速 A PUBLICATION OF BRUNICO COMMUNICATIONS LTD.
2013
HALL OF FAME REVEALED
+
FALL 2013
UNSPOOLING the
FUTURE OF FILM
102WATCH ALSO: FILM DIARIES | STEBBINGS VS. SOBOL | SERENDIPITY POINT FILMS AT 15
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Rock Demers
Canadian entertainment plays a critical role in shaping our collective story and in this year’s Hall of Fame, you can see just how pervasive that influence can be. Al Waxman’s The King of Kensington showed the rest of Canada what life was like in a multicultural enclave of the big city. Producer Ted Kotcheff’s work spanned borders and launched one of the most famous action film franchises of all time, Rambo. Rock Demers helped our children understand compassion and empathy. Colm
Colm Feore
Ted Kotcheff
Al Waxman
Feore has been a consistent presence in our living rooms for decades as one of Canada’s most prominent working actors. Slawko Klymkiw’s work with the CFC is reflected all over IMDB. And George Anthony: well, he continues to keep us well-fed in comedy, news and culture. Playback recognized their achievements at this year’s annual HoF gala held during TIFF – as well as those of David Suzuki, prodco marblemedia and filmmaker Xavier Dolan. Here’s why . . .
George Anthony
Slawko Klymkiw
Photo credit: Dimo Safari
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ROCK DEMERS: THE SPINNER OF TALES FOR ALL
BY MARC GLASSMAN
Rock Demers’ life and career is a powerful reminder that film producers in Canada and elsewhere can be wildly successful commercially while maintaining high ethical standards. Demers’ website proudly claims: “La Fête, a company involved in quality youth productions.” That statement would have been just as accurate in 1984, when he launched Les productions La Fête with a remarkable film, La guerre des tuques (The Dog Who Stopped the War), which turned a story about two gangs of boys in a Quebec town staging a huge snowball fight into an effective anti-war statement. But Demers wouldn’t have been satisfied with that achievement; he is, after all, a producer and wants to see an audience respond to his films. Talking about La guerre des tuques now, he is still proud that it won the Golden Reel Award – awarded annually to Canada’s top-grossing film – taking in well over $1 million box office dollars in Canada alone.
Demers in costume for a cameo role in the 1994 film The Return Of Tommy Tricker.
La guerre des tuques launched the genial and erudite French-Canadian on a career path that has led to many awards. As his vision of children’s programming expanded, Demers went from triumph to triumph. La grenouille et la baleine (The Tadpole and the Whale, 1989) trumped his first film at the box office, winning another Golden Reel and garnering nearly $2 million dollars in Canada alone. The range of Demers’ prizes is impressive. His films have won awards in Egypt (Reach for the Sky, 1992), Algeria (Bach et Bottine, 1987), Australia (Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller, 1988), Germany (Madame Brouette, 2003)
and Italy (Daniel and the Superdogs, 2004). Demers admits to being particularly proud of the Emmy he received for Vincent and Me in 1992, but he cites the Lifetime Achievement Award at Banff in 2001 and being received as a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2007 as being his signal recognitions up until now. Demers vividly recalls what inspired him to create his Contes pour tous (Tales for All) back in the mid-’80s. “I read an article in [Montreal newspaper] La Presse about the high number of kids that commit suicide. I said to myself, ‘what can I do?’ I know life is difficult, but it’s so worthwhile. After that article, which was a shock for me, I took six months to develop the concept of Tales for All.” Demers determined that he would produce poignant, yet funny, family films with kids as the leads. “I decided that the main characters would always be boys or girls between 11 and 13 [years old]. They would always be in contemporary stories. Nature would always have an important part in them. There would be a lot of laughter and tenderness. No animation, no science fiction. And a certain number of animals would have an important part in each one of the films.” A proud French-Canadian and “citizen of the world,” Demers decided that he could reach a global audience if he shot some films in French and others in English while occasionally co-producing features abroad in their languages. His formula proved wildly successful – and kept the dubbing industry happy. “I took six months to develop the concept. Then, I informed people around me – writers or directors or scriptwriters, National Film Board, Radio Canada, Telefilm – that I would be interested in producing films or receiving projects along those lines.” One of the first proposals Demers received was unique; it was a short story by Michael Rubbo, then a highly respected NFB documentarian. It would become the foundation of a dynamic partnership. “I heard nothing for quite a while,” Rubbo recalls, “and then one day, I got a call from Rock. ‘Michael, I want to make your story. Perhaps you could write and direct it.’ “What an astonishing offer! It was so courageous and trusting, as I’d never directed fiction before.” Demers arranged for Rubbo to read his story at Grade Six classes in Montreal schools; they workshopped it for months. “One crucial day, Rock sat at the back of the class at Roslyn School in Westmount whilst I told the story for the umpteenth time. Not saying a word, he just sat there, studying the kid’s reactions and then also watching keenly as they clustered round at the end, bubbling with excitement, acting as if they’d actually already seen a movie. When the bell rang and the horde was gone, Rock simply said, ‘I think we’re ready to go. Now, I’ll try to get the money!’” Not only did Demers get the money, The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) became an international success, the second in a string of Tales for All that now stretches for almost three decades and over 20 films.
