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Front Page, Industry News
Quebec’s film industry protests National Film Board cuts
Tuesday June 05th 2012MONTREAL – Over 150 film directors, producers, festival organizers, teachers and other artisans of Quebec’s cinema industry symbolically occupied the National Film Board’s CineRobotheque on Monday.
They were protesting the cuts to culture in the last Harper government budget that will result in the closing of the NFB’s 150-seat cinema, its offices and its video-on-demand CineRobotheque on Sept. 1.
Oscar-nominated director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) – who worked at the NFB in the late 1990s – was the marquee name on a panel that spoke to reporters and invitees at the St. Denis St. centre.
“We’re not against change,” said Falardeau, who wore a black Academy Awards T-shirt to highlight the dozens of exceptional NFB films that have got Oscar nods over the years.
“We’re not against reorganization or the wise management of public funds,” Falardeau said. “We’re against the idea of simply getting rid of things without any idea of how to replace them.”
In its March 29 budget, the Tories cut 10 per cent of the budgets of the NFB (a drop of $6.68 million), Telefilm Canada ($10.6 million over three years) and Radio-Canada ($115 million over three years).
Like its counterpart in Toronto, which is remaining partly open, the three-storey Montreal NFB centre is a busy place.
Last year, the CineRobotheque got 150,000 visitors. Come this fall, most of its 10,000 films (7,000 in digital form and 3,000 on video-discs played by the centre’s robot, “Ernest”) will no longer be accessible.
Only 1,500 will be available for streaming online – 500 as pay-per-view. Because copyright agreements restrict the remainder to on-site viewing, they will be off-limits to the public starting Sept. 1.
Then there’s the cinema.
Losing the centre’s third-floor cinema is a big blow to the two dozen film festivals that use it, from the annual RIDM documentary film fest to smaller fests for Latino, Romanian and other foreign films.
With the closing of the nearby Goethe-Institut’s German-language cinema in August, followed by the NFB’s cinema in September, Montreal will be deprived of two vital screens, organizers said.
“We can always try to find new sources of financing, but a cinema is irreplaceable,” said RIDM director Roxanne Sayegh Closing the NFB will “leave a gaping hole in the community,” she said.
Seventy-three jobs will be lost when the Montreal NFB closes.
Protests against the cuts continue Tuesday with a free 7 p.m. screening of Cinéma, Cinéma, a 1985 look by Gilles Carle and Werner Nold at the history of French-language NFB productions.
As well, Wednesday from 7:30 to 8 p.m., a Facebook “flash mob” will form a human chain linked by spools of film around St. Denis St., Emery St., Sanguinet St. and De Maisonneuve Blvd.
The event will be filmed and, after a few speeches, there’ll be an outdoor screening of NFB films by 10 well-known directors, including Falardeau’s Le temps des bouffons.
There’s also an online petition calling on the Quebec government to step in and save Quebec’s film industry by, among other things, demanding Ottawa give back the many millions it budgets for Quebec culture.
The protests are organized by an umbrella group led by NFB historian and filmmaker Denys Desjardins that’s called Mouvement spontane pour la survie de l’ONF (Spontaneous Movement to Save the NFB).
Source: Montreal Gazette
Front Page, Industry News
Quebec’s film industry protests National Film Board cuts
Tuesday June 05th 2012MONTREAL – Over 150 film directors, producers, festival organizers, teachers and other artisans of Quebec’s cinema industry symbolically occupied the National Film Board’s CineRobotheque on Monday.
They were protesting the cuts to culture in the last Harper government budget that will result in the closing of the NFB’s 150-seat cinema, its offices and its video-on-demand CineRobotheque on Sept. 1.
Oscar-nominated director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) – who worked at the NFB in the late 1990s – was the marquee name on a panel that spoke to reporters and invitees at the St. Denis St. centre.
“We’re not against change,” said Falardeau, who wore a black Academy Awards T-shirt to highlight the dozens of exceptional NFB films that have got Oscar nods over the years.
“We’re not against reorganization or the wise management of public funds,” Falardeau said. “We’re against the idea of simply getting rid of things without any idea of how to replace them.”
In its March 29 budget, the Tories cut 10 per cent of the budgets of the NFB (a drop of $6.68 million), Telefilm Canada ($10.6 million over three years) and Radio-Canada ($115 million over three years).
Like its counterpart in Toronto, which is remaining partly open, the three-storey Montreal NFB centre is a busy place.
Last year, the CineRobotheque got 150,000 visitors. Come this fall, most of its 10,000 films (7,000 in digital form and 3,000 on video-discs played by the centre’s robot, “Ernest”) will no longer be accessible.
Only 1,500 will be available for streaming online – 500 as pay-per-view. Because copyright agreements restrict the remainder to on-site viewing, they will be off-limits to the public starting Sept. 1.
