Recently, during an exchange with the public after the screening ofBody lostLéa Pool, whose work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Cinémathèque québécoise, was asked why this magnificent film, in the running for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1988, was practically impossible to find on the platforms.
Posted yesterday at 7:00 a.m.
The filmmaker replied that to her knowledge, those responsible for the Éléphant: Mémoire du Cinéma Québécois program had submitted a request to restore and digitize it, but that they had not been able to obtain an agreement with the company which owns the exploitation rights.
Body lost is not the only Quebec film that left its mark on the past to remain invisible on digital platforms. We can also cite Affective memories (Francis Leclerc), The law of the pig (Erik Canuel), Marsh (Kim Nguyen), in short, films that Elephant would like to add to its catalog by fully assuming the costs of restoration and digitization. For each title, a budget of between $50,000 and $100,000 is required.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ALLIANCE ATLANTIS VIVAFILM
Scene from Affective memoriesby Francis Leclerc
What do these few films have in common? First, they were all produced before the era of high definition. Then, the exploitation rights of these feature films now belong to the distributor Les Films Sevilla, a subsidiary of Entertainment One which, in 2012, merged with the company Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm.
Searching for common ground
Dominique Dugas, who has been running the Elephant program since 2019, and Patrick Roy, big boss of Entertainment One, talk to each other regularly, but fail to find common ground. To sum up a situation that is more complex than it first appears, let’s say that two philosophies clash here.
There is that of a philanthropic project, launched in 2008 by the Quebecor corporation, whose mission is to honor Quebec’s cinematographic heritage by giving back to older films all their luster. Then there is that of a company seeking to make its catalog profitable by offering its films to different platforms.
“Before undertaking a restoration project, we have to sign a license allowing us to then use the film on video on demand,” explains Dominique Dugas.
As we fully assume the costs of restoration and digitization, we ask for this to have the exclusive exploitation rights for the video on demand of the feature film that we have restored, as long as Elephant exists.
Dominique Dugas, director of Elephant
This is where the shoe pinches in the eyes of the distributor. This idea of ceding the exploitation rights for video on demand to a single platform is, for the moment, inadmissible in his eyes.
“Elephant’s requests are completely legitimate, since the restorations are financed by this platform, recognizes Patrick Roy. However, we have difficulty agreeing on the nature of the rights that we should give up in exchange. Of course, we would then have a restored film in hand, which we could not however exploit on other platforms. For us, this is problematic. »
In other words, a feature film restored by Elephant cannot be offered on video on demand by another platform, whether it operates by subscription (the Netflix, Crave and Amazon of this world) or à la carte (Cogeco, Cineplex Boutique and many others). However, it should be noted that the films restored by Elephant are also available on iTunes.
An open dialogue
However, Mr. Roy insists that dialogue with Elephant is still open (a meeting between the two parties took place very recently), and that he wishes to find common ground that would allow Elephant to recover part of its investments, while leaving the distributor the possibility of exploiting its titles in other places.
He also recalls an initiative launched last year, when 100 Quebec films from the Seville catalog, produced between 2009 and 2019, were offered to platforms. According to the president of the distribution company, about 70 of them would have found takers. A similar initiative, with older titles, may be launched soon.
“We continue to offer our films on all platforms. It is up to them to take them or not, ”he adds.
For his part, Mr. Dugas would have no problem seeing titles that have been restored elsewhere end up on platforms other than his own.
“I don’t want everything to go through Elephant,” assures the man who was general manager of Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma for six years, “but it is important that these films, which are part of our cultural heritage, be accessible from a one way or another. »