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BY MARC GLASSMAN TED KOTCHEFF: FROM ‘APPRENTICESHIP’ TO MASTER FILMMAKING
When Ted Kotcheff walks into a room, people pay attention. At the age of 82, the filmmaker who made The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz nearly 40 years ago still exudes power and confidence, his strong resonant voice and piercing eyes contributing to his formidable presence.
Left: Kotcheff on the set of 1985’s Joshua Then and Now, with actor James Woods. Right: Kotcheff on the set of cult classic Weekend at Bernie’s (1989), along with actors Jonathan Silverman (left), Terry Kiser (middle) and Andrew McCarthy (right).
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Kotcheff is part of a golden age of directors who emerged in Toronto during the early days of CBC-TV in the mid-1950s. Arthur Hiller (Love Story), Paul Almond (the first 7-Up doc; Act of the Heart) and Harvey Hart (Bus Riley’s Back in Town) were three others. All had to leave Canada in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, along with indie Toronto director Sidney J. Furie (The Ipcress File), for a simple reason. There was no Canadian feature film industry here at the time. Kotcheff remembers it well. “That time at the CBC, when I was directing plays for television, was a glorious period in my life.” After being told by a friendly CBC executive, “Ted, you’re a terrific talent and you better get out of here – pit yourself against the best in America or London,” the resolute young Torontonian left for England. There he directed terrific writing talents – Alun Owen, who wrote the Beatles’ irreverent hit A Hard Day’s Night, black comedy genius Harold Pinter and the Nobel Prize winning novelist and playwright Doris Lessing. “I worked both in the theatre and in film, which is why I came to England,” remembers Kotcheff. All that time, Kotcheff was preparing to come back to Canada. He wanted to take the country by storm – and he did. While living in England, Kotcheff had become the best friend of another expatriate Canadian, the novelist Mordecai Richler. When they were living as roommates in London, Richler gave him his latest novel to read in manuscript. “I
read it,” recalls Kotcheff, “and I said when I finished, ‘Mordecai, not only is this one of the greatest Canadian novels ever written, one day I’m going to come back to Canada and make it.’ And we both started to laugh at the absurdity of such an idea.” The novel was The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Fourteen years later, a now vastly experienced Kotcheff was able to come to Michael Spencer, the first executive director of the Canadian Film Development Corporation (now Telefilm Canada) and get the money to make the film. Working with a script by Richler and shooting in the Montreal locations where the upstart Jewish entrepreneur Duddy would have made his fortune, Kotcheff directed a dream cast including the young Richard Dreyfuss in the titular role, Micheline Lanctot as his Quebecois girlfriend and Jack Warden as his dad. An instant classic, it won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin film festival and the Canadian Film Award. Emboldened by the success of Duddy, Kotcheff prepared an adaptation of another best-selling and critically acclaimed novel by Richler, St. Urbain’s Horsemen. But despite Duddy’s nearly $1-million-dollar box office take – huge in 1974 – investors shied away from the directing-writing duo. “My spirit was broken,” remembers Kotcheff. “I was sitting there, saying, ‘I know this is my homeland and this is where I should be making films, but what I am I going to do?’ That’s when my agent told me that ‘[Hollywood producers] Peter Bart and Max Palvesky loved Duddy Kravitz and wanted me to do a film, Fun with Dick and Jane.’ I said reluctantly ‘Alright, I’ll go down.’” Fun with Dick and Jane (1977) became a big hit, as did 1978’s Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? and 1979’s North Dallas Forty. Kotcheff’s hope of making Canadian films faded as he became a successful Hollywood director. In speaking with Kotcheff, who made sure to use Canadian crews while shooting First Blood, the original Rambo movie, in B.C., the dream of making Canadian dramatic features has never died. “Had Canada been ready to embrace Ted Kotcheff earlier, our cinematic history might have been a very different story,” reflects Helga Stephenson, executive director of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. “Ted’s enthusiasm, brains and talent infuse everything he touches and lights up the room as he fills it with tales of history combined with his own rich story.”
