Peter Rowe is a veteran film & TV director. Rowe’s history of the Canadian film industry, Popcorn with Maple Syrup: Film in Canada from Eh to Zed, airs on CBC Thursday, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m.

Here’s the bad news. With the Canadian dollar inching its way closer to parity with the American dollar, there’s a sense among industry stakeholders that 2005 could end up worse than 2004 in terms of total production volumes.

Diane D’Aquila – Elizabeth Rex

Montreal: Arnie Gelbart, president of Montreal-based Galafilm Productions, is doing his part to boost Canadian drama, with a feature and two MOWs currently underway, several children’s properties in development, as well as a doc series in production for Showcase.
Going forward, Galafilm’s slate will be more focused on children’s programming, according to Gelbart, who says producing four seasons of The Worst Witch, a Canada/U.K. dramatic kids series, encouraged Galafilm’s move towards children’s programming. Galafilm also produces the youth series 15/Love.

Tipi Tales two

Michael and them

Picard writes and stars in directorial debut

Peewee hockey series drives new Quebec prodco

Henry Chan – Human Cargo

It turns out that production in L.A. may not be destined to collapse at the hands of Canadian service producers, as some Americans have been griping since the release of the 1999 Monitor Report. Commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America, the Monitor Report has been held up as a bible by anti-runaway activists in the effort to keep productions in the U.S.
But a new Canadian-commissioned study, International Film and Television Production in Canada: Setting the record straight about U.S. ‘runaway’ production, claims that figures in the Monitor Report are erroneous. It also stresses that Canadians spend far more money on Hollywood fare than Americans spend shooting in Canada.

The word of the day in business circles, for a thousand-or-so days by now, has been ‘transparency.’ Companies and other large organizations are under pressure from regulators, stakeholders and the public to spell out as clearly as possible every move they make, every loonie they spend, in hope of preventing any embarrassing Enron-esque or Hollinger-ish missteps.

Montreal: The Festival du nouveau cinema kicked off its 33rd edition Oct. 14 under unusual conditions. Not only were festival organizers hoping to present their best edition ever, they were also vying for the $1-million Telefilm Canada and SODEC subsidy that was previously earmarked for the Montreal World Film Festival.