‘I think we have a terrible distribution system [in Canada],’ says Vincenzo Natali, sipping a glass of wine in a Toronto restaurant after a day editing Company Man, his US$7.5-million sophomore feature. The 32-year-old Toronto-based director may not have made any movies in the four years between Cube and his latest, but he did get an eye-opening business education that informs his reflection on Cube’s domestic performance, which he describes as ‘shameful.’

Seldom does a Canadian producer find herself in a situation where just about every broadcaster across the nation wants in on her unborn series, but that’s precisely the position Linda Schuyler of Epitome Pictures found herself in when she decided to appropriate Degrassi to the 21st century.

The recent launch of Halifax-based commercial production company Cenex may help usher in a new era of high-end spot making on the East Coast, according to founder and executive producer Scott Westerlaken.
Cenex has been set up to offer local creatives a new option for making their TV ad ideas a reality, he says, adding that high-end commercial production hasn’t flourished for a while in the Maritimes.

Vancouver: The onslaught of new digital channels launching in Canada this month means an onslaught of foreign trademarks at the gate – putting direct pressure on Canadian brands protected to date by the CRTC’s culture rules.
Notable among the newcomers is MTV, the ubiquitous American brand for youth, music and urban living, which will debut in Canada through its new partnership with Craig Broadcasting.

The phone lines and computers have been installed, posters touting possible indie breakout films have been plastered on the walls and PR material strewn about. Even the cappuccino machine has been fired up.
All that awaits another successful Rogers Industry Centre this year are sleep-deprived, delirious filmmakers and dark and crusty film buyers converging on the Park Hyatt to trade tales between screenings, and possibly do deals with one another.
For if the Toronto International Film Festival’s movie offerings are about pleasure, the Rogers Industry Centre is about power.

Instability in the German film distribution business and economic uncertainty in Italy, Japan and the rest of Asia will impact greatly on Canadian distributors buying and selling films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Mark Horowitz, handling international sales for Alliance Atlantis Pictures International out of Los Angeles, says distributors have to think hard about current, and sometimes alarming, changes in the global economy.
‘The downturn in America is negligible compared to other countries such as Germany,’ Horowitz says. ‘And we have to consider what’s happening in Italy, Japan and the Asian markets.’

Peter Lynch is the director of Cyberman, which will screen at TIFF as part of this year’s Perspective Canada series. He is a veteran TIFF-goer.
Once a year, the Toronto International Film Festival presents a kaleidoscope of dreams and possibilities for aspiring and experienced filmmakers alike. To those of us in Toronto, it is known simply as ‘The Festival,’ as in ‘Are you in the festival this year?’ For those who have a film in the festival, it is both an ego trip as well as the most humbling experience – a starlet from Hollywood can blow a Perspective Canada feature article from the cover of the entertainment section of The Globe and Mail to page 8 in a photographer’s flash.
I first attended the festival in 1978 on a recommendation from my film professor at York University, Robin Wood, who had programmed a selection of horror films. Since then, I have seen the first films of Atom Egoyan, Bruce McDonald, Patricia Rozema and Don McKellar at the festival.

Vancouver animation house Studio B Productions, creators of such cartoon series as What About Mimi? and Yvon of the Yukon, has opened a commercial animation division. Headed by producer Michael van den Bos, the new division is currently sending out reels of Studio B’s work as well as spots van den Bos produced at Vancouver’s International Rocketship, his former home of more than 15 years.
‘It seems like there are not many animation companies in Vancouver doing a lot of commercials,’ says van den Bos, who came to Studio B to work on a Christmas special the shop was producing. ‘I just thought, ‘Why not give [spots] another try?’ There are animated commercials on TV all the time, so somebody is doing them.’

Who would have thought? Canadian spot-makers may have the solution for the age-old Canadian stressor – keeping our country united. Bernard Landry must be rolling around his summer home, taking out the woodshed with a croquet mallet.

For this year’s Perspective Canada program, Playback invited the series’ two programmers to lunch to talk about what they’ve seen this year, the challenges facing the Canadian filmmaking community and the ever-shifting question of Canadian identity. Many of the 2001 films take on the sombre theme of identity, but just as many, particularly shorts, are comedies.
Programmer Liz Czach has been with Perspective Canada for seven years, while Stacey Donen has been watching films for PC for two. The pair started screening at the end of April and saw more than 147 features and 382 shorts. Out of that, they selected 18 Perspective Canada features and 27 shorts.

For some the onset of September marks the back-to-school season. For others it’s the end of them lovely summer hours. But for the international community of film buyers, distributors, filmmakers and fans, this September ushers in what’s been repeatedly deemed the second most important film festival in the universe. And for some of that same contingent, as well as the entire Canadian TV programming, buying, distributing, producing and viewing world, this September also marks the coming of Canada’s digital revolution. Ready or not, Sept. 7 is the day when something like 40 new digital channel will launch on BDUs across the land, with 40 confirmed on Bell ExpressVu, 28 confirmed on Shaw and an amount described as ‘the most’ on Rogers.

POP makes first contribution