The Wild Ride of Producing an Independent Film in Canada. A Closer Look at the Making of the Cult-Classic “Ginger Snaps” (2000).
The path that lies ahead for many aspiring Canadian filmmakers can be a harrowing and confusing one to embark upon, and perhaps is only increasingly more challenging as we move forward in time. Although Canadians have an unbelievably large variety of urban and natural landscapes to shoot in, plenty of historical narratives to draw upon, and an open minded and globally connected society that one can feel confident and free to express themselves in, sadly the film world can be much more complicated than a matter of simply creating art for art’s sake.
Of course, if a filmmaker wishes to pursue the craft of filmmaking throughout their lives and career, one must be adequately paid for their hard work and effort, because the burden of real life has a tendency to put a halt to many pursuits unless compensation exists to support a passion that requires so much dedication. Questions quickly arise when these budding creators are faced with the tasks of trying to find support in terms of financing, distribution, promotion and in contemporary context, service providers, that make the film accessible for an audience to consume. While film industries in any country require talent, resiliency and luck to break into, on a professional level, Canadians have a unique challenge in that Canada is situated just close enough to the heart of the world’s film capital, but too far away in terms of direct access to working in this cinema mecca.
The distance between the territory known as Canada and this sacred land, historically considered to be Hollywood, is accentuated by the Canada-U.S. border, which unfortunately does not act only as a symbolic idea, but literally enforces individuals to carry a passport to cross over and a visa to work in. While an uncountable number of Canadians have made the jump to the United States to become household names as actors, directors and producers, those who do not find such lottery winning luck and those who would rather remain in Canada, preferably as an independent filmmaker, need a bolstered understanding of the business world of film as a Canadian, but also the unique insight into the country’s culture and societal quirks and nuances in order to attract an audience that can extend across Canada and optimistically across the globe. An independent Canadian film that was able to do just that, in the most unlikely of scenarios, was the 2000 film Ginger Snaps directed by John Fawcett. The film achieved terrific success for a fairly low-budget, indie Canadian film that centred on teen werewolves, but to get from initial idea to profitable and critically acclaimed end result took the production team on a wild ride through the messy wilderness of the Canadian film industry.
Early on though, the production of the film had gone surprisingly well, without any real red lights or obstacles, quoted in the film’s press kit, “Motion International was the first distributor to commit to the film’s financing. Jim Murphy was a champion of the project from the beginning, seeing it as a commercial yet uniquely Canadian film. With Canada sold, Hoban went after the elusive U.S. market” (Press Kit Final revised 07–17–2K). From the words of producer Steve Hoban, “In order to make the movie the right way we needed to maximize the financing available from all territories and media. I was comfortable with my knowledge of the players in the international film world, but was not as familiar with the Canadian television world. Canadian television ended up being a critical component to our financing”.
However, the production ran into issues when Telefilm Canada had to withdraw from supporting the film financially, and left the producers scrambling to look for a way to find financial backing, until the American Unapix Entertainment stepped in to commit to financing the project (Press Kit Final revised 07–17–2K). Quoted by co-writer of the film, Karen Walton, “Telefilm was on board from day one and gave no resistance. In fact the original distributor of this movie is now the head of English Telefilm Canada in Toronto, 20 years later, isn’t that funny; but at the time he was a small distributor and loved the movie and wanted to help make the movie. Telefilm was great. In fact they were the agency that publicly defended the movie when a whole bunch of casting directors in Toronto decided that it was not Canadian for ladies to say “fuck” and talk about their periods. And thought our Telefilm money should be taken back” (Press Kit Final revised 07–17–2K).
