Producers accuse WGC of punitive actions in writer fee dispute
The Writers Guild of Canada filed a grievance against the production Someone's Daughter in September, claiming unpaid writer fees.
Two independent producers have accused the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) of punitive tactics amid a dispute regarding screenwriter payments for a feature film.
The allegation is regarding a grievance against the film Someone’s Daughter, which went into production in Quebec’s Eastern Townships on Aug. 25.
According to documents obtained by Playback Daily, the WGC issued a grievance against the producers (cited as 9543-9022 Quebec Inc. in the grievance) on Sept. 3, claiming it was in violation of the Independent Production Agreement (IPA) with the Canadian Media Producers Association because producers had not fully paid fees owed to both credited screenwriters on the production, and therefore did not have the rights to produce the film.
The outstanding fee in is for the second draft of the script, which was delivered to the original production company developing the film and paid for back in 2021. However, the WGC claimed that because the production companies took over as lead producers in 2024, the terms of the IPA require them to also pay for the second draft. Additionally, the option for the original script expired in 2024.
In correspondence with the WGC, the producers claimed that the production itself was not new, since the original production company remained attached as an executive producer. As part of the partnership, they assumed all existing financial obligations for the films, including prior debts, and expected that already paid fees would be credited. As for the option, the rights were extended multiple times before the option collapsed.
In a release issued Thursday (Oct. 23), the producers argued that the WGC has imposed itself on an agreement made in good faith by the involved parties. Among the documents is a claim by the producers that the writer and their agent had previously agreed to deduct previous payments from the production fee.
The producers have also taken issue with WGC’s action to inform other parties of the grievance, including public funders and distributors, which “threatens both the film’s financing and its reputation.” In one instance, a party has told producers that they will not pay the license fee for the film until the matter is settled, Playback understands.
“We respect the WGC and the importance of fair compensation. But this action isn’t about fairness,” said Bunbury Films president Frederic Bohbot in a statement. “The Guild seems unable or unwilling to consider the specific circumstances and show flexibility. Instead, it has chosen to act punitively.”
Lisa Blanchette, WGC’s director of communications, told Playback in a statement that notifying funders and distributors is “standard practice” for the Guild.
“The Writers Guild of Canada ensures writers are properly paid for the rights to use their work. With respect to this project, we are pursuing the available remedies under our collective agreement. We are unable to comment on matters currently under the grievance and arbitration process. It is our standard practice to notify the project’s funders and distributors of the dispute because the chain of title to the script is affected by the outcome,” said Blanchette.
The matter is being taken to arbitration, with an arbitration date not set at press time.
Someone’s Daughter is produced by Bohbot of Bunbury Films and Kacim Steets Azouz of Rebel Labs, and executive produced by Robert Vroom of Prospector Films. It is directed by Wiebke von Carolsfeld, and co-written by von Carolsfeld and Doug Taylor.
Hot Docs: 'The Walrus and the Whistleblower' Wins Top Audience Award
The Walrus and the Whistleblower
Hot Docs: 'The Walrus and the Whistleblower' Wins Top Audience Award
June 6, 2020 by Etan Vlessing
Nathalie Bibeau's The Walrus and the Whistleblower, about a former trainer at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, turned whistleblower, on Sunday picked up the top Audience Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, which was forced online this year by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The first runner-up was Elizabeth St. Philip's 9/11 Kids, which follows 16 students now in their 20s and who were in the room with President George W. Bush when he was told about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. And the second runner-up is David France's Welcome to Chechnya documentary for HBO about activists confronting Russian leader Ramzan Kadyrov's anti-gay purges.
This year's festival, from May 28 to June 6, streamed more than 140 films, including 69 virtual Q&As with the directors. The 2020 audience winners were unveiled during a virtual presentation ceremony Sunday night.
Also in the audience poll, the top mid-length documentary was Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story, by director Posy Dixon, and the top short documentary was director Aïcha Diop's Nancy's Workshop.
Hot Docs opted for a virtual market and streaming festival this year after the physical festival set to run April 30 to May 10 in Toronto was canceled as a precaution against the COVID-19 crisis.
Tuning the Brain with Music in the Montreal Gazette
Director Isabelle Raynauld
Documentary examines power of music to heal the brain
January 23 by Christine Long
MONTREAL -- Award-winning director Isabelle Raynauld has spent the past five years investigating the influence music has on the brain in everyone from military veterans, to cancer patients, to premature infants.
In one segment of her latest documentary, Tuning the Brain with Music, Raynauld focuses on a group of girls on the autism spectrum who started a rock band.
Even though some of the girls do not speak, they can communicate through music.
