The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
‘PRACTICAL SYSTEM CHANGE’ FOR CANADA’S BIPOC CREATIVES
Telefilm Canada, a top film financier, launches data collection of filmmakers who are Black, Indigenous and people of color to end a two-tiered infrastructure, where top — mostly white — producers get generous funding
As production by major American players in Canada surpasses pre-pandemic levels, the Canadian entertainment sector is striving for racial parity to ensure that early gains in diversity and inclusion are meaningful and sustainable.
Cathy Wong, vp equity, diversity and inclusion at Telefilm Canada, the country’s top film financier, tells THR that a data collection drive launched Jan. 4 aims to ensure industry changes don’t just become outliers in a still mostly white and male Canadian film and TV industry.
“This will allow us to learn more about our film industry, about projects and about the needs and to act on that,” Wong argues.
Telefilm Canada is now shifting its focus — and financing — to target underrepresented creatives in order to remove historical barriers and chip away at systemic racism. The federal government’s funding agency is specifically focusing on ways to support Black producers and other creatives.
“We need to make changes to make [Black creatives] feel more comfortable and welcome to apply to our funding programs,” Wong says.
Joan Jenkinson, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Black Screen Office, adds that Black creatives need to embrace Telefilm’s data collection drive (which will identify the size and scope of Black Canadian creatives in the industry) and get on the film financier’s radar.
“Now what is needed is engagement by producers, and I really hope they step up because this data is foundational to stimulating practical system change,” Jenkinson tells THR.
Getting that buy-in is hampered by a long-standing caste system in the Canadian film industry that guarantees financing to established and mostly white producers and historically has left little financing on the table for members of BIPOC communities, with underrepresented groups in Canada rarely seeing themselves in homegrown movies and TV series. While Canadians have access to a slew of U.S. TV shows from Black creators like Scandal, Empire, Dear White People and Black-ish, local TV dramas and movies created by and starring Black Canadians are rare. Among exceptions currently on Canadian TV is the CBC legal drama Diggstown, created by Floyd Kane and picked up stateside by BET+.
“Data collection is important because we feel that part of the reason for a lack of investment into Black and people of color communities is because of a lack of data,” says Jennifer Holness, co-founder of Toronto-based Hungry Eyes Media.
On the TV front, efforts for expanded onscreen representation have been hampered by the fact that Numeris, the Canadian TV industry’s stats collector, has never measured BIPOC media audiences, thus barring BIPOC creatives from meaningful access to advertising revenue from domestic broadcasters and production subsidies for homegrown TV series.
While the efforts of Telefilm Canada and other domestic content funders are welcomed by BIPOC communities, some argue that properly funding diversity in Canada’s entertainment sector still has a long way to go.
Says Toronto-based filmmaker Andrew Chung (White Elephant), who is also founder of the Asian Canadian Film Alliance: “There’s progress being made, but the money available is still low.”