Warning: the following comments are extremely uninformed and represent my own opinions.
So just for the heck of it, I was searching through torrentspy. I searched for “korean”, looking for, well, South Korean films. Plenty of results. This is to little surprise to anyone that’s familiar with South Korean flicks: it’s a strong market. They first mandated that their theaters play homegrown films for 146 days of the year, and eventually the industry kicked in. Japanese films also brought in a good number of titles, as did the Hong Kong industry.
I like Korean films, and some of them even reached our shores. Oldboy came out in theaters, and I bought a copy of Tae-Guk-Gi over at HMV. They’re popular films, as they follow the Hollywood formula: good action, good music, good pace. It’s a bit shallow, but every industry needs those kinds of films.
Then I searched for Canada and Canadian. Nothing. And it’s quite reflective of the state of our industry. Actually, it’s more a reflection of the industry outside of Quebec. Let’s look at the most popular Canadian releases in the last few years: C.R.A.Z.Y., Bon Cop Bad Cop, Barbarian Invasions, Atanarjuat, The Delicate Art of Parking. Of these, three originate from Quebec. And for the Canadians reading this blog entry: just how many could you actually see in your local big-chain theater? Just how many Canadian films can you see in these at all? The likely answer is probably one or two a year. If that. Even our own “big hits” which we tout in the news don’t make it into our own theaters. What does that say of the health of the industry?
The theaters don’t want to play them because Canadian films make less money than American ones. And until our government steps in to mandate some percentage of Canadian content in cinemas, they’ll never be played. That is, unless, there’s the odd Canadian hit that made money in even the US.
Now if you go to Quebec, the situation is the opposite. There are lots of American films, yes, and imports from France; but there’s lots of homegrown talent as well, and you see them in theaters regularly. Les Boys, Elvis Gratton, C.R.A.Z.Y. are all films that made their rounds in Quebec theaters. And best of all: Quebec-made films are shown regularly in the province’s theaters. But then you go outside of Quebec, and there’s nothing but American films.
Canadian films have that reputation of making up for a lack of budget with really complex storylines. Those are wonderful. However, it needs to be complemented with horror, action, and nearly every other genre. The budget of those may seem prohibitive, but it’s doable. Sorta.
Beyond a complete lack of support from theater chains (can you blame them?), there’s no support from anyone. I was looking into all sources of funding for my fiction title… and guess what: unless you’re making documentaries that are intended to be aired on television, or a French-language film, you’re S.O.L. The support framework for, say, an Ontarian full-feature fiction film is nill. [I hold reservations about Telefilm.]
I thought I was alone voicing these opinions, until I googled for “Canada Film Industry.” And you know what the first result is? A page with this gem of a quote:
The Canadian Film Industry Filmmaker Paul Donovan once compared the difficulty of making a movie in Canada to climbing Mount Everest without oxygen. Faced with an indifferent public, harsh critics, limited funds, and foreign-owned movie houses, filmmaking in Canada is, by necessity, a labour of love. Canadian gems like The Barbarian Invasions and Nobody Waved Goodbye have succeeded because of steadfast determination.
Amen.
Until we mandate a percentage of Canadian films to be played in our own theaters, money won’t ever be generated. Unless that money is generated, there won’t ever be interest in private entities funding films. Without that funding, we won’t ever make the kind of titles we need to puncture foreign markets. But none of this will ever happen if the public continues to not care. And they won’t care until we actually have an industry to care for.
As it stands, English-Canadian films represent 1% of our domestic box office revenues. One percent. That’s quite a powerful testament to the state of our industry.