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[SWAROVSKI HUMANITARIAN AWARD]
DAVID SUZUKI Elizabeth May stills laughs about her first encounter with the host of Quirks and Quarks and Suzuki on Science. “I kept calling every Halifax hotel and asking to speak with David Suzuki and finally got through,” she recalls. “He [picked up and] said “You just got me out of the shower. Give me a second.” Back in the mid-‘70s Suzuki was fast becoming a hero to millions of Canadians for his increasingly vocal defence of the environment. This included the future Green Party leader, in Halifax for an anti-pesticide campaign. A gifted geneticist and academic, Dr. David Suzuki became best known for hosting the iconic The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. Over the years the program has transformed
BY DAVID GODKIN
from one devoted to explaining the science underlying the natural world to helping Canadians understand how critical it is to protect that world. Suzuki says it’s been as much of an eye opener for him as it has for them. “I feel in many ways The Nature of Things was my grounding. I really learned about the deep environmental ecology of nature.” And then Suzuki discovered something that surprised him. The immense popularity of The Nature of Things had in effect made him the face and voice of Canada’s environmental movement. This completely altered his relationship with audiences. “I was trying to empower people with knowledge and excitement and information and instead they empowered me,”
he says. “It was a huge responsibility.” Suzuki used that star power to persuade political decision makers and others to take steps to protect the planet. Other TV projects soon followed. These include his 1985 hit series, A Planet for the Taking and the critically acclaimed 1993 PBS series The Secret of Life. Later, he founded the David Suzuki Foundation, which works with government, business and individuals to conserve our environment through sciencebased research and education. Since then others have joined in praising Suzuki, including Haida First Nation leader Miles Richardson, who credits Suzuki for helping Canadians understand nature in the way that Canada’s indigenous peoples have always understood it. “It’s basically understanding and accepting that all things are connected,” says Richardson, “and that our actions have consequences.” The irony, Suzuki says, is that television, a tool which keeps people indoors, is being used to persuade people to spend more time outdoors. He thinks the trend will continue with technologies that enable viewers to probe nature – from the deep microscopic changes of a human cell to the vast mysteries of the outer cosmos. “If we use those kinds of tools I think it gives you a sense of wonder and shows that there’s really no line between us and that world out there.” fall 2013 |
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AL WAXMAN: THE KING OF CANADIAN TELEVISION
BY MARK DILLON
To millions of Canadians, Al Waxman will always be “the King.” The comedy King of Kensington, which aired on CBC from 1975 to 1980, made its lead actor a national icon. It pulled in around 1.8 million viewers per week, and in 2001 the Toronto Star’s Antonia Zerbisias called it “the single most important entertainment series ever produced in English-speaking Canada.” Created by Perry Rosemond, the show gave us a homegrown hit sitcom. It incorporated topical humour in the style of All in the Family, but rather than having a bigot at its core, it had the benign Larry King, who was always willing to help his neighbours in Toronto’s multicultural Kensington Market, where he owned a struggling variety store. The racial jokes were saved for Larry’s mother Gladys (Helene Winston), who, like Waxman’s real-life parents, was a Jewish immigrant from 34
Poland. Fiona Reid played Larry’s wife Cathy, who left him after season three. “It was gentle humour in some ways and slapstick in others. It had all the elements the American shows have, but it was very Canadian,” says Alan Erlich, the series’ go-to director and former DGC national president. The show inspired a spate of sitcoms, but none as successful. Erlich believes Waxman helped elevate EnglishCanadian TV actors to stars. And no less than the Trudeau government wanted to put that star power to use, asking Waxman and his family to attend summer events across the country to promote national unity. “We went to fairs, legion halls, baseball games and festivals. We were a typical Canadian family,” recalls Sara Waxman, Al’s wife of 32 years and mother of their sons Adam and Tobaron. Waxman began performing on CBC Radio as a teenager. He attended law school, but the lure of acting was too strong. He picked up erratic work in Canadian and Hollywood TV and movies throughout the 1960s and early ‘70s, then tried his hand behind the camera – writing, directing and appearing
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12th Annual DGC Awards
TO THE CREATIVE TRAILBLAZERS OF CANADA.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL DGC AWARDS NOMINEES! THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS PLATINUM SPONSOR
GOLD SPONSORS
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Congratulations to this year’s Hall of Fame inductees. BRONZE SPONSORS
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Waxman as Judge Othniel on the CTV drama, Twice in a Lifetime.
