SCN Matters

Feature-length documentary The Last Steamship: The Search for the SS City of Medicine Hat, developed with SCN support, will have it’s premiere at the Broadway Theatre in Saskatoon on September 3rd!

“The greatest nautical disaster in prairie history…” Though these words may, at first, seem absurd – they are absolutely and undeniably true!

The Last Steamship: The Search for the SS City of Medicine Hat delves into the infamous history of the luxurious SS City of Medicine Hat, a 130 ft steamship which met her untimely end on June 7th, 1908 when she crashed into the newly constructed Traffic Bridge in Saskatoon and sank to the bottom of the swiftly flowing river.

One hundred years later, after the happenstance discovery of the ship’s anchor by Saskatoon Fire & Protective Services divers, a full-scale underwater excavation was launched in an endeavor to locate artifacts from the ship and attempt to piece together the story of the last steamship to ever embark upon the waters of the South Saskatchewan. And now, you’re invited to come onboard and join the search!

For more information visit:  www.laststeamship.com

The Montreal Gazette gave SCN-supported film I HEART REGINA a rave review before its premiere at Montreal World Films Festival on August 30th.  I HEART REGINA is a feature-length compilation of 13 short films produced this year with SCN support, all about love in Regina.  The Gazette awards the film four stars (out of five) and writes: “Its general air of humour and self-deprecation masks the fact these 13 linked shorts tell us more about the capital city of Saskatchewan and its inhabitants than any of us outsiders might have known. Sweet, wry, rocking, sorrowful and of a surprisingly uniform standard of DIY excellence…similar themed odes to Paris, New York and Tokyo can’t touch it.”

The film will have its Regina premiere at the Regina Public Library Film Theatre, October 21-24.

Read the Montreal Gazette review here.

Visit I Heart Regina’s website here.

The sale of SCN to Ontario-based Bluepoint Investment Corp. is complete. At a press conference earlier this week, Bluepoint CEO Bruce Claassen spoke about Bluepoint’s intentions for Saskatchewan programming and investment in the province’s film industry. Please read the Leader-Post story here.

Please take the time to read this letter to members of SCN Matters from Richard Gustin of Bluepoint Investments (and former executive director of programming at SCN). It offers some insight into Bluepoint’s perspective and what may lie ahead for SCN.

And in this Leader-Post article, Heritage Saskatchewan expresses hope that SCN will continue to tell Saskatchewan stories that help us to “educate ourselves about who we are as a people.”

And as always, there is much discussion going on at the SCN Matters Facebook group.

The Saskatchewan government announced on Monday that SCN will be sold to Bluepoint Investment Corporation, an Ontario-based company.

According to SCN Matters spokesperson Robin Schlaht, “Basically the feeling at SCN Matters is that these are the cards the government has dealt via their short-sighted decision to end support for SCN and their flawed, forced privatization process, but as always we at SCN Matters will be working toward the best possible outcome for Saskatchewan viewers and the Saskatchewan television production community. As such, although we don’t know many specifics of the Blue Point plan, we would intend to work collaboratively with Blue Point to achieve a sustainable provincial educational broadcaster which addresses the needs of Saskatchewan viewers and producers.”

Read SCN Matters’ full press release here.

Read news articles about the sale in the Regina Leader-Post, The Globe and Mail, and CBC News.

The SCN-supported feature film Sisu: The Death of Tom Sukanen will be screening on June 12th in Swift Current.

Sisu is based on the true story of Tom Sukanen, a Finnish shipwright and Canadian immigrant who was institutionalized in 1943 after spending a decade building a steamship on his prairie homestead, 1200 miles inland. The triple tragedies of the dust storms, the Depression, and the loss of his family had driven this genius inventor, engineer and artist to embark on a dream, either divinely inspired or desperately mad, of sailing from the middle of the Canadian wheatlands home to Finland. Surreal imagery, animation and special effects enrich live action historical scenes, projecting Sukanen’s poetic passion onto the starkly beautiful Depression-era Canadian prairies.

Sisu will screen at the Lyric Theatre at 7 p.m. Tickets ($10) are available at the door or in advance at Cypress Ford or Creative Video.

Read a Prairie Post article about the making of the film.

Sisu Official Website

In today’s Leader-Post, Regina actor Bill Gardiner discusses the impact of the loss of SCN:

Film industry companies here are closing their doors and laying people off. Some are losing their homes and having their lives destroyed because an out-of-touch government does not understand the value this industry offers to the province. Many young people are leaving.