Read more: Online | PDF article
Revue24Images : Critique Memory is our Homeland
9 octobre 2019
Sur une vieille photographie, on aperçoit des visages affaiblis dont les regards fixant l’objectif ont l’air de vouloir affirmer une présence que nul ne semble reconnaître. L’image est abimée par le temps et par l’oubli de l’espace où ce cliché a été pris : l’Afrique, refuge pour ces corps tremblant d’humanité que l’Histoire a tenté d’effacer. À la faveur de ce documentaire, Jonathan Durand retrace les pas de Polonais déportés en 1940 au moment de l’invasion de leur territoire par les Soviétiques alors alliés des Nazis.
par Samy Benammar
Poursuivre la lecture: Article complet
Memory is our Homeland in the Montreal Gazette
Montreal documentary looks at Poles exiled to Africa in World War II
Sept 13 , 2019 by Brendan Kelly
Memory Is Our Homeland, a documentary by Montreal director Jonathan Durand, tells story of Poles exiled to Africa in the 1940s.
Montreal filmmaker Jonathan Durand grew up hearing incredible stories from his Polish grandmother and other relatives about their forced exile from Poland, how they were deported first to Siberia, and then ended up spending years in refugee camps in East Africa in the 1940s. But what Durand didn’t realize at the time was that these stories were part of a secret history that you won’t likely read about in your university textbooks.
Read more: Online | PDF article
Boost Nominated for 8 Iris Awards (Quebec Cinema Awards)
Bunbury Films is proud to announce that Boost has received 8 nominations for the Iris Awards (Quebec Cinema Awards previously known as the Jutras).
Boost written and directed by Darren Curtis received the following nominations :
- Best film, Frederic Bohbot / Bunbury Filmsand Kieran Crilly, Darren Curtis / Havelock Films;
- Best Director, Darren Curtis;
- Best screenplay, Darren Curtis;
- Best actor in a supporting role, Jahmil French;
- Best discovery in acting, Nabil Rajo (Nabil won the CSA for Best Actor in a Leading Role);
- Best Editing, Jared Curtis;
- Best Original Score, Michael Silver;
- Best Casting, Maxime Giroux, Jonathan Oliveira
Boost Lead Actor Wins Canadian Screen Award
Toronto actor Nabil Rajo wins the Canadian Screen Award for best lead actor in a feature film for his role in the Montreal production of Boost, one of five nominations received for the film.
“You have no idea what this means to a kid from Asmara, Eritrea” Rajo says. “I’ve waited a very long time to see a character like Hakeem on the big screen. Representation does matter.”
Boost is a gritty, fast-paced thriller delving into the lives of two teenage best friends, Hakeem, the son of east African immigrants and Anthony ‘A-Mac’ McDonald, who become entangled with the mob after stealing a car that leads to a windfall of cash, but has dire consequences down the road - forcing Hakeem to make a life-altering decision and define the type of man he will become.
Boost is a rare English feature film set in Montreal and led by a full ensemble black cast. The film is Nabil Rajo’s first lead role.
Supporting actors Jahmil French and Oluniké Adeliyi were also nominated.
Boost was written and directed by Darren Curtis, and produced by Academy-Award winner Bunbury Films in co-production with Havelock Films, and in association with Telefilm Canada. It is distributed by Filmoption International.
Kosher Love in the Montreal Gazette
Love Rabbi makes marriage work in Kosher Love, a documentary about Jewish matchmaking
Feb 10 , 2017 by Bill Brownstein
Rabbi Bernath, a native of Chicago who moved here over a decade back, is quite the engaging character. He breaks down the Jewish community into three groups: the not-so-religious majority “who eat bagels and watch Seinfeld;” the more serious Orthodox; and the Hasidics “who have a retro fashion sense from the 1700s.”
Bernath didn’t actually choose the role of matchmaker, but he was pressed into service when approached by so many members in the community – from, according to Beloff, “those Reformers who love crispy bacon to the Orthodox who read psalms by candlelight.”
Read more: Online | PDF article
Kosher Love on Breakfast Television Montreal
Director Evan Beloff & producer Frederic Bohbot talk ahead of the world premiere of 'Kosher Love,' a thought-provoking look at love and relationships in the Orthodox Jewish world.
Anchor: Joanne Vrakas
CBC Radio Day Break After the win
Bunbury Films (in collaboration with Reed Entertainment) is proud to announce that the film The Lady in Number 6 has won the OSCAR in the Best Documentary Short Subject Category!
Hear Frederic Bohbot speaking to Mike Finerty on CBC Radio the morning after the Oscars.
OSCAR WIN!
We are happy to announce that "The Lady in Number 6" has won an Oscar! Congratulations to the director "Malcolm Clarke" the producer "Nick Reed", and the Bunbury Films team : Frederic Bohbot (Co-producer), Carl Freed (Editor/Co-writer), Kierran Crilly (Cinematographer/Co-producer ) and Luc St-Pierre (Composer), Motion Graphics Nick Fodor, sound editing & mix James Duhamel, Colourist Alexis Vanier, Business affairs Valerie Shamash and Piano Soloist Julie Theriault.
As It Happens - CBC Radio
Alice Herz Sommer died at the age of 110 on February 23, 2014, exactly one week before the short documentary made about her went on to win the Oscar for best short documentary. The day after she left us, Frederic Bohbot was asked to speak about her on CBC Radio's As It Happens.