THE KING’S CREDENTIALS
in the well-regarded 1971 feature drama The Crowd Inside, starring Geneviève Deloir. He helmed TV episodes, as well as the features My Pleasure Is My Business (1975), Tulips (1981, co-directed), White Light (1991) and Death Junction (1994, co-directed). Canadians beamed with pride when he joined the cast of CBS cop drama Cagney & Lacey (1982-88), playing the titular female detectives’ supervisor Lieut. Bert Samuels. He later hosted Global’s Missing Treasures (1991-92), which sought to reunite missing children with their families by dramatizing their disappearances. His final role was on the CTV drama Twice in a Lifetime as the celestial Judge Othniel, who sent deceased individuals back in time to convince their younger selves to choose a different path. The series sold around the world and he worked on it up until his death, which occurred during elective bypass surgery at age 65. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had earlier offered him the post of Consul General to Los Angeles, but he took a rain check so that he could pen his autobiography That’s What I Am and perform and direct at the Stratford Festival. By the time he was ready to take on the role, it had been filled by
former Prime Minister Kim Campbell. “I’ve often wondered what would’ve happened if he had taken that post,” Sara says. “California is so health conscious. He might have been jogging and eating vegetarian food. It might’ve been better for his health, but he lived the way he wanted to live. He was working at what he loves and was successful at it. That made him a fulfilled human being.” The Waxmans were involved in many charities, including the United Jewish Appeal, Big Brothers and the Canadian Cancer Society. That spirit of giving is one of the things Waxman’s son Adam remembers best. Another beneficiary of his generosity was the Canadian acting community. “He understood what it was like for young actors starting out,” Adam says. “He taught a class called ‘Al’s Gym,’ and he never charged a penny. He said, ‘If you guys can find a space, I’ll be there.’ That kind of big-heartedness was a huge part of who he was.” And it will long be remembered. After his passing, the Merchants of Kensington Market erected a bronze statue of Waxman in the neighborhood’s Bellevue Square – a fitting memorial for a man who was both local hero and Canadian TV royalty.
• IMDb lists Waxman acting in 85 film and TV productions, directing 19, writing four and producing two • He chaired the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 1989-1992 • He was nominated for a 1991 Daytime Emmy for directing the CBS Schoolbreak Special Maggie’s Secret, about a teenager with alcoholic parents • In 1997, he won a best supporting actor Gemini Award for portraying hockey manager Jack Adams in the CBC TV movie Net Worth. The following year, he won the Academy’s Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement • In 1997 he was inducted into the Order of Canada
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COLM FEORE: ALWAYS ON THE LIST
BY ETAN VLESSING
Colm Feore is an actor’s actor. A chance conversation Feore had with a Hollywood casting director while the veteran actor was waiting to audition explains that accolade. “I wasn’t sure at all why I was there. It seemed to me a ridiculous long shot,” Feore remembers. So he asked the casting director why he was up for the part.
Colm Feore in his supporting role as Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere in the historical drama The Borgias.
