How Quebec does it better (short films, that is) by Kellie Ann Benz
Industry Centre > Blogs > Articles > How Quebec does it better (short films, that is) by Kellie Ann Benz
Posted by Kellie Ann Benz
on Friday, January 29, 2010.
Categories: Film, Articles
Let’s face it. Quebec is Canada’s well read, savvy, whip smart, fashionable, foreign language speaking super model.
We in English Canada droolingly ogle La Belle Provence’s self sufficient, star system fuelled film and TV industry. It’s everything we want. Everything we believe we can do.
Their short films are no exception.
Since the turn of the millennium, Quebec has dominated the short film category at the Genie Awards, in both live action and animation.
In 2008 alone, Claude Cloutier won the animation prize for his hilarious Sleeping Betty and Denis Villeneuve took home the statue for best live action with his Cannes winning festival hit Next Floor.
So just what is it about Quebec’s short film scene that delivers quality so relentlessly?
"That’s the $1,000,000 question." Says Danny Lennon, director of the wildly popular PRENDS ÇA COURT! short film series.
Though his response, at first, seems delightfully flippant, it actually hits the bulls eye dead on.
As Valérie Ascah, project manager/distribution at the award winning Locomotion Films explains, "Short filmmakers in Quebec are eligible for funding at the script stage. They also benefit from mentors and story editors who guide their development through production and even in distribution."
Locomotion swept up festival awards in 2009 with their hit shorts; La Vie Commence, Losing It and The Last Act, to name just a few.
The Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) overseas film and television funding and production. They offer a program called Jeunes Créateurs (Young Creators), which supports filmmakers between the ages of 18 and 35 in both development and production.
Annually, they put money behind up to 20 productions and nearly 50 scripts.
Filmmakers can tap into writing/research funding as high as $8,000 and up to $75,000 for production funding.
In the ten years that SODEC has been running Jeunes Créateurs they’ve put filmmakers like Genie award winner Jean-François Rivard (Les Invincibles), Claude Jutra Award recipient Yves-Christian Fournier (Everything Is Fine), Genie nominated Catherine Martin (Mariages), multi-award winning documentarians Yung Chang (Up the Yangzte) and Kara Blake (The Delina Mode) on the map.
Beyond SODEC, Quebec’s shorts filmmakers have funding resources at Canada Council for the Arts, Quebec Council for the Arts, PRENDS ÇA COURT! Mainfilm, Videographe, P.R.I.M., National Film Board of Canada and Spirafilm to name a few.
Even independent shorts filmmakers feel the warm hug of Quebec’s encouragement.
"I find that in Quebec, you are encouraged to take part and to present a short film, whereas in other provinces, the public tend to sit back, analyse and critique," says filmmaker (and actor) Sylvain Lavigne.
Lavigne enjoys a robust filmography and international film festival recognition for his most recent darkly funny short Simonac (Crap).
In Matthew Rankin’s 2008 Winnipeg Film Group curatorial essay, he explained the unique Quebec scene this way, "They know they’re not going to be billionaires, but they’re honest about the stories they want to tell and they embrace the limitations of their audience potential. Anglo-Canadian filmmakers, on the other hand, are more likely to feel the pressure to chase the Yankee dollar."
To wit, filmmaker Lavigne reports on the kind of funding headaches we all wish we had. "The entire film costs me $372.14. That’s $100 for make-up, $72.14 to feed everyone and $200 to my editor friend."
Lavigne is now in development on a 13 part TV series thanks to the success of his short films.
He’s not the only one benefiting, seems the Quebec audiences are getting just as much from the medium.
"PRENDS ÇA COURT!'s monthly screening in both Montreal and Quebec City are always full, buzzing with young short filmmakers, older more established filmmakers, young producers and older more established producers, school teachers from all levels of education send their students to watch the shorts. The radio, TV and publicity industry send scouts for talent and more," explains Lennon, known throughout the country as the authority on French Canadian short films.
Locomotion’s Ascah adds "Stars get involved both in front and behind the cameras."
So why all the support? Why does the entire community come together to make and enjoy these projects?
"Language," explains Ascah. "If we don’t create our own work in our own language, who will?"
"I find short films are like songs," adds Lavinge. "They are a feeling, an experience, when a short film is well executed, a simple thought or emotion can become grandiose. Brevity is the soul of wit, afterall."
If there’s one complaint, it’s this; lack of broadcast support.
"Quebec Gold is a solid contender in theatres every year, KINO is going strong after 10 solid years, but presenting short films on TV is still the biggest fight we have to fight. Apart from the Tuesday night 2 a.m. after feature time slots, short films rarely get the TV exposure they deserve," Lennon concludes.
Finally. Something every filmmaker in Canada can agree on.
- Kellie Ann Benz is a monthly columnist who writes about short film on the NSI website and also runs her own blog The Shorts Report -
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Views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).
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The views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).