Read the full article here.

Gardiner also mentions contacting your MLAs, and SCN Matters strongly encourages this, too. Please find information about how to do so here.

Last week SMPIA (the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Industry Association) released a summary of results from its SCN survey that was conducted between April 9th and 23rd. With respondents from Saskatchewan’s television industry and the general public, approximately 98% of respondents wrote in favour of maintaining SCN and described how valuable an asset the broadcaster is. For instance, in the section “What do you value about SCN” 255 responses were positive, and 3 were negative.

Among the responses from producers, the survey revealed that production companies attributed $13,350,000 of their production last year to SCN involvement. This statistic matches the general figures expressed in SCN’s annual reports: that SCN provides approximately $1.2 million in licenses fees to Saskatchewan productions, and that these productions generally have budgets 10 times the SCN contribution.

Here is a selection of responses from throughout the survey:

“As a parent I can trust SCN to provide quality programming that is both fun and educational for my kids.”

“Having a husband that is from another country, the programming SCN provides has been invaluable in getting local content and him learning more about Saskatchewan. He has really enjoyed watching the programs.”

“Valuable because they reflect my culture, not American or central Canadian for that matter. Informative because it seems that SCN had an implicit expectation to educate and challenge viewers. As a Pubcaster they did not need to ‘sell’ a product but ideas.”

“The documentaries have been first-rate. Programs dealing with Saskatchewan topics and issues are invaluable. We live in a country where Saskatchewan is neglected by the national media such as the Globe and Mail. SCN has been the “voice of Saskatchewan” and we should fight for its survival.”

“Most of all, we value the opportunity to learn more about the province and the people. We are in the north and don’t get south that often. We don’t know the province well and SCN was an opportunity for us for learning and enjoyment.”

“Gives invaluable access to education and local-focused media to the province!”

“SCN is essential to Saskatchewan’s film industry. We get to tell our own stories and it is done by people who live and work in the province. SCN programs encourage the development of Saskatchewan’s film industry and provide educational programs of value to all.”

“I grew up and also raised my children on SCN programming and documentaries. They have been a part of my family for years. Why are we fixing something that is not broken!”

“I appreciate SCN programming as a viewer, but I also like the idea that it is made available across Canada on satellite systems (we watch it on satellite in Saskatchewan). I have friends and relatives in other parts of the country who watch SCN.”

“Please restore SCN as soon as possible. The gift they have given us all should be cherished not destroyed and dismantled.”

According to a new Leader-Post article, the Saskatchewan government is now considering two proposals in regards to future ownership of SCN. While Dustin Duncan, Minister of Tourism, Parks, Culture, and Sport, would not provide details about the proposals, he indicated that he wasn’t yet sure if they were “solid business plans” and that — contrary to the accelerated and uninformed proceedings on the shut-down of SCN so far — the ministry is hoping to take time to understand what it is doing before moving forward:

“We just don’t have all the information we need to make an informed decision,” said Duncan, who hopes to have more information on the two proposals by the end of next week, but noted there is no set date. “We want to make sure these are solid business plans before we get too far down the road.”

While no clear timeline has been given for the process, Duncan said that negotiations may stretch into July — though funding for SCN is only available until the end of June. He said that a decision about how long SCN will remain on the air hasn’t been made, but also said that SCN’s broadcast will continue into July if negotiations require it. It was unclear where funding for the continued broadcast would come from, why the ministry did not consider the need for time and funding for this process when it initially announced the shut-down of SCN in March, and what will happen if the ministry’s information-gathering reveals that the proposals are not “solid business plans.”

For more background on the irregularities in the government’s handling of SCN, please see our May 9 press release here.

Read the full Leader-Post article here.

SCN Matters delivered an additional 1,216 petition signatures to Premier Brad Wall today, urging the Sask Party government to restore funding to SCN.

These are in addition to the 2,451 signatures submitted in mid May (from 80 Saskatchewan cities and towns), bringing the total to 3,667 signatures submitted to date.

The Petition reads:  “We, the undersigned, appeal to you and the Government of Saskatchewan to demonstrate your commitment to the people of Saskatchewan, to Saskatchewan culture and to the economy of Saskatchewan, by renewing the Government’s support for public broadcaster SCN – Saskatchewan Communications Network.”

These signatories and the SCN Matters membership (including over 4,650 Facebook members) are urging the Brad Wall government to reverse its ill-informed decision closing SCN and to halt the privatization process which is likewise insular, haphazard and riddled with irregularities.