Telefilm Canada and the Rogers Group of Funds announce more than $1.2 million in funding support for six Canadian feature-length documentaries

Montreal, May 22, 2014—Following on the renewal of their partnership agreement in August 2013, Telefilm Canada and the Rogers Group of Funds are pleased to announce the six English-language and French-language feature-length documentaries that have benefited from funding support under the Theatrical Documentary Program. The selected projects obtained a total of more than $1.2 million in support for their production or post-production phases.

“In the last 10 years alone, we’ve invested almost $18 million to support more than 150 documentaries,” said Carolle Brabant, Telefilm’s Executive Director. “Most of this funding was granted through the Theatrical Documentary Program, which we launched a few years ago with our partner, the Rogers Group of Funds. This time round, we’re proud to support seasoned documentary filmmakers Garry Beitel (Chez Schwartz), Nicholas de Pencier (Payback), Larry Weinstein (Inside Hana’s Suitcase), Michèle Hozer (Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould), and Mathieu Roy (Surviving Progress), engaged creative talents all who enjoy an international reputation.”

Robin Mirsky, Executive Director of the Rogers Group of Funds, added: “Again this year, Rogers has selected a diverse group of documentary filmmakers, each of whom tells a remarkable story in a unique and persuasive manner. Congratulations to a group of outstanding filmmakers.”

English-language projects selected

Black Code (Ontario and Nunavut Region)
Writer-director: Nicholas de Pencier
Production: Black Code Media
Distributor: Mongrel Media

Cyberspace is all around us. We have reengineered our business, governance and social relations around a planetary network unlike any before it. But there are dangers looming and malign forces are threatening to transform this extraordinary domain. Black Code is a daring new feature-documentary that exposes perils of digital technology, security, and human rights in cyberspace, and shows what’s at stake for Internet users and citizens.

The Devil’s Horn (Ontario and Nunavut Region)
Director: Larry Weinstein
Production: Rhombus Media
Distributor: Films we Like

The Devil’s Horn, an exciting new film based on Michael Segell’s best-selling book of the same name, will both illuminate and mythologize the 170-year history of the most dangerously seductive (and feared) of all musical instruments—the saxophone. The film will also insinuate with powerful evidence that those who play the sax will eventually fall prey to the instrument’s longstanding curse and that the saxophone itself has often met near-demise as the victim of persecution and censorship.

One Sweet Film
Director: Michèle Hozer
Writers: Nathalie Bibeau and Roxana Spicer
Production: One Sweet Film
Distribution: White Pine Pictures

This is a riveting exploration of the controversial claim that “sugar is poison” and that it is slowly killing us. Through a cast of courageous and outspoken characters in the USA, Canada and abroad, the film reveals a deliberate 40-year cover-up that could be the smoking gun to our unprecedented obesity and type 2 diabetes pandemic.

French-language projects selected

Amina (Quebec Region)
Writer/director: Sophie Deraspe
Production Esperamos and the National Film Board of Canada
Distribution: Les Films du 3 Mars and the National Film Board of Canada

Amina Arraf Al Omari, a beautiful Syrian lesbian and revolutionary, sets aflame the heart of Sandra Bagaria, a young, gay, brilliant and informed Montreal professional, before launching an international “whodunit” involving American spies, some of the world’s leading media outlets (The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde…) and a host of militants and supporters of the Syrian revolution. A story about virtual relationships—a technologically unique feature of our times—with an international dimension and unfolding against the ever-shifting backdrop of a country in the full throes of civil war. A love story, first and foremost, and a story about an unprecedented media and sociological situation that spirals out of control.

 Entre la paix et la guerre (Quebec Region)
Writer-director: Garry Beitel
Production: reFrame Films
Distribution: Diffusion Multi-Monde

This documentary tells the stories of Canadians who are working to reduce armed conflict around the world. The film explores their vision, their motivation, their successes and failures as it travels with them to fragile states. Employing mediation, negotiation as well as innovative community initiatives, they are part of a new generation of front-line civilian peace workers. While following the work of the Canadian protagonists in each conflict zone, the film also takes us inside opposing factions in order to help us understand their respective views of the issues at stake.

Le Paradoxe de la faim (Quebec Region)
Director: Mathieu Roy
Writers: Benoit Aquin and Richard Brouillette
Production: Lowik Média
Distribution: Fun Film

This film brings to the fore a terrible paradox: the fact that a large majority of the world’s small farmers—that is, a little less than half the world’s population—suffers from hunger because, while the world’s agricultural output is sufficient to feed humanity, small farmers are poor and cannot obtain the foodstuffs they need for their survival. According to the filmmakers, this endemic poverty is the cause of the world’s present-day food crisis.

Theatrical Documentary Program highlights
Over the years, the Program has supported such high-profile projects as Waterlife (Kevin McMahon); Manufactured Landscapes (Edward Burtynsky); Sharkwater (Rob Stewart); Reel Injun (Neil Diamond); Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (Brigitte Berman); Last Train Home (Lixin Fan); Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children (Patrick Reed); Saving Luna (Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm); China Heavyweight (Yung Chang); La nuit, elles dansent (Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault); Prom Night in Mississippi (Paul Saltzman); Bestiaire (Denis Côté); Les Équilibristes (Violette Daneau); Pierre Falardeau (Carmen Garcia and German Gutierrez); and The Bodybuilder and I (Bryan Friedman).

About Telefilm Canada
Telefilm is dedicated to the cultural, commercial and industrial success of Canada’s audiovisual industry. Through its various funding and promotion programs, Telefilm supports dynamic companies and creative talent here at home and around the world. Telefilm also administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/telefilm_canada or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/telefilmcanada.

About the Rogers Group of Funds
The Rogers group of funds offers support to Canadian independent producers with three different types of funding: Rogers Telefund, which offers loans to Canadian independent producers; Rogers Documentary Fund, Canada’s premier source of funding for documentary films; and Rogers Cable Network Fund, an equity investor in Canadian programs with a first play on a Canadian cable channel. Three different types of financing. Three different funds. All from one source—Rogers.

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For further information, please contact:
Douglas Chow, Manager, External Communications
Telefilm Canada
514-283-0838, ext. 2225 or 1-800-567-0890
douglas.chow@telefilm.ca