N.W.T. film, TV industry needs support: filmmakers

Some of the Northwest Territories' independent film and television producers are calling for a full-fledged film commission to foster a homegrown industry.

Reality TV series like Ice Road Truckers and Ice Pilots N.W.T. have shown the Northwest Territories to viewers around the world in recent years, but independent filmmakers and media companies within the territory say they're not getting the support they need to share their own stories.

"We have the ideas, we have the creativity, we have the talent and the skill, but we have no film industry," Yellowknife filmmaker Jay Bulckaert, who has finished two of his own films in the past year, told CBC News.

"I think the biggest difference between us here and, like, the Yukon or Nunavut, for sure, is that we have no real government support."

No dedicated funds

In the last fiscal year, the Yukon Film and Sound Commission approved $443,890 in incentives for film and sound projects.

The Nunavut government, which also has its own film commission, offers financial assistance programs for film production each year.

The Northwest Territories government does have a film commission that acts as a "liaison" between film production crews with resources in the territory, from producers to hunting guides.

But running the commission is not a full-time job, and there is no dedicated budget. Furthermore, there is no government money specifically aimed at film and TV production.

"We do provide funding support through … a couple of different programs that we have," said Sonya Saunders, director of investment and economic analysis with the N.W.T.'s Industry, Tourism and Investment Department, which oversees the film commission.

"They aren't specific to film, but they are available to all small businesses."

That has Amos Scott of the Native Communications Society calling for an independent film commission with a full-time commissioner in the territory.

"It's all I'm advocating, really, is taking a traditional, oral storytelling culture and forging it into a technological society," said Scott, who is developing a TV series about young Dene people connecting with their culture and language.

'All that money goes south'

The film commission in N.W.T. receives about 40 calls a month, almost all from production companies outside the territory.

The latest TV show to feature the N.W.T. is Licence to Drill, which follows MGM Energy as it explores for natural gas above the Arctic Circle. The series debuted Tuesday on the Discovery Channel.

That program, as with Ice Road Truckers and Ice Pilots N.W.T., is being made by production crews based outside the territory, Bulckaert said.

"More and more people are interested in the North, more and more people are shooting shows up here," he said.

"It's going to continue to be companies from the [United] States or Discovery Channel, or whatever, that come here, make money, and all that money goes south."

Scott said the success of shows about the North has shown N.W.T. residents that people are interested in seeing the region on big and small screens alike.

"Those type of larger projects, you know, make local people in the Northwest Territories realize that, yes we can create film and television in the Northwest Territories," he said.