Pepita Ferrari is a Montreal-based producer/director (Joseph Giunta: A Silent Triumph, The Unsexing of Emma Edmonds) and member of the executive of the Documentary Organization of Canada-Quebec. Montreal filmmaker and DOC exec Malcolm Guy (Turbulent Waters, Musiques Rebelles) contributed to this article.

Earlier this month, Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla told producers that she has asked each of the main cultural agencies within her mandate to examine the possibility of cutting 5% from all departmental budgets (see story, p. 2).

In her Nov. 9 speech, Frulla made an intriguing statement: ‘The ministry is sitting down with each agency, one by one, to see if they can make the five percent reduction. But if they say it’s impossible, if they say it will hurt production or their content, then I’ll fight for them. That’s why I say it’s a reallocation, not a cut. But I can’t make any guarantees.’

For the independent documentary production community in Quebec, whether or not the 5% cut will hurt is a moot point, and one can only hope that Frulla will continue to prove herself as the rare and much-appreciated politician who is actually a supporter of arts and culture in this country, and do the right thing.

To paraphrase a comment made by Arnie Gelbart, president of Montreal-based Galafilm, the threatened cut or ‘reallocation’ is difficult to comprehend within the context of a government surplus pegged at $9.1 billion last year and projected at $7 billion for this year.

The threatened cut is but one in a litany of ongoing struggles and tribulations facing the independent documentary production community in Quebec.

Last week also saw the demise of Cinema Libre, champion of independent documentary distribution for the past 25 years in this province. This has left many producers scrambling to find new distribution in a climate that is already in serious trouble, especially where one-offs are concerned.

Indeed, these days the Quebec chapter of the Documentary Organization of Canada, the only voice devoted solely to the needs of the independent documentary production community in this province, seems to be doing constant battle in an ever-deteriorating situation regarding the survival of the creative documentary.

Take the case of commercial-free and doc-friendly Tele-Quebec, this province’s premier broadcaster of the genre. Two weeks ago, DOC was invited to make a presentation to the working committee set up by the Quebec minister of culture and communications to study the present status and future evolution of the publicly funded educational French broadcaster. While the dismantling of the institution was not on the table for discussion, the degree to which its services would be privatized was.

According to a DOC-Quebec survey of our membership, the number-one reason independent documentary producers and directors in Quebec like working with Tele-Quebec is its unparalleled senstitivity towards, and support for, the creative genre.