Canadian films aren’t aggressively promoted and they can’t get onto screens in multiplexes, which are mostly owned by U.S. companies and completely dominated by U.S. product.

So, Canadian film is virtually invisible.

But Telefilm Canada, the federal agency dedicated to the development and promotion of national cinema, has devised a new plan.

"We are going to try to produce films that are commercially oriented, films that reach a larger audience, the kind of films that Canadians would want to see," Basile says.

Hit and miss

In April 2000, Heritage Minister Sheila Copps doubled the Canada Feature Film Fund to $100 million, on the condition that the money be used to promote Canadian movies. Copps wants domestic film to account for at least five per cent of the national box office by 2006.

Telefilm plans to devote most of the new funds to production budgets, because higher production values should make for better movies, and that should translate into larger audiences.

The internationally-acclaimed Inuit film Atanarjuat is about to hit $1 million at the box office

Domestic films account for one per cent of Canadian box office receipts; only about three per cent of films seen by Canadians are Canadian.

Getting more Canadians to see more Canadian films will be "difficult, but not impossible," Basile says.

Though American product has all but frozen Canadian film out of our theatres, in some ways, Hollywood has helped us build our film industry.

Foreign production accounts for more than 70 per cent of our industry’s economic activity, ensuring work for crews and actors and making it possible for them to make a living in Canada. When they're not working on U.S. "runaway" productions, many work in Canada's national cinema.

Unfortunately, the work they do that Canadians see is usually anything but Canadian.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding — which has been called the most successful independent movie of all time — was shot in Toronto and stars Winnipeg-born Nia Vardalos.

It's set in Chicago.

"There are Greeks in Toronto, as well you know," says Andre Loiselle, assistant director of the Carleton University School of Art and Culture. "And had it been set there, odds are, it would not have made a difference to the audiences.

"It is rather sad how the Canadian media would cling to the Canadian connection, when the movie erases Canada in its first minute." 

He's referring to the title "Chicago, 5 a.m." which flashes on the screen as the film starts.

Fighting instincts

The problem of Canadians not seeing Canadian film has "fed on itself" for more than 80 years, Loiselle says, because Hollywood has drowned our market and because our "instinct" is to ignore our own cinema.

The films Telefilm wants to finance, Basile says, will likely be lighter drama and comedy — a contrast to the murky, heavier themes often explored in Canadian film.

Telefilm was encouraged by just such a light comedy — Canada’s top-grossing English-language film in recent history, 2001’s Men with Brooms.

With strong TV and print promotion, it grossed $3.7 million at the box office.

Telefilm is itching for a repeat.

That sort of marketing blitz has become Telefilm's blueprint for success, and Basile says the agency wants to use a large chunk of its budget to make sure the films they finance are advertised "all over the place." 

Loiselle hopes clones of Men With Brooms are not the future of Canadian film.

"If this becomes the focus, we may risk losing art cinema to brainless comedies."

Is Jessica Paré, seen here in Posers, another budding star that we may let slip through our fingers?

Lee Demarbre, an Ottawa-based independent filmmaker, is baffled.

"I don’t know who they think they’re appealing to with these movies, but it’s a known fact that teenagers and young adults go to see movies more than anyone, and this type of film may appeal to an older generation — if that."

While Men With Brooms is the prototype for success, it is not the only entertaining Canadian film ever made. Nor is it the only film made in recent history that had the potential to find a mass audience.

"Fubar was fantastic," Demarbre says. "Now, there’s a Canadian movie that would’ve worked commercially."

Fubar is far removed from the typical Canadian art film. It's about a pair of beer-guzzling headbangers from Calgary.

More recently, waydowntown, a funny, accessible feature about young office workers trapped inside an office complex, was designed to appeal to a hip audience. It had more success in New York than in most cities in Canada.

Don Shebib's 1970 gem about two Maritimers trying to find their fortunes in Toronto, Goin’ Down the Road, was an early success with Canadian audiences. 

This is not the first time there has been a push for commercial success in our film industry.

In the late '70s and early '80s, Canadian filmmakers were cloning U.S. productions with such low-brow comedies as Meatballs and Porky’s. They amused the audiences, but left a lot to be desired in terms of progress for our national cinema. 

Striking a balance

Telefilm seems to have "good intentions," Loiselle says. But he says he's worried the extra money will end up going to a handful of big projects, and leave smaller, more challenging films without budgets.

"We need to strike a balance here, without selling our soul in the process," he says.

Telefilm has outlined their plan for box office success in a document called The Math.

According to The Math, any project asking for more than $1 million has to provide proof there is a target audience, which would translate into a potential for box office success.

Ottawa-based filmmaker Chantal Ling co-produced the feature Posers, a teen drama about a girl gang scheduled for release in January. Test audiences, Ling  says, have described the film as "very commercial."

But had the new "hurdles"  (as The Math calls them) been in place a year ago, this movie would likely not have been approved, Ling says.

The Math promises that filmmakers and production companies, regardless of history and experience, will not be shut out.

Demarbre is not convinced.

"Telefilm has a lot of money," he says. "But they give it to a few filmmakers instead of spreading the wealth."

His largely self-funded feature, Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, has won international film awards — most recently the Grand Jury Prize for best feature film at the 2002 MicroCineFest in Baltimore.

"Audiences seem to be digging," this loving homage to exploitation flicks of the '70s, Demarbre says. Typically rare but always packed screenings are earning it cult-hit status.

Spreading the money thinly among a wider range of projects, he says, would give a variety of talent a chance in Canada.

It’s in the stars

The key ingredient in box office success is stars, but Canada is losing them.

"There’s still a chance for our industry," Demarbre says. "But we have to start holding onto our Jim Carreys and Tom Greens, and not let them go so easily."

Canada also gets a failing grade in promoting such first-rate actors as Sarah Polley, Nicholas Campbell and Bruce Greenwood, to name a few. Although frequently celebrated and acknowledged in industry circles, they remain largely unknown to Canadian audiences.

This "vicious circle,"  Ling says, goes right back to the market.

"How big of a star can we create if nobody is watching our films?" 

Related Links The ins and outs of Telefilm Canada's role in the film industry  PDF: 822 Kb List of all Canadian film productions going back several decades Watch what you wish for