In today’s marketplace, making a splash on the international scene is no easy feat. Five Canadian projects – Little Criminals, Lives of Girls and Women, Hiroshima, Spoken Art: Letter to Harvey Milk and Due South – have done just that and all have been honored on the international stage through their nominations for Rockie Awards.

While it is tempting in today’s global marketplace to attempt to dance to the tune of as many drummers as possible, each of these projects has a strong, creative vision that speaks of integrity and individual voice. Although the creators and producers of each of these properties hope their efforts are financially rewarded, they all maintain having a singular, steadfast vision for the project – even if that means presenting a strong Canadian angle – is first priority.

Set in small-town rural Ontario, Lives of Girls and Women, based on the Alice Munro novel, is the coming-of-age story of a girl battling her mother to control her own destiny.

Produced by Paragon Entertainment, with the participation of cbc, Telefilm Canada and the Ontario Film Development Corporation, the two-hour mow was filmed on location in Toronto, Pickering and Shelburne, Ont., in the fall of 1994. It was produced by Richard Borchiver, directed by Ronald Wilson and the screenplay adaptation was written by C.K. Pitts and Kelly Rebar.

Julie Lee, vp development at Paragon and creative executive on Lives, attributes the film’s artistic success to ‘our ability to capture both the essence and the dominant themes of the book. The themes of adolescence are infinitely appealing and universal.’

While making Lives, Lee says they made one concession with the international market in mind. Originally the film was two and a half hours and they chopped it back to two hours to make it salable as a movie.

There were other areas where Lee admits the creative team thought of making changes to please other markets – particularly that big Market to the south.

‘When in development we were trying to find a u.s. broadcaster and we thought of the Standards and Practices. We stayed away from frontal nudity, but did keep the masturbation and loss of virginity scenes. We thought of compromising, but those were pivotal scenes, they were tastefully done and they were important to the character’s development.’

Still, though Lives has sold in 13 countries and territories, it has yet to be sold in the States, and Lee believes it’s because of those risque scenes.

‘In light of our population (size) it’s difficult to economically justify programs made exclusively for the Canadian market,’ she says. ‘So those of us who look for Canadian stories to tell must constantly be aware of how they will sell in other countries, the u.s. being foremost. Also, with the vast number of productions the States is able to generate and place around the world, it shapes the tastes of markets virtually everywhere.’

But Lee hasn’t given up on getting a u.s. broadcaster for Lives. ‘It’s not going to make a huge amount of money, but in the long run we won’t lose. As a period piece, it has a longevity as a library item.’

While a lack of a u.s. sale may be disappointing, another Canadian Rockie nominee hasn’t even secured an English-Canadian broadcaster. Hiroshima, a miniseries that is the first official Canada/Japan coproduction, was produced by Montreal’s Telescene.

Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the series chronicles the events that led up to the decision to bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, using film clips and dramatic recreations.

A team of creative consultants spent nearly two years finding over 150 hours of documentary and newsreel footage from the time period. Also, witnesses and survivors were interviewed for the $11 million film.

To capture the true flavor of the different cultures, an English cast and crew were used while filming in Montreal, while a Japanese crew, director and actors were used in Japan. ‘This is a true international story,’ says Anita Simand, head of creative affairs for Telescene. ‘So we wanted to capture the true spirit of the events.’

Says director Roger Spottiswoode: ‘I wanted to show the difference of the two cultures visually. Since the Japanese style of filmmaking differs from ours, we selected Koreyoshi Kurahara, whose work on Antarctica was magnificent, to codirect and Toshiro Ishido as the writer.’

Hiroshima had its world premiere Aug. 6, 1995 on Showtime in the u.s. and on Radio-Canada here. Yet no English-language Canadian broadcaster has picked it up. ‘I don’t want to speculate as to why,’ says Simand simply. ‘It’s highly mysterious.’ Despite the lack of English-Canadian market, Simand says the global market for miniseries is going strong. ‘There are plenty of opportunities and many potential coproduction partners.’

The homegrown mow Little Criminals was the brainchild of Canadian scriptwriter and playwright Dennis Foon. ‘I decided to write Little Criminals when I met an 11-year-old in Winnipeg who had been busted on a b&e with a friend and a three-year-old. He said he was baby-sitting.’

