Montreal: Union des Artistes president Pierre Curzi and several prominent members from the performers guild attended an April 16 demonstration publicly calling on Columbia TriStar to start dubbing more films in Quebec.

The demonstration was held in front of the Quartier Latin multiplex where the recent Columbia release The Tailor of Panama is playing in its dubbed (in France) version.

UDA says a majority of Columbia TriStar movies have been dubbed in France in the past year. Some of the non-complying studios have so far refused to bow to the UDA demands, citing the prohibitive cost of a separate Quebec dub.

According to the performers guild, the recent box-office take for French-dubbed versions of Columbia releases in Quebec is $37.5 million, while the cost of dubbing the same films locally would have been in the order of $800,000, or less.

Curzi told Playback he hoped the Quebec government would settle the issue in current negotiations with studio representatives from the Motion Picture Association of America. Otherwise, if the issue cannot be resolved, he said government should enact compulsory dubbing legislation, as is the case in France. *

-www.uniondesartistes.com