slawko klymkiw, playback hall of fame 2013
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A PUBLICATION OF BRUNICO COMMUNICATIONS LTD. FALL 2013
®
ALSO: FILM DIARIES | STEBBINGS VS. SOBOL | SERENDIPITY POINT FILMS AT 15
2013 HALL OF FAME REVEALED+102WATCH
UNSPOOLING the
FUTURE OF FILM
UNSPOOLING the
FUTURE OF FILM
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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 infl uence 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 fi lm franchises of all time, Rambo. Rock Demers helped
our children understand compassion and empathy. Colm
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 refl ected 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 fi lmmaker Xavier Dolan. Here’s why . . .
Rock Demers
Colm Feore George Anthony
Photo credit: Dimo Safari
Slawko Klymkiw
Ted Kotcheff Al Waxman
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That statement would have been just as accurate in
1984, when he launched Les productions La Fête with
a remarkable fi lm, 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 fi ght into an
effective anti-war statement.
But Demers wouldn’t have been satisfi ed with that
achievement; he is, after all, a producer and wants to see an
audience respond to his fi lms. 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 fi lm – taking in
well over $1 million box offi ce dollars in Canada alone.
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
fi rst fi lm at the box offi ce, winning another Golden Reel and
garnering nearly $2 million dollars in Canada alone.
The range of Demers’ prizes is impressive. His fi lms 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 diffi cult, 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 fi lms 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 fi ction. And a certain
number of animals would have an important part in each one
of the fi lms.”
A proud French-Canadian and “citizen of the world,”
Demers decided that he could reach a global audience if
he shot some fi lms 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, Telefi lm – that I would be interested in
producing fi lms or receiving projects along those lines.”
One of the fi rst 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 fi ction 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 fi lms.
ROCK DEMERS: THE SPINNER OF TALES FOR ALL
Rock Demers’ life and career is a powerful reminder that fi lm 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.”
Demers in costume for a cameo role in the 1994 film The Return Of Tommy Tricker.
BY MARC GLASSMAN
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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 fi rst 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 fi lm 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 terrifi c 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 terrifi c
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 fi lm, 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
fi nished, ‘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 fi rst executive director of
the Canadian Film Development Corporation
(now Telefi lm Canada) and get the money to
make the fi lm. 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 fi lm
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 offi ce 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 fi lms, 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 fi lm, 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 fi lms
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,”
refl ects 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 fi lls it with tales of history combined with his own
rich story.”
TED KOTCHEFF: FROM ‘APPRENTICESHIP’ TO MASTER FILMMAKING
When Ted Kotcheff walks into a room, people pay attention.
At the age of 82, the fi lmmaker who made The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz nearly 40 years ago still exudes power and confi dence, his strong resonant voice and piercing eyes contributing to his formidable presence.
BY MARC GLASSMAN
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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[ S W A R O V S K I H U M A N I T A R I A N A W A R D ]
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Elizabeth May stills laughs about her fi rst 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 fi nally 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
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 science-
based 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.”
DAVID SUZUKI BY DAVID GODKIN
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TO THE CREATIVE TRAILBLAZERS OF CANADA.
Congratulations to this year’s Hall of Fame inductees.
NFB.ca
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12th Annual DGC Awards Saturday, October 26, 2013
For a complete list of all nomineesplease visit www.dgc.ca
CONGRATULATIONSTO ALL DGC AWARDS NOMINEES!
T H A N K Y O U T O O U R S P O N S O R S
P A T R O N S P O N S O R
G O L D S P O N S O R S
C O N T R A S P O N S O R S
B R O N Z E S P O N S O R S
S I L V E R S P O N S O R S
P L A T I N U M S P O N S O R
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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
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 English-
Canadian 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
AL WAXMAN: THE KING OF CANADIAN TELEVISION
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.”
BY MARK DILLON
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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 fi nal 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 fi lled 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 fulfi lled 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 benefi ciary 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 fi nd 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 fi tting
memorial for a man who was both local hero and Canadian
TV royalty.
THE KING’S CREDENTIALS
• IMDb lists Waxman acting in 85 fi lm 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
Waxman as Judge Othniel on the CTV drama, Twice in a Lifetime.
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It was simple, she replied: Hollywood has three lists.
The fi rst, 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 terrifi c and always keep showing up
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 fi rst 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 fi nally dipping his hand in the Hollywood till with
fi lm 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 fi rst take.
“There is no respite and you don’t have much fl exibility to
get it wrong – there is no take two,” Feore says of performing
at Stratford.
That meant Feore comes to work on fi lm 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 fi ne 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 straight-
laced 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.”
COLM FEORE: ALWAYS ON THE LIST
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.
BY ETAN VLESSING
Colm Feore in his supporting role as Cardinal Giuliano Della Rovere in the historical drama The Borgias.
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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 ]
Congratulations, Slawko Klymkiw, on being inducted into Playback’s 2013 Hall of Fame, from your friends at doug & serge.
We couldn’t have
any better ourselves.
scripted it
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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 confi dence 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
MARBLEMEDIA
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 ever-
expanding 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 fi nd 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 fi rst success in the genre
to help more people see you in that regard,” says Hornburg.
The execs remain steadfast in marblemedia’s audience-fi rst
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 fi nd the audience, and
technology will probably fi nd the business model,” he adds.
BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN
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“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 fi ve years hosting
his own interview show on Global.
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 fi lms 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-
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 fi lm critic Brian
Linehan and actor Gordon Pinsent under his belt, Anthony is
now writing two books, one a collection of short fi ction, the
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 fi lm 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.”
GEORGE ANTHONY
TV, fi lm, 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.”
BY DAVID GODKIN
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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[PLAYBACK BREAKOUT AWARD]
Although just 24 years old, Xavier Dolan dominates the game
of fi lm 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 fi lmmaking 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 fi lm,
Tom à la ferme, for a world premiere in Venice much like a
quarterback aiming sniper-like down the fi eld.
XAVIER DOLAN 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 fi lm, Laurence
Anyways, an offi cial 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 Mifi lifi lms and MK2. In
the fi lm, a young ad executive travels to the country for the
funeral of his gay lover, who died accidently.
Along the way, he fi nds 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 fi lm 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 fi rst psychological thriller Dolan
has completed.
He has another goal in mind as his latest movie contends in
Venice: shedding his fresh-faced young fi lmmaker 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 selfi es on Instagram while travelling in private
jets,” Dolan added, sounding more and more like he’s
enjoying the game.
Photo credit: Shayne Laverdiere
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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 Windfi elds
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
track. The $12 million build, which includes
earlier upgrades and repairs to increase the
sustainability of the CFC’s multiple buildings,
entered its fi nal 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 fi lm, 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, fl ourished, growing
from a $7-million to $13-million organization.
A multi-year restructuring plan has achieved
reduced operating costs, increased exposure,
a diversifi ed 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
SLAWKO KLYMKIW
Perhaps the Canadian Film Centre’s multi-year expansion and construction project, the Windfi elds 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-profi t takes business savvy, brand vision and plenty of sweet talking.
BY DANIELLE NG-SEE-QUAN
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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 refl ects 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 fi nd 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 fi nding 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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