MONEY TALKS
Canadian producers Andreas Mendritzki and Peter Raymont share some salient thoughts
WHAT IS THE FUTURE LIKE for Canadian documentary producers? It’s a topic that’s evergreen for the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) and all independent filmmakers in this country.
We have a difficult funding system overseen by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which is trying once again this year to address the many concerns raised by its clients, which includes the documentary community. One of the major areas under review are streaming services, which are, ironically, benefitting from the current COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic, of course, has added even more layers of concern to documentary’s fragile structure.
POV contacted two documentary producers to address some of the pressing issues of the day. Peter Raymont is a veteran producer-director and CEO of Toronto’s White Pine Pictures, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary last year. As Raymont wrote to POV: “We’ve produced dozens of documentary films and series over the years, and have been honoured with an Emmy Award, plus four Emmy nominations, the Sundance Audience Award, two Oscar shortlists, DGC awards, and Genies, Geminis and Canadian Screen Awards.” Among their recent hits are Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, Toxic Beauty, and Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power. Andreas Mendritzki is a Montreal-based producer and co-founder of GreenGround, a young company which produced, in one year, Tao Gu’s Taming the Horse, Laura Bari’s Primas, and Jacquelyn Mills’ In the Waves.
hopes that this article can start an on-going
