At least six unions led by the Union of Quebec Artists (UDA) and the Association of Directors of Quebec (ARRQ) are asking the Quebec government to “redefine the mechanisms for allocation, distribution and circulation of funds public”.
“Despite significant investments in culture in recent years, Quebec artists and artisans continue to become poorer, which is generating a crisis of confidence in the various public institutions in the ecosystem of our cultural industry. For some, it has become impossible to practice their profession with dignity,” they write.
The six unions, which also include – in addition to the UDA and the ARRQ – the Quebec Association of Image and Sound Technicians (AQTIS), the Canadian Directors Guild (DGC), the Guild of musicians of Quebec (GMMQ) and the Society of Radio, Television and Cinema Authors (SARTEC), denounce inequalities in the allocation of public funds.
“We see gray areas in the distribution of public money allocated to the cultural industry, and this worries us,” they explain. Financing culture seems to be a lucrative windfall for some, to the detriment of artists and artisans, who are at the heart of creation, its diversity, its quality and its reputation. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Mathieu Lacombe, Minister of Culture and Communications
In their letter addressed to the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, as well as to the Prime Minister, François Legault, the six unions raise a certain number of questions which are causing more and more uneasiness in the artistic community.
“How can production companies, which receive subsidies, sit on the boards of directors of companies which themselves grant these subsidies, while the artists are absent? Why are certain large companies in both the audiovisual and music sectors granted significant recurring funding, thus reducing the share allocated to small companies which could carry out innovative projects, but which struggle to obtain financing? How can production companies that live solely on public money become so lucrative that publicly traded consortia buy them? »
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Director Martin Villeneuve
Filmmaker Martin Villeneuve (March and April, The 12 labors of Imelda, Red Ketchup) supported the call for change launched by these unions.
“It is high time to review our system, where in particular the officials of SODEC and Telefilm Canada have too much power, to the detriment of filmmakers,” he wrote in a letter sent to The Press. As Jean-Claude Lozon said, “Cultural civil servants make their living with cinema, but not me”. The filmmakers make the films, not the civil servants, yet the latter decide the fate of projects and careers in Quebec. »