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It was simple, she replied: Hollywood has three lists. The first, an A-list, has six names on it. Everyone knows who they are, though the names keep changing. And the second, the B-list, has the names of actors who once were on the A-list. That’s a long list. But the third list is a short one. “It’s called actors. You’re on that list,” Feore recalls the casting director telling him. And that’s a list Feore favours, as it features actors always in demand for their skill, versatility and professionalism. “Chris Cooper, Dylan Baker, Campbell Scott, Ed Harris – those guys are always terrific and always keep showing up
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and are going to do exceptional work every time. That’s the list I want to be on,” he says. If anything, Feore has been around the Canadian stage and screen game for so long, it’s easy to overlook that, in a fail-or-succeed business, he has succeeded so often. “Well, I’ve been extremely lucky,” he says, modestly attributing his success to the actors and directors with whom he’s worked. Those credits include his first TV show, right out of the National Theatre School in Montreal, a CBC drama called For The Record, directed by Donald Brittan. Then, in 1993, Feore portrayed Canadian piano genius Glenn Gould in François Girard’s Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. That performance got Feore away from Stratford, where he had been performing classical stage roles for 16 seasons, to finally dipping his hand in the Hollywood till with film and TV credits like John Woo’s Face/Off and Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor. Timing-wise, Feore insists he got it right by going south to Hollywood to contend as a possible star only when he was ready as an actor. “I thought that everything I was doing in Stratford was going to be useful and translatable when I actually did go there, and I went when I had something to show them,” he remembers. What he showed them was an actor with the stamina to play Hamlet and King Lear for three-and-a-half hours straight, and to get it right on the first take. “There is no respite and you don’t have much flexibility to get it wrong – there is no take two,” Feore says of performing at Stratford. That meant Feore comes to work on film or TV set primed to take his marks and perform. “I’ve had the great good fortune of working with people like Sidney Lumet, Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann – people who shoot rehearsals in maybe only a few takes. And I’m fine with that, because I know there will be no take 17,” he explains. Feore has carved out a thriving career in Canada as well, borne by starring roles like playing former Canadian PM Pierre Elliott Trudeau for the CBC and the straightlaced investigator in Erik Canuel’s bilingual Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Not bad for someone born in Boston and taken for an American in Hollywood, as he has lived in Canada for virtually all his life. “Canadians assume I’m Canadian, and I don’t disabuse them,” he admits. “And in America, they don’t put a label on me. They just say actor.”
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[ O U T S TA N D I N G A C H I E V E M E N T AWA R D ]
MARBLEMEDIA
BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN
Marblemedia co-founders Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg may have just been self-confessed “young punks” in 2001 when they told a Banff Media Festival audience to keep their heads up, because multi-platform viewership would be the next big thing. But that confidence has paid off, as the company they launched 12 years ago is now enjoying an international reputation for innovation and high quality work. In the last year alone, the company has pacted with Zodiak Kids and Surprise Bag! in the U.S. to develop new unscripted and animated projects, acquired full control of Distribution360 (it previously shared ownership with Calgary-based Seven24
Films) and expanded to LA with an eye to scripted fare. The distribution business has bolstered marblemedia’s relationships with international and third-party content partners, Bishop tells Playback, which has led to everexpanding opportunities to develop, sell and leverage their new and existing slate. Achievements in this area include international success with anchor series like This Is…, coproduced with Sinking Ship Entertainment and sold into over 200 countries, kids game show Splatalot, sold into 120 countries, and the upcoming Japanizi Going Going Gong!, which has been pre-sold into 120 countries.
Expansion into the U.S. and primetime TV is company’s next big step. “We really see content as very much a global production, as we work with our Canadian partners to manufacture for the Canadian market, but always with an eye to sell to the U.S. and globally,” says Hornburg. “It’s a trend more and more as everything has a little less money but everyone expects to have that much higher production values – we need to find ways to partner together to achieve this.” That strategy involves meeting with Canadian writers in L.A. and in some cases, investing in scripts at the early stages, or inking blind development deals with writers they think can help secure broadcast partners. Moving into primetime, the partners know, will be a challenge. “Part of the challenge when you start to expand or steer the ship in a different direction is ensuring people start seeing you in that [new] way. You really only need that first success in the genre to help more people see you in that regard,” says Hornburg. The execs remain steadfast in marblemedia’s audience-first approach to IP development for multiple platforms. “As a content company, it’s our job to build IP that has a massive audience,” says Hornburg, pointing the Splatalot web game, which has earned 150 million gameplays worldwide. “We really feel the content will find the audience, and technology will probably find the business model,” he adds. fall 2013 |
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We couldn’t have
scripted it any better ourselves.
Congratulations, Slawko Klymkiw, on being inducted into Playback’s 2013 Hall of Fame, from your friends at doug & serge.
