this is sad. It’s even silly. But it was completely expected. Today we realize that our culture, that which we pay for together, does not ultimately belong to us. and slapped indashSolid.

In an article titled “After the closure of Seville films, a blow to Quebec cinema,” journalist Etienne Barry stated that many today fear that part of our cinematic cultural heritage is passing into the hands of Americans.

Upon closing its doors, distributor Les Films Sevilla will necessarily sell its assets at a larger volume. This is how you function in the cultural world. We group works into a catalog that we sell to last when we retire. Thus, cult Quebec films such as Good Cop, Bad CopAnd the Great seductionAnd the firesAnd the Starbucks Or other famous works by Xavier Dolan and Denys Arcand soon to pass into the hands of Monsieur Cigare Inc. in the United States of America.

why ? Because at the time of writing Our Cultural Policy in 1991, following the report of the Cultural Policy Advisory Group headed by Roland Arpen, politicians did not think to ask themselves this simple and vital question: “Who will ultimately belong to the culture we pay for? This is why Large “Made in the USA” multinational companies are reaping after 30 years the fruits of our creativity, our work and the reinforcement of our collective culture.

Public money, private culture

Here’s a short course on Filmmaking 101 to briefly remind us of how this wonderful world works: 1. A creator creates an engaging story. 2. A producer funded the making of this story. 3. Our governments, mainly through Telefilm Canada and SODEC, support the producer up to 90%, for his work in materializing the story; 4. The producer saves the missing 10% of the financial package, but if he knows how to do “accounting creativity”, he will invest almost 0%…; 5. The producer assigns the rights of the film to the distributor, who promotes and distributes the product to cinemas, platforms and television broadcasters at its own expense. 6. This cultural “product” shall be exploited exclusively by the distributor for a period of at least 50 years after the work has been made available to the public; 8. And you pay to see that movie…a movie you’ve already paid for, in large part, through your taxes. 9. The distributor shares the profits with producers and various rights holders, if there are profits.

In short, Quebec taxpayers pay 90% for a cinematic work that will eventually fall 100% into the hands of an Inc. She’ll be able to sell long-term, at a larger size, and that, before jumping the golden parachute toward her Florida retirement. Like in the real estate world!

This culture that we all buy together is no longer our culture.

To make a very tangible analogy: It’s as if we all paid to build a section of the highway, which, at the time of its opening, was completely ceded to the private contractor who built it. And even let it install toll booths there. Note: This principle applied to the third link will not pass … Opinion radio stations in Quebec City will immediately catch fire, shouting “Oh, scandal!”

But with culture, it’s quite abstract. It is a tangible zero. Then… the copyright, “intellectual property”, is too complicated for normal humans. complicated enough for our policy to ignore the fact that two comedians from versatile They were able to co-produce, on their own, to sell at least 175,000 DVDs of their first 126 episodes, when we all — collectively — paid between $14,285 and $78,700 per episode between 1977 and 1990, out of our public money.

by the way, versatile Shouldn’t you already be the property of everyone? To ask a question is to answer it. Meanwhile, the Passe-Partout generation thanks those who illegally “rip” some of the episodes available on YouTube, which their kids can access. Push it forward.

When does culture stop being a commodity?

It is time that Pablo Rodriguez, Natalie Roy, and parliamentarians themselves ask the question “When does culture stop being a commodity? Because to listen to lawyers and lobbyists in multinational corporations, one could say that the answer will always be ‘as soon as possible'”. The ministers of our culture or of our cultural heritage have a duty to question the legitimacy that one person (or company) can own 100% of a piece of our culture, having been paid in part, almost entirely, out of everyone’s money.

In my opinion, the only way our culture will not be judged to be absorbed by Americans is if our grant policies require making works available to the public, so that at first they are seen as to be exploited, but in the long run, like the work of an open-air museum, become accessible everybody.

To all of us, we are from Quebec culture. Each of us, through whom culture is cultivated, shared, reproduced, moved, transmitted, reproduced, and realized.

Because collective access to our culture will always generate more value, more than the profits that any Mr. Cigar Inc. listed on the stock exchange.

Let’s see in the video