The reality-based drama, produced by the cbc, with Stephen Surjik directing and Phil Savath producing, is an uncompromising look at very young offenders. Filmed on location in Vancouver in the spring of 1995, it is gritty, hard-edged and sometimes frightening.

‘There are these kids who are slipping through the cracks. This looks at whether they are criminals or victims,’ says Foon, who acted as a consultant all the way through the project. ‘It was absolutely a cbc project and they gave me support to be honest and real.’

That realness included tough subject matter and profanity. ‘Should it be softened for any particular markets? We thought about that,’ says Foon. ‘If it had not been done by a public broadcaster, I believe there would have been enormous pressure to soften the script or make it more palatable to a general audience.’

Little Criminals, with Foon’s original vision intact, sold to Channel 4 in England, to Italy and other European countries.

‘The phenomenal success of the film proves that if you stick to your guns, come out with good artistic product and have something honest and real to say, ultimately it will pay off in spades,’ maintains Foon.

Sleeping Giant’s founder and creative director Jim Hanley, producer of nominee A Letter to Harvey Milk, agrees. Milk is part of the 22-part Spoken Art series, which has as its subtitle, ‘writer, actor and the intimate camera.’ Hanley says the idea for the series came when he and Marilyn Lightstone had a discussion on ‘how unfettered thought can be very strong on television. We started talking about monologues and thought maybe there’d be the opportunity to do that when the specialty channels came along.’

Three years later, Bravo! got licensed and became a supporter of the monologue idea. Today, Spoken Art airs on Bravo! – and only on Bravo! – garnering up to 50,000 viewers.

A Letter to Harvey Milk, based on a short story by Leslea Newman, stars Gemini-winner Peter Boretski as a senior who writes about his life in a letter to Harvey Milk, a former friend and openly gay politician who is shot to death.

The portrait, attained through one hand-held camera, is intimate and compelling.

‘Our vision was to present uncluttered thought,’ says Hanley. ‘Rarely on television does anyone have the opportunity to speak for any length of time. With an arts channel, we have the opportunity to present good pieces of literature, to be performed with intelligence and compassion.’ Although an American wrote Harvey Milk, 85% of the Spoken Art series, with a $47,000 budget per episode, features Canadian writers.

Spoken Art, a fairly unusual type of program in today’s marketplace, has yet to be sold internationally and Hanley says that is of no concern. ‘Each episode is a different length – 27 minutes, 55 minutes – so we’d have to package them in some way. We primarily serve the Canadian market and then find like-minded markets elsewhere. But we never alter a project for other markets at the expense of the Canadian market, and Bravo! has been very supportive of us,’ says Hanley.

‘There’s an audience out there that wants this stuff rather than the run-of-the-mill commercial programming that has to appeal to large groups. As specialty channels proliferate, there will always be an audience for special material.’

The most commercially successful of the Rockie nominees is Due South, Alliance’s ctv/cbs series that pokes fun at American and Canadian stereotypes. The story of the Chicago-based, fish-out-of-water Mountie came from creator Paul Haggis, a Canadian who has lived in Los Angeles for the past 17 years.

The show already survived a short-term pull-out by cbs, but was counting on the American net renewing it for 1996/97. Although it wasn’t renewed for the fall, it was recently announced that it may be used as a mid-season replacement.

Sold in 113 countries, Due South, despite a noncommittal cbs, has received its just due in international sales and in accolades. Although a very commercial production, Christine Shipton, vp of creative affairs for Alliance, says the series’ success is based on a strong, unwavering vision.

‘The target was and has always remained to produce a series to be simulcast,’ she says. ‘Globally for a series you usually need more than one broadcast partner, because the Canadian licence fees are not sufficient to finance the series or to trigger financing.

‘But more importantly,’ she continues, ‘as soon as you have that strong vision and the show is sold on that, you always have that to go back to, to keep you on track. You don’t start with the idea `we want a medical show,’ you start with the creative people – like Paul Haggis – and their concept.’

Foon puts it this way: ‘It’s important not to try and respond to the global market in a knee-jerk way. In that way, you’ll come up with a unique Canadian project. It’s the old write-what-you-know – with that tack and a strong vision the project will just become universal.’