It remains clear that according to Hoban and Walton, although the production was initially able to take flight, the inevitability of the Canadian film industry’s shakiness and instability became a problem that almost threatened the film from being able to come to fruition. In this case, it is safe enough to say that it was again, the American film industry in the form of American Unapix Entertainment that was responsible for really pushing the film through the production stages and into a final product. If it’s so difficult for Canadian filmmakers to find a smooth road through the pre-production, production, post-production processes of filmmaking in the country using Canadian financiers and crew, it could put Canadian cinema at risk of being permanently intervened by American producers. Sadly, if this were to become the norm for the Canadian film industry, it could seriously damage Canada’s autonomy as an industry, and harm the reputation of its national cinema.
From the class reading “Canadian FIlm?” and article “Why Goin’ Down the Road is the North Star for Canadian filmmakers”, by Albert Shin, Canada has historically been used as a tax-shelter for American film productions to relocate to the country temporarily to film scenes or an entirety of a film within the country’s borders in order to skimp out on paying taxes. Although this brought economic activity to the country, and presented Canada on screen to the rest of the world, it didn’t do much of anything in supporting Canadian filmmakers presenting their own unique stories. Many of these films were also very low-grade, and typically tried to emulate larger budget Hollywood films, but did not achieve great success critically or commercially. Sadly, this hasn’t helped the Canadian film industry in developing its own identity in order to separate itself from the globally dominative U.S. film, television and entertainment industry (Shin, 2017).
From the article “Karen Walton in Montreal: Chatting About Ginger”, Walton explains that “At the time the head of Telefilm did a full page article in the Globe and Mail defending the screenplay and the film. The film had not existed yet but explaining why Telefilm had supported the film precisely because of all the reasons that people like you still show up, but back in the day it was not seen as a typical Canadian film and there were some filmmakers angry that we were financed. Ironically Telefilm defended our creative honor in a national newspaper before there was even a movie publicly. Which seems insane but true” (Totaro, 2017). This insight from Walton exposes the reality that even fortunate Canadian filmmakers who find financiers and backing from production companies face a hostile environment from the film community who try to poke holes in the film’s story and themes, in what seems to be purely out of spite, which could show that the Canadian film industry as a whole is struggling and feels like they are being ignored and neglected by those who have the financial means to make their projects come to life.
Ultimately, however, Ginger Snaps was a triumph for the Canadian film industry, being taken seriously by critics around the world, including Canada and the United States, and turning a respectable profit. Detailed by Frederick Blichert in the Vice article “‘Ginger Snaps’ Was a Monster Win for Canadian Cinema), “Despite a limited release (it only made about $500K at the global box office), Ginger Snaps gained a huge following, in part likely thanks to a DVD boom. And it got a real boost from critics, who were overwhelmingly on board” (Blichert, 2020). Still though, the stressful and potentially distracting ordeal of securing a committed financial hand in the production of the film is one that could cause any other project to fly off the rails if there were any other overwhelming factors at play.
While every once in a while a truly inspiring independent Canadian film and production story finds its way to the upper echelons of the film industry on an international scale, there is still a lot of room for improvement within the Canadian film industry in order to help make the journey from seed to pickable fruit one that remains within reach for the next generation of Canadian filmmakers. Production companies and financers in Canada have a lot to handle in terms of providing sustainable backing of the development of a script and production plan, to a marketable product in the end possible to achieve for others.
Bibliography
Totaro, Donato, “Karen Walton in Montreal: Chatting About Ginger Snaps”, (May, 2017) Karen Walton in Montreal: Chatting About Ginger Snaps — ProQuest (mtroyal.ca)
Blichert, Frederick, “‘Ginger Snaps’ Was a Monster Win for Canadian Cinema, (May, 2020) ‘Ginger Snaps’ Was a Monster Win for Canadian Cinema (vice.com)
GINGER SNAPS — the movie, Press Kit Final revised 07–17–2K, GINGER SNAPS — the movie (ginger-snaps.com)
Shin, Albert, “Why Goin’ Down the Road is the North Star for Canadian Filmmakers”, (April, 2017), https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/why-goin-down-the-road-is-the-north-star-for-canadian-filmmakers/article34761178/
