When they discover local cinema, Quebec students take a liking to it and like to recognize themselves on the screen. But they still need to have access to the films. While more and more digital tools are making it easier to teach cinema in schools, teachers complain that they still come up against difficulties, particularly financial ones, in transmitting their passion for 7e art.
“Young people don’t turn to our cinema right away […], but when they finally see our films, they make great discoveries, says Caroline Laberge, film professor at Cégep de Rimouski. In the regions, it is even more difficult to have access to it on the big screen. This is why digital platforms really have an important role to play. »
However, under Canadian copyright law, if the copies come from a rental on a paid platform such as Netflix, Apple TV+ or Tou.tv Extra, teachers cannot present the films in their entirety. in class. Some works presented exclusively on these platforms must therefore be watched at home, on the individual accounts of students or their families, which can prove costly in the long run.
Thus, to introduce a Quebec film to the classroom, from elementary school to university, a teacher must turn to educational tools such as the “Campus” subscription from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), to films available for free online, or present a physical (such as a DVD) or digital copy purchased by the teacher or his institution.
On the side of Quebecor
What’s more, Elephant: Memory of Quebec Cinema, Quebecor’s philanthropic enterprise that restores Quebec cinema classics, does not offer a platform for teachers. Instead, Éléphant films are available for rental, by the piece, often exclusively, on the iTunes Store or on Helix and Illico, for Videotron customers.
“If Elephant opened up an educational component, a page would turn in the history of film education in Quebec,” says Marianne Gravel, researcher and film professor at Cégep Garneau, in Quebec. She believes that Elephant’s catalog remains one of the best resources for learning about the history of Quebec cinema.
Mme Laberge, for her part, deplores the fact that “it becomes expensive and complicated” to ask each student to pay for films individually or to subscribe to new platforms — a concern shared by several of her colleagues, she says.
“The other day, I wanted to present in class the documentary series of Elephant The sound of the French of Americaand the librarian at my school told me that I had no right, because she was [seulement disponible] on their platforms. Not only did it represent a legal gray area for me, but it’s also a real shame, ”says the Rimouski professor.
If Elephant opened an educational component, a page would turn in the history of film education in Quebec
If certain classics restored by Éléphant such as The cat in the bag, by Gilles Groulx, and For the rest of the world, by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault, are also available free of charge on the NFB website, dozens of others remain virtually inaccessible to schools. Teachers can still negotiate piecemeal agreements with rights holders, but this process remains time-consuming, explains Ms.me Gravel.
Solutions
By email, Videotron responds that its management is evaluating “the development of a solution” to “meet the needs of teachers and their students”, without giving further details. Dominique Dugas, the general manager of Éléphant and former director of Québec Cinéma, affirms for his part that he is aware of the importance of his catalog for schools and that Éléphant collaborates with several institutions individually, but that the development of a platform equivalent to that of the NFB remains “very complex”.
Be that as it may, more and more companies from here and elsewhere are offering subscriptions or special content for schools. This is particularly the case of the auteur documentary platform Tënk, which presents many local titles. The American platform Kanopy, which can be accessed through public or university libraries, is also very popular, but it has fewer films from Quebec.
Radio-Canada and Télé-Québec, for their part, offer various audiovisual content for schools, which may be broadcast in class through their Curio online platform and the Télé-Québec application, unlike films which can be found on Ici Tou.tv (free) or Ici Tou.tv Extra (paid).
Additionally, M.me Laberge, who previously used to recommend that his students watch certain short films at home, regrets that these are becoming scarce. “Before, there were several free short films on Tou.tv, but today there are hardly any left,” she points out.
At home
Mme Laberge admits that, during the pandemic, the platforms “saved her”. “They made me realize that I could watch a lot more movies than I thought outside of the classroom. However, very few platforms offer special rates for students. For Club Illico, for example, which offers “about twenty films restored by Elephant”, the subscription is $15 per month for non-Videotron customers.
The auteur cinema platform Mubi has long been one of the only ones to offer a completely free subscription for film students. For the past few years, it has offered a student rate of $8.99 per month, “for all students,” the British company says by email.
“The vast majority of schools have had no choice, since the pandemic, to build a better digital counter-offer, believes Mme Gravel. It is also for reasons of fairness that we must discard [de notre dépendance aux] paid platforms. Some families have nine subscriptions, while others, who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have none at all. »
By conducting a study with the National Institute for Scientific Research in 2019, the teacher realized that students at her CEGEP only saw an average of two Quebec films per year. It is therefore “all the more important”, she says, that they have easy access to more films, at school and at home, “to promote cultural diversity and so that they weave their own web of references”.