Tom Perlmutter has been director-general of English programming at the National Film Board since 2001. Renowned as a clear-headed administrator and crucial creative force in the team that former NFB commissioner Jacques Bensimon assembled, many see Perlmutter as the natural successor for the post. Prior to starting his five-year term as the NFB’s 15th commissioner on June 11, he sat down with Playback to discuss his vision for the board and the challenges he faces.

How does it feel to take over the job?

I’m excited, I’m terrified. (Laughs) All those things when you take on a big, big challenge. To me it’s always a good thing if you have that stage fright. It keeps you on your toes.

What are some of the key things you want to build on, in terms of what Jacques Bensimon was doing?

He did a strong job. The first person Jacques hired in terms of his new team was me. I thought a lot beforehand about what it means to have a National Film Board. I came in and spoke with the people here, and laid out what I thought I could do, and what the role of a public-sector producer is. It fit in with Jacques’ vision very well. He had a lot of trust in me to do the job that I had to do. I liked that we had an embedded filmmaker program, an emerging filmmaker program.

The questions we tackled were: How do you work with filmmakers to give them voice? How do we make the NFB part of the cultural conscience and cultural fabric of the country?

This government is seen as somewhat frosty to culture. How big of a challenge do you see that?

I have to sit down with the government to discuss. It’s clear that they haven’t seen culture as a primary focus. They had their five main points, and culture was not one of them. What [Minister of Heritage Bev Oda] has said is that she’s going to look at a mandate review. And that will be crucial in terms of educating and clearly defining what is distinct about the board as a cultural institution.

I don’t think we’re going to get new money, which was something that Jacques always hoped we could do. Ten years ago our money was cut by a third, and since then has been on a road of financial erosion. That’s going to be a challenge in terms of looking at our financing in different kinds of ways.

It’s been suggested that your creative skills might be wasted if you’re in this administrative position.

I think that keeping things in order is really important to the creative process. In the years that I’ve been here, year after year we’ve met our fiscal targets. I’ve been very strong in terms of putting management tools in place.

For me, the administration and management, if you do it properly, liberates you to do the things you need to do. If you let productions run away with their budgets… you’re going to be beholden to the whims of others, rather than creating your own agenda. So I’ve kept a very tight control in terms of that.

That kind of fiscal discipline is going to serve us well as an institution. I don’t always talk about it, but as well as my filmmaking background, I do have an MBA buried somewhere.

It seems some still need convincing about the importance of the NFB. How do you sway them?

There are the obvious economic spin-off arguments. And we’ve just won two awards [Canal+ Grand Prize for Best Short and the Petit Rail d’Or Audience Award] at Cannes for Madame Tutli-Putli, which is amazing.

When you’re creating a vibrant culture, you’re also generating a sense of confidence and possibilities in Canadian communities. When we win an Oscar, it’s not just ‘Yea, NFB, we just won another Oscar.’ It means that we’re a country where interesting things happen. People are attracted to and want to be in places where interesting things happen.

That’s what pride means – it’s not just an empty notion. Building on that means you’re building on possibility. Schoolchildren will watch that and that will let them believe that they can do anything. It broadens our sense of possibility.

What’s one of the key challenges you feel the board faces?

The thing about the NFB is that we have to be original. We have to keep breaking the mold. The problem with that is it’s very hard. You can’t just create a model and then churn it out. That’s what was so exciting about [Chris Landreth’s Oscar-winning 2004 animated short] Ryan. It was really doing something very different.

I also think it’s very important to let communities speak about their issues, from their perspectives. Our role isn’t to be advocates of one position or another. Our role is to give voice.

THE PERLMUTTER FILE

Tom Perlmutter contributed to the now-defunct national film magazine Cinema Canada. He created and produced the long-running, award-winning history series Turning Points of History, created the miniseries The Sexual Century (1999) and produced The Body: Inside Stories. He co-directed The Team, the 2002 miniseries about a college basketball team.

Perlmutter was founding head of the documentary division at indie prodco Barna-Alper Productions, and also held management positions at Primitive Entertainment, CineNova Productions and The Alliance for Children and Television.

Since 2001, his primary focus has been at the NFB. He is seen as one of the pivotal figures in the team credited with revitalizing the film board.