Montreal: A word of advice to filmmakers and artists looking for funding from Bravo!fact.

Judy Gladstone, executive director of Bravo!fact and Maxfact, notes a sharp decline in the past year or so in humorous projects, with a few exceptions such as a new animation production called La Tete en Soleil from director jeep and Montreal’s Onion Factory.

‘Funny is good,’ Gladstone says. ‘Obviously there are serious issues in life and we don’t shy away from them. One night we saw [new productions] related to the Holocaust [Joshua Dorsey’s Requiem for the Missing, a short film in the Yehouda Chaki installation The Missing People Project, with support from the National Film Board] and the suicide of a dancer [a project called Flamenco Shoe from director Pascale Marcotte and Flirt Films].

‘Still, it’s wonderful to have a short funny piece because humor is something everyone can relate to across age and gender.’

Gladstone also says it’s important ‘ for people to see what’s already been produced with our grants, not to apply cold.’

(Bravo!fact shorts air on Bravo! Monday to Friday from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. est. Gladstone adds the revamped Bravo!fact database now includes streaming video of full-length Bravo!fact-funded projects.)

Bravo!fact invested $742,375 in 68 arts productions in fiscal 1999/00, an investment expected to top $1 million in the year ahead, says Paul Gratton, Bravo! station manager and vp/gm of Space: The Imagination Station. Gratton and Gladstone were on hand for a screening of nine new arts shorts held recently at the MusiquePlus/MusiMax studios in Montreal.

Bravo!fact screening programs have been organized in half a dozen Canadian cities, both to showcase new production and encourage new artists to apply for funding. ‘Specifically, in Montreal and Alberta almost nobody was applying,’ says Gladstone.

Bravo!fact-assisted productions range in cost from $15,000 to $40,000. ‘We encourage them to go out elsewhere and apply for funds. The nfb is here and there, sometimes the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council or a record company. Then we give them [the other sponsors] an on-air credit, and that’s a way to help the filmmakers get some extra money,’ says Gladstone.

Bravo!fact clients range from students fresh out of film school to established commercial directors who want to keep in touch with their art school training (podz, who directed the new Radar Films short Les Boites de Nuits) to filmmakers like Bruce McDonald, Don McKellar and Jacob Potashnik (director on the mtl/art short Dancing About Architecture), and co-screenwriter on Denys Arcand’s Stardom.

Bravo! has invested a total of just slightly more than $3.5 million in 347 projects.

Maxfact, sponsored by specialty channel MusiMax, has invested $184,000 in 20 music video projects this year, bringing its total investment (in 51 projects) to $465,000 since its launch two years ago.

Upcoming application deadlines for Bravo!fact funding are Sept. 29 and Dec. 21. Upcoming Maxfact deadlines are July 28, Oct. 27 and Jan. 31, 2001.

– www.bravofact.com