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GEORGE ANTHONY
BY DAVID GODKIN
TV, film, newspapers and books: there’s hardly an arena in Canadian entertainment that Montreal-born writer and producer George Anthony hasn’t stepped into – or dominated. His work at CBC television features prominently, notably as a producer on such hits as Royal Canadian Air Farce, Made in Canada and This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Throughout, Anthony was driven by one simple philosophy: to put in front of Canadian audiences “the very best talent you can.” “My job was to create a climate for them where they were safe to take risks and give us their very best work,” Anthony says. “I was thrilled by all those shows.” So were Canadian audiences. Under his leadership, those programs have won more than 100 Gemini awards, along with the Prix Italia and numerous international Emmy Awards. Anthony didn’t shy away from the camera himself. Following stints as a highly popular entertainment columnist and critic for the Toronto Sun, he spent five years hosting his own interview show on Global.
Two Short Films About Glenn Gould and Douglas Coupland’s Souvenir of Canada. The common denominator in the success of those films and his other work, he says, “is having affection and a respect for the audience.” According to Gerald Lunz, producer of the Rick Mercer Report, those qualities underpin Anthony’s own approach to the arts. “Respecting your audience… giving them what they want; it’s old school show biz and George has been a godsend to Rick and I for that.” It was George Anthony who persuaded Lunz and Mercer to bring their brand of political satire to CBC TV. Anthony sees one of his roles as buffer between talent and management, a much needed skill when you’re handling shows as innovative and as willing to challenge convention as Canadian comedy. And that’s precisely why Lunz has worked with Anthony from the get-go. “He was my [most] honest relation with anyone in any network sphere,” Lunz says. “He was straight, there was no BS.” With critically acclaimed biographies of film critic Brian Linehan and actor Gordon Pinsent under his belt, Anthony is now writing two books, one a collection of short fiction, the
Anthony credits his parents for his venture into the entertainment industry. Owners of movie theatres in Montreal, they made it possible for the adolescent George to see films that were restricted to people 16 years of age and over. “So as you can imagine I was quite popular with my friends because I was able to get them into the movies,” he recalls. Those experiences would serve Anthony well later on, spearheading extraordinary films such as Thirty-
other a book of stories about Hollywood. His legacy? Well, most agree Anthony has a lot more to achieve before that chapter in his life can be fully written. For his part, Anthony prefers to think about what TV and film have given him, not what he’s given them. “Making television is a tremendous privilege. It’s so wonderful to have people invite you into their homes. As for my legacy, I have three grandchildren – I figure that’s my legacy.”
Photo credit: Dimo Safari
At the CBC, George Anthony helped launch both This Hour Has 22 Minutes (left, circa 2009) and Royal Canadian Air Farce (right, circa 2008) in 1993.
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Photo credit: Shayne Laverdiere
[ P L AY B A C K B R E A K O U T AWA R D ]
XAVIER DOLAN Although just 24 years old, Xavier Dolan dominates the game of film in Quebec. But as he considers a tribute as Playback’s breakout player of the year, the young director debates whether football, where you take the ball across the goal line to score, is a better metaphor for his filmmaking style than baseball’s strategy of putting a ball in play. “It’s not about throwing it as far as you can and then waiting to see what will happen to you while you’re running for your life,” Dolan tells Playback. “It’s about catching [the ball] to begin with, and then taking it exactly where you want, while you’re running for your life.” Dolan’s latest long game has him bringing his latest film, Tom à la ferme, for a world premiere in Venice much like a quarterback aiming sniper-like down the field.
BY EVAN VLESSING
“You’re making a movie and you seize it entirely, put both your hands on it, and then visualize a place, a goal – the further, the better – and then you take it there,” the director explains, continuing the football metaphor. “And it’s all about you in the end, although you have many allies to defend you on your way. Will you run fast enough, will you make the right choices, will you jump over the obstacles, tackle the opponents – if there is such a thing – and take the ball where you said you would?” he adds. Dolan rejects the notion that he chose Venice over Cannes after the French festival denied his last film, Laurence Anyways, an official competition berth. He said Tom à la ferme wasn’t ready for Cannes after he put its post-production on hold to act in Podz’s latest film, Miraculum.
