Fundamentally conservative, the world of investors and film producers is reluctant to take the financial risk that a better representation of Canadian diversity would involve.
This is the conclusion of a study on the subject, commissioned by the Coalition of Women in Film, Television and Digital Media Canada (WIFT Canada Coalition), and conducted by two Canadian researchers.
“What we wanted to do was to question the perceptions and preconceived ideas around risk management in the Canadian film industry, and see which stories or which hires are considered risky investments”, says Amanda Coles, of Deacon University, Australia, who conducted the study with her colleague Deb Verhoeven, of the Canada 150 Research Chair in Cultural Informatics and Gender at the University of Alberta. “And we also found that the representation of diversity behind the screen remains highly symbolic. “
The study was conducted primarily in the English-Canadian industry, with the exception of focus groups of members of the French-speaking industry. “We have found,” continues Amanda Coles, “that the people who make the decisions are predominantly white males and that has implications for how a whole range of stories are evaluated. When asked what they consider essential to the quality of a good script, they answer that it is that the characters are endearing, that the story is compelling and that it appeals to emotions. But these determinants change depending on the subject watching the film. [TDLR]. “
However, the “default” audience is always a white man, she says, noting that this may be the reason for the difficulties experienced by a film like Wonderwoman, before blowing up the box office.
No man, among the most senior decision-makers in the film industry, has agreed to meet the researchers, they say.
The researchers argue that it is precisely bold films, which do not necessarily rely on traditional stereotypes, that can create surprises at the box office. They take the example of Squid game, produced by Netflix, which, according to them, would not have crossed the traditional grid of Canadian mass media. The reflexes of producers and investors “leave behind a lot of stories and quality people”.
For researchers, the industry should seize the opportunity of the forced break caused by COVID-19 to review its parameters towards more inclusion. And if movements like Black Lives Matter or #MeToo, as well as “changes in policy have led executives who do not“ fit into diversity ”to perceive risks of damage to their reputation or risks of a political nature, current approaches to ‘diversity’ remain, to a large extent, purely symbolic, ”they write. Since public money is filtering everywhere in the film industry, the state has leverage to do more, says Amanda Coles in an interview. In addition, the authors recommend the formation of a working group “on data from the film and television industry, whose task would be to inform those responsible for organizational and political decision-making, and to question perceptions. widespread risk factors that hinder diversity and inclusion ”.
The study was funded from the Emergency Fund to support Government of Canada culture, heritage and sport organizations linked to COVID-19.