MONTREAL – At a special founding assembly last week, Quebec’s movie and TV industry formally created the Quebec Film and Television Council (QFTC).
Some 120 members of the industry were in attendance to adopt the office’s statutes and regulations and elect its first 11-member board. The QFTC’s mission is to attract foreign shootings to Quebec and to ‘carry out high-value projects for the optimal development and competitiveness of the film and television industry” in the province, says the release.
The new association grew out of the Forum métropolitain de l’industrie cinématographique, which was held on November 29, 2004, presided over by Francois Macerola. After the Forum, an 18-member development committee was formed with the mandate of establishing this organization.
Quebec’s film and audiovisual industry employs over 35,000 people and generates economic activity evaluated at $1.4 billion annually, says the new council.
“An old dream, that many considered far-fetched, has at last been realized, said Michel Desjardins (Groupe Image Buzz), on behalf of the QFTC development committee. "For the first time, producers, service providers, unions, film boards, interest groups and individuals stand united behind a plan that seeks to support the industry in Quebec, at a time when it faces ferocious competition from other recognized and emerging film centres around the world," he concluded (not to mention within the country).
The 11 people elected to the QFTC board are:
* Marie-Christine Dufour, Corporation CinéGroupe
* Claude Landry, La Fabrique d’Images
* Michel Zgarka, Productions Must -One Production
* Raymond Guardia, ACTRA / Alliance of Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
* Fortner Anderson, Le Conseil du Québec de la Guilde canadienne des réalisateurs (CQGCR) / Quebec District Council of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC – QDC)
* Patrice Houx, Alliance québécoise des techniciens de l’image et du son/Quebec Film and Television Technician’s Alliance_(AQTIS)
* Martin Fontaine, Location Michel Trudel / Mel’s Cité du cinéma
* Michel Desjardins, Groupe Image Buzz
* Andrea Kenyon, Andrea Kenyon & Associates Casting
* Lorraine Boily, Commissariat au cinéma et à la télévision de Québec (CCTQ)/Québec City Film and TV Commission (QCFTC)
* Daniel Bissonnette, Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision de Montréal/Montreal Film and Television Commission
Over the next few days, the new board members will finalize the establishment of the board, elect a president and begin setting up the organization.
