‘And ... action!’
Demand for audio-visual content an opportunity for Nova Scotia
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the importance of culture and the creative economy. We turn to music, art, film and television to express ourselves, but also to cope with fear and anxiety.
In Nova Scotia, added to COVID-19, we had the horrible mass shooting in Portipique and other communities, and armed forces accidents on the Iberian Sea and in Kamloops, B.C., that took the lives of many. Amid the misery, people turned to favourite forms of entertainment to unwind and stay sane during times of suffering.
Using entertainment as a way to cope is deeply rooted in the settlement history of Nova Scotia. Almost 400 years ago, Samuel de Champlain established the Order of Good Cheer at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal) to improve the morale of colonists. He used entertainment to engage people and to cope with tough times. Today, Champlain’s remedy – rooted in cultural creation – might serve us well.
We don’t know how COVID-19 will unfold. Second and third waves may
further batter our health and economy. Accordingly, efforts to revive our economy should take various forms and levels of scale. We can’t depend on just one or two measures to get us back to work.
In terms of business and strategy, our response should be multifaceted and include creative sector investment. As Fogo Island entrepreneur Zita Cobb explained at a June Atlantic Prosperity conference, “we need to take advantage of our cultural assets; they are rooted in this place, we know them well and they distinguish us from all others.” This form of “asset-based community development is based on knowing what we have, what we love and what we can develop”
In Nova Scotia, our people, a rich, diverse history and spectacular scenery are among our biggest local assets. Investing in film and television is a way to connect and to leverage them in ways that support recovery and renewal. Not only can we create jobs and training opportunities, we can also provide a forum to re-examine and re-define the Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada narrative.
The Atlantic Prosperity conference highlighted how Indigenous youth and a growing number of new Canadians are adding dynamism to this region. They should be supported in a range of ways to apply their energy to the COVID-19 recovery. The film and creative sector is one such path.
As Cape Breton University professor Lachlan Mackinnon highlights in a recent Acadiensis article, over the last 10 years Atlantic scholars have been re-examining the region the Mi’kmaw call Mi’kma’ki. The First Peoples have seen it all and welcomed a unique array of others who now call this place home, too.
But we’ve only recently begun to share the stage with others and to acknowledge that everyone needs space to tell our stories, which are varied and many. Mackinnon’s “Retrospective” highlights that, too often, we let others tell our stories in ways that distort. In film and other media, this has often undermined how we see ourselves and how we are perceived by others.
With adequate support, the film and television sector can stimulate employment and profile new narratives. A better world, POST-COVID-19, should include more of our stories about a place, peoples in transition and renewal.
Screen Nova Scotia wants to work with Public Health to implement safety protocols to manage the risk. Practical testing procedures could allow key non-nova Scotia production team members to spend less time in quarantine and more time re-engaging laidoff local creatives.
Film and television is labour intensive; it serves both to stimulate economic activity and as a platform to train and re-skill. New investment gets actors, writers and our province’s 2,500 professional film and television technicians back to work. It unlocks a long “value-chain” of building supply dealers, artisans, labourers, hotels, restaurants, rental agencies and many others hurt by COVID-19.
The demand for audio-visual content is growing. Platforms such as Netflix, Apple, Disney and Gem are fueling unprecedented demand. Nova Scotia should take this opportunity to re-establish its regional prominence in the sector by making an investment in the production of original stories a part of our path.
Our history and pandemic response shows that we deeply value our cultural sector. But in searching for ways to support recovery, we need our provincial government to show us that it, too, sees the value. This isn’t 1606, but we can at least borrow a page from Champlain’s playbook.