“I’ve been mentioning my ardent desire to act for other directors for years, and since for once one had actually taken that unfalteringly reiterated statement seriously, I wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity because I had to go and strut my stuff in the south of France,” Dolan insists. Tom à la ferme, which stars Lise Roy and Pierre-Yves Cardinal and is based on play by Michel Marc Bouchard, is a France-Canada coproduction from Mifilifilms and MK2. In the film, a young ad executive travels to the country for the funeral of his gay lover, who died accidently. Along the way, he finds out that his lover’s mother knew nothing about her son’s sexual orientation, forcing him to get involved in lies and deception. Despite his latest film returning to familiar themes of gay dynamics and repression, Dolan doesn’t see Tom à la ferme as a variation on a theme. “Tom à la ferme… rather centres on the ever-growing gap between men from the country and men from the city than the actual division between heterosexual and homosexual men, and... [more] on Stockholm syndrome than on a typical bromance,” he insists. Tom à la ferme is also the first psychological thriller Dolan has completed. He has another goal in mind as his latest movie contends in Venice: shedding his fresh-faced young filmmaker label and being treated as more the enfant terrible that Quebec knows him as. Sure, the “age tag” has helped Dolan woo the Quebec media, at least until now. “But yeah, I wish the media, just like for Justin Bieber, treated me as a young adult – enfant terrible or not,” he said. “Actually, I’d be content with them treating me like I was Justin Bieber, period, which means I’d be really cute and take pouting selfies on Instagram while travelling in private jets,” Dolan added, sounding more and more like he’s enjoying the game.
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SLAWKO KLYMKIW
BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN
Perhaps the Canadian Film Centre’s multi-year expansion and construction project, the Windfields Campus improvement and expansion project, is a metaphor for the formidable task Slawko Klymkiw has undertaken as the organization’s CEO since 2005. Funding and executing a multi-million dollar building project and running a successful non-profit takes business savvy, brand vision and plenty of sweet talking. In the past eight years, Klymkiw has had plenty of practice with both. “One of the metaphors I like to use is that we wanted to change from a mom and pop [shop] to a small business,” Klymkiw says of the CFC’s strategic plan. The Windfields expansion was an especially daunting challenge: “There were times where I didn’t think we’d raise all the money,” he admits. Lead by the organization’s fundraising efforts and an infusion of government dollars, Klymkiw has so far kept the project on 40
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track. The $12 million build, which includes earlier upgrades and repairs to increase the sustainability of the CFC’s multiple buildings, entered its final stretch in May this year with shovels in the ground for the Northern Dancer Pavilion. The new structure will create additional space to house the organization’s film, TV and digital media programs. The expansion is the most visible evidence of Klymkiw’s work but under his oversight, the CFC has, by all accounts, flourished, growing from a $7-million to $13-million organization. A multi-year restructuring plan has achieved reduced operating costs, increased exposure, a diversified board and an increased slate of programs for talent development. Communication, networking and outreach – skills Klymkiw holds in spades – have been a key part of the process. “We began really making sure that our stakeholders, public and private, understood the huge economic return that came from the centre,” he explains. Klymkiw’s dedication has not gone unnoticed. “I think one of the great things for me working with him, what I appreciate – he really loves to convince people of the merit of
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what we’re doing,” says Sheena MacDonald, CFC COO, who also worked with Klymkiw when she was at Rhombus Media and he at the CBC, where he began his career. He started at the CBC in 1980 as a researcher for its supper hour program 24Hours, then as executive producer of CBC News Manitoba. He moved to CBC News in Ontario, and in the late ‘80s became EP of CBC at 6. He launched CBC Newsworld in 1992 before becoming program director of CBC Television in 1996. Ever the builder, grower and instigator of change, Klymkiw’s tenure at the CFC reflects the relentless drive for improvement he developed in his career at the CBC. Since 2005, the CFC has launched a slew of new
programs, including the Actor’s Conservatory; the Bell Media Showrunner Bootcamp; the Slaight Family Music Lab; the CFC Media Lab’s digital business accelerator ideaBOOST; the CFC/NBCUniversal TV Series Exchange; and an ongoing partnership with the Tribeca Film Institute. Despite this growth, Klymkiw knows the biggest challenge for the industry may still be ahead. “I would say that the big challenge for all us is to find the way of monetizing the digital world. Financing all of this might not be romantic, but that’s what makes shows. There has to be more work in research and development, there has to be a concrete, rigorous attempt at finding these models going forward,” he insists.
Left: Klymkiw with Norman Jewison, who founded the CFC in 1988. Right: Klymkiw (right) with Kathryn Emslie, chief programs officer, CFC Film, TV, Actors & Music, and filmmaker Paul Haggis (left).
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