis for his Crash screenplay, a win shared with cowriter Bobby Moresco, and to the writers of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. The Humanitas awards were handed out in Los Angeles in late June.