MBiz

21 MBiz | june 2017 ON SCREEN MANITOBA attend the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto. "To have that support has been absolutely fundamental for my career," she says. Carole Vivier, CEO and Film Commissioner at Manitoba Film and Music (MFM), says MFM administers funds to support the creation and development of Indigenous-led projects and funds programs initiated by other organizations to support content, development and training of Indigenous filmmakers and producers. MFM funding has been allocated to: We Were Children (Eagle Vision); Cashing In (Animiki See); and Taken (Eagle Vision), among others. "Other capacity development programs we fund include National Screen Institute's IndigiDocs program; and the CBC New Indigenous Voices program, a course that exposes young Indigenous people to a variety of creative and challenging employment opportunities in film, TV and digital media," says Vivier. MFM's Television Production Fund offers a 15 per cent bonus for (self-declared) Indigenous producers when applications are ranked against non-Indigenous applications. A similar bonus exists for Francophone productions. Patrick Clément, who is Métis, is the president/producer at Manito Média. He says MFM has always been integral. "MFM administers the tax program, and we've used their equity program twice where they become an investor in projects, closing that little gap in financing without which the project might not have gone through," says Clément. Clément also sits on the board at On Screen Manitoba, where he says his role is to provide a producer's perspective from a small independent company. "We are a niche in the Francophone market in Canada, able to tell stories about who we are and what it means to be French Canadian outside of Quebec and more precisely Franco-Manitoban, and Métis- Francophone in Manitoba." Manito Média's most recent project is Au Pays des Mitchifs, an eight-part documentary series profiling the traditional Métis community of St. Laurent. He says On Screen Manitoba is a key supporter, providing access funds to get the production company to meetings with broadcasters not based in Winnipeg. "On Screen Manitoba advocates for us with all the incentives that Manitoba can provide for production, whether that's tax credits or other benefits, such as when they advocate for us in front of the CRTC when there are consolidation transactions like Bell-MTS, so the business doesn't concentrate in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver," he says. ■ Opposite page: Lisa Meeches, co-founder of award-winning production company Eagle Vision, which is currently in production on the second season of crime documentary series Taken. Above: Stills from the eight-part Manito Média documentary series Au Pays des Mitchifs, supplied by filmmaker Patrick Clément.

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