SCN Matters

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.

The SCN documentary Silent Bombs: All for the Motherland won five Golden Sheaf Awards at the Yorkton Film Festival, Saturday, including the top prize, Best of Festival.

Produced by Regina-based 4 Square Entertainment, Silent Bombs would likely not have been possible without SCN. Director Rob King states: “SCN was integral to Silent Bombs and came in very early with a $20,000 commitment. This got us started and helped us gather the project’s $600,000 production budget, and we estimate that $400,000 of that was spent in Saskatchewan.”

Silent Bombs tells the story of communities in eastern Kazakhstan, where the Soviet Union exploded 460 nuclear bombs between 1949 and 1989. The damage residents suffered as a result of being exposed to high levels of radiation has been passed on to following generations.

The film also won the Golden Sheaf Awards for:
-Best Social / Political Documentary
-Best of Saskatchewan Ruth Shaw award
-Rob King for Best Director Non-Fiction
-Carrie-May Siggins for Best Research

Read the CBC article, “Sask. film wins top prize at Yorkton fest”

Learn more about the Golden Sheaf Awards and 4 Square Productions.

Hungry Hills, Regina director Rob King’s acclaimed feature film, made with SCN support, will be screening in Saskatoon Monday and Tuesday this week! Hungry Hills, based on the George Ryga novel, is a deftly told prairie coming of age story, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

At the Broadway Theatre (715 Broadway Avenue, Saskatoon).

George Ryga’s Hungry Hills, a “dark take on the western”, has young Snit return to the family farm after being in a strict welfare residence for boys, only to find that life at home is no less of a struggle.
Monday, May 31, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, June 1, 7:00 pm

t’s also important to note, as indicated in the Star-Phoenix article below, director Rob King “as been involved with the group SCN Matters to lobby to keep that broadcaster open. He noted SCN’s support was helpful in leveraging support for Hungry Hills from other sources”. So wear your SCN Matters buttons to show your support!

Synopsis, Reviews and Links:

George Ryga’s Hungry Hills,
90 minutes. Canada, 2010, Rating TBA

”A haunting and dark take on the western, Hungry Hills is adapted with depth and beauty by screenwriter Gary Fisher and director Rob King. Snit Mandolin (Keir Gilchrist) just wants to go home. After two years in a welfare residence for boys where daily survival literally means a fight, he is eager to get back to the family farm in Saskatchewan. But the only people happy to see him are his Aunt Matilda (Gabrielle Rose) and another young outcast, Johnny Swift (Alexander De Jordy). When Snit is unable to cultivate his family`s rock-strewn fields, he turns to Johnny`s bootlegging operation to get the farm back into working order. However, the tough-as-nails local cop Roy Kane (John Pyper- Ferguson) is on the lookout for the person who`s been brewing moonshine and all he needs is one more reason to send Snit back to the house for boys” Toronto International Film Festival

Official Site

Trailer

Star-Phoenix article

Prairie Dog article

Vancouver Sun article

Hungry Hills Facebook site

The Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative passed a motion on the SCN at its Annual General Meeting, May 30th, in Regina. The following motion passed unanimously:

That the Filmpool Executive Director, on behalf of the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative and its membership, write to Premier Brad Wall, and copy all Saskatchewan Party MLAs, urging them to restore funding to public educational broadcaster SCN, recognizing the vital role that SCN plays in training and providing opportunities for emerging film and television creators and personnel, and in retaining young filmmakers in the province.