Then there’s the cinema.
Losing the centre’s third-floor cinema is a big blow to the two dozen film festivals that use it, from the annual RIDM documentary film fest to smaller fests for Latino, Romanian and other foreign films.
With the closing of the nearby Goethe-Institut’s German-language cinema in August, followed by the NFB’s cinema in September, Montreal will be deprived of two vital screens, organizers said.
“We can always try to find new sources of financing, but a cinema is irreplaceable,” said RIDM director Roxanne Sayegh Closing the NFB will “leave a gaping hole in the community,” she said.
Seventy-three jobs will be lost when the Montreal NFB closes.
Protests against the cuts continue Tuesday with a free 7 p.m. screening of Cinéma, Cinéma, a 1985 look by Gilles Carle and Werner Nold at the history of French-language NFB productions.
As well, Wednesday from 7:30 to 8 p.m., a Facebook “flash mob” will form a human chain linked by spools of film around St. Denis St., Emery St., Sanguinet St. and De Maisonneuve Blvd.
The event will be filmed and, after a few speeches, there’ll be an outdoor screening of NFB films by 10 well-known directors, including Falardeau’s Le temps des bouffons.
There’s also an online petition calling on the Quebec government to step in and save Quebec’s film industry by, among other things, demanding Ottawa give back the many millions it budgets for Quebec culture.
The protests are organized by an umbrella group led by NFB historian and filmmaker Denys Desjardins that’s called Mouvement spontane pour la survie de l’ONF (Spontaneous Movement to Save the NFB).
Source: Montreal Gazette
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Front Page, Industry News
Quebec’s film industry protests National Film Board cuts
Tuesday June 05th 2012MONTREAL – Over 150 film directors, producers, festival organizers, teachers and other artisans of Quebec’s cinema industry symbolically occupied the National Film Board’s CineRobotheque on Monday.
They were protesting the cuts to culture in the last Harper government budget that will result in the closing of the NFB’s 150-seat cinema, its offices and its video-on-demand CineRobotheque on Sept. 1.
Oscar-nominated director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) – who worked at the NFB in the late 1990s – was the marquee name on a panel that spoke to reporters and invitees at the St. Denis St. centre.
“We’re not against change,” said Falardeau, who wore a black Academy Awards T-shirt to highlight the dozens of exceptional NFB films that have got Oscar nods over the years.
“We’re not against reorganization or the wise management of public funds,” Falardeau said. “We’re against the idea of simply getting rid of things without any idea of how to replace them.”
In its March 29 budget, the Tories cut 10 per cent of the budgets of the NFB (a drop of $6.68 million), Telefilm Canada ($10.6 million over three years) and Radio-Canada ($115 million over three years).
Like its counterpart in Toronto, which is remaining partly open, the three-storey Montreal NFB centre is a busy place.
Last year, the CineRobotheque got 150,000 visitors. Come this fall, most of its 10,000 films (7,000 in digital form and 3,000 on video-discs played by the centre’s robot, “Ernest”) will no longer be accessible.
Only 1,500 will be available for streaming online – 500 as pay-per-view. Because copyright agreements restrict the remainder to on-site viewing, they will be off-limits to the public starting Sept. 1.
Then there’s the cinema.
Losing the centre’s third-floor cinema is a big blow to the two dozen film festivals that use it, from the annual RIDM documentary film fest to smaller fests for Latino, Romanian and other foreign films.
With the closing of the nearby Goethe-Institut’s German-language cinema in August, followed by the NFB’s cinema in September, Montreal will be deprived of two vital screens, organizers said.
“We can always try to find new sources of financing, but a cinema is irreplaceable,” said RIDM director Roxanne Sayegh Closing the NFB will “leave a gaping hole in the community,” she said.
Seventy-three jobs will be lost when the Montreal NFB closes.
Protests against the cuts continue Tuesday with a free 7 p.m. screening of Cinéma, Cinéma, a 1985 look by Gilles Carle and Werner Nold at the history of French-language NFB productions.
As well, Wednesday from 7:30 to 8 p.m., a Facebook “flash mob” will form a human chain linked by spools of film around St. Denis St., Emery St., Sanguinet St. and De Maisonneuve Blvd.
The event will be filmed and, after a few speeches, there’ll be an outdoor screening of NFB films by 10 well-known directors, including Falardeau’s Le temps des bouffons.
There’s also an online petition calling on the Quebec government to step in and save Quebec’s film industry by, among other things, demanding Ottawa give back the many millions it budgets for Quebec culture.
The protests are organized by an umbrella group led by NFB historian and filmmaker Denys Desjardins that’s called Mouvement spontane pour la survie de l’ONF (Spontaneous Movement to Save the NFB).
Source: Montreal Gazette
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