A new partnership for Barna-Alper Productions could make the company not only the country’s biggest indigenous producer, but also a player in new areas including distribution and broadcast.
Toronto-based BAP has partnered up with Blue Ice Group Capital, headed by entrepreneur Neil Tabatznik and filmmaker Steven Silver, both hailing from South Africa, in a deal that bolsters BAP on both the financial and creative sides.

As Playback was looking to close the issue you are holding, we received the sad – but not unexpected – news that we had lost our good friend and colleague, Leo Rice-Barker. Leo finally lost a valiant two-year battle with cancer at age 56, in effect silencing one of the strongest voices that this publication – or the Canadian film and TV industry, for that matter – ever had.

In the past few editions of Prime Time, some attendees have complained that the CFTPA has been offering the same old same old. The event’s panel topics – and the conversations they have ignited – had mostly to do with producers grumbling over the level of support from government, broadcasters and distributors. (Of course, those doing the complaining were mostly government, broadcasters and distributors.)

It was initially surprising to learn that Montreal’s Christal Films would be the distributor to step up and give a release to Karla, the film maudit that has made headlines in this country for the better part of a year, right up until its Canadian release Jan. 20.

When all the numbers were crunched, 2005 turned out to have the biggest market share yet for Quebec-made films at the province’s box office. Domestic product accounted for 18.2% of theatrical receipts in 2005, up from 13.6% in 2004.

Winnipeg’s National Screen Institute – Canada and VisionTV have selected a half-dozen writers to their collaborative DiverseTV training program. The initiative offers visible minority and aboriginal writers the opportunity to develop a TV series for broadcast on Vision.

In the interest of getting them while they’re young, Toronto software developer Alias is organizing a contest aimed at recognizing students who demonstrate ‘exceptional creativity and skill’ at design.

As we enter the new year, the British Columbia film and TV industry must feel like it’s under siege, both from without and within. If it weren’t bad enough that producers from other provinces are continuing to call for B.C. to stop enjoying regional status from the Canadian Television Fund (see story, p. 23), now the province itself is making noise about decreasing production tax credits ­- or perhaps getting rid of them altogether.

Vancouver prodco Brightlight Pictures announced late last month that it is re-teaming with the U.K.’s Gold Circle Films to produce White Noise 2: The Light, the sequel to their wildly successful supernatural copro thriller White Noise. Patrick Lussier, a veteran editor whose helming turns include the feature Dracula 2000, will direct from a script by newcomer Matt Venne.

It was a bittersweet final bow for a cancelled drama, redemption for an underwatched miniseries, and a night as notable for its star power as its no-shows, as the 2005 Gemini Awards were handed out at the event’s Nov. 19 closing-night gala in Toronto.

As a bittersweet year for scripted TV winds down, the Canadian industry is still struggling to get people to watch its shows.

While English Canada scratches its head wondering how it can inject some life into its sagging film industry, the folks at culture-funder Société de développement des entreprises culturelles are raising a glass to their first 10 years.