It’s good to be them

Amid labor dilemmas, funding dilemmas, don’t-put-all-your-eggs in a cable basket dilemmas, other issues both large and relatively containable that affect production played out quietly in the background this month.

Definitely on the daunting side of the scale was the recent Culture/Entertainment Dilemma executive-level confab hosted by the Canadian Journalism Foundation in Toronto, with invited industry, media and govermenent guests from the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

While the dialogue was civil and frank, as noted by nanba secretary general Bill Roberts, the outcome of the spirited debate on the optimistic topic ‘Sharing Markets, Accommodating Differences’ had a lot more to do with America’s continued ‘sharing’ of Canada’s and Mexico’s markets, and less to do with accommodating differences.

Commenting that discussion surrounding u.s. entertainment product’s domination of its smaller neighbors’ screens always seems to be couched in tradespeak terms, Mexico’s Jose Ramon Mikelajaregui, coordinator of a-v projects, National Council for the Arts and Culture, said, ‘It’s not just a matter of nafta and markets, it’s a matter of ethics and politics. Hollywood is just one little town making culture for the world. We should have a chance to make our own, and you can’t just leave it to market forces.’ He attributed the acceptance of u.s. programming to the fact that there is no previously-entrenched nationalistic tv tastes. ‘If you try to sell wine to the French, it d’esn’t matter if you have the distribution, they know what’s bad or good.’

Commenting on the same-faces/same-approaches result, he said, ‘tv has had the power to make the world come together, it’s made a small world, now it needs to make it more diverse.’

Despite all the well-put reasons for defending access to our own markets, and invitations to find a new way of doing things that would accommodate and preserve local cultures, the plain-talking American, William Merkin, president and ceo, Strategic Policy, Inc., explained why it will stay the way it is. ‘The entertainment industry is a very influential special interest group, that’s why issues will continue to fester and flare up into border skirmishes from time to time.’

Merkin went on to spell out that since Canadians don’t vote in the u.s. election, the work of our ambassadors amounts to nil. On his list of factors to keep in mind were the entertainment industry’s #1 export earner status, and the fact that these are not simply bilateral issues: ‘The thought of cutting Canada some slack would ricochet in other markets and would drive industry up the wall.’

Other factors Merkin trotted out as food for thought included, ‘Protectionist measures look like a money grab sometimesŠ’ And on film distribution: ‘Is there another way to generate more Canadian film revenue without penalizing companies based on nationality?’ And then there was the double whammy. ‘You think change is coming. Some of it may be forced upon you. If u.s. interests are aggressive enough, even without trade violations, they may have a way of retaliating without the wto. As you become a more successful exporter, it will have more impact.’

Well, that’s certainly one for the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t files.