In response to a letter from POUR LA SUITE DU DOC published in The duty On March 1, SODEC President and CEO, Louise Lantagne insisted that “no one doubts the crucial and enlightening role of documentary cinema in our society. Never, at any time, has the shadow of contempt hovered over SODEC in any form whatsoever… on the contrary, the noble profession of documentary filmmaker has always aroused our admiration and our desire to support their essential work”.
It is in this spirit that, far from wanting to engage in a battle of figures, SODEC wishes first of all to contextualize the facts put forward in this letter, and this with a view to deepening our common understanding of the issues . SODEC, adds Louise Lantagne, is open to improving the funding of documentaries, which it has done since 2019 by raising the ceiling for the assistance granted by 53%, from $150,000 to $230,000 per film project. documentary. But as we are not the only donors of the documentary, it is clear that the best way to better support its financing can only be done in consultation with all the donors concerned. SODEC is ready to actively participate in a constructive dialogue. »
Documentary funding is increasing at SODEC
Although the letter correctly quotes the annual report stating that for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, SODEC invested $1.4 million in the production of medium-length and feature-length documentaries, in fact it made offers foreplay[1] totaling $2.19 million. It should be noted that the amounts published in SODEC’s annual management report reflect the sums it committed during this fiscal year to projects that were able to complete their financing with other donors.
There is therefore a gap between the projects accepted by SODEC in a given year (reflected in the program acceptance tables) and the projects materializing in the same year (reflected in the annual report). In the example of 2020-2021, this difference of $785,600 ($2,193,100 – $1,407,500) is explained by the inability to complete their funding or by the pandemic which forced the suspension of several projects to be shot during the year, here or abroad.
In fact, SODEC has increased the financing of medium-length and feature-length documentaries: while between 2014 and 2017, SODEC’s preliminary offers totaled an average of $1.9 million per year, since 2018, this average has risen to $2.2 million, and note that for this year (2021-2022), SODEC’s preliminary offers amount to $2.69 million.
To better support the documentary
The documentary is facing several funding issues and far from ignoring the situation, SODEC has already implemented certain actions:
• In 2019, it raised its investment limit for a documentary from $150,000 to $200,000, and subsequently from $200,000 to $230,000 in June 2020. SODEC’s investment limit has therefore increased by 53% since 2019.
• SODEC has accepted requests from all producers to extend preliminary offers in the context of the pandemic, while they can complete the financing of their documentary from other funders or start filming.
• Documentaries shot since the start of the pandemic have also benefited from the two parts of the temporary aid program in the audiovisual sector (part 1 – support for maintaining production capacities in the audiovisual sector and part 2 – interruption of filming due to of COVID-19).
Finally, SODEC reiterates that it is always in communication with associations representing producers and filmmakers of documentaries so that its programs make it possible to better fund documentaries.
[1] Letter of positive decision from SODEC in a project, conditional on the confirmation of the other partners approached by the production company in order to complete the financial structure.