A message from the Chair of the Board and the Executive Director

Dear industry colleagues and friends:

We are pleased to launch Telefilm’s new corporate plan, entitled Fostering Cultural Success. This new plan, which focuses on stimulating demand for Canadian content, marks an important shift for the organization.

Over the next few years, Telefilm will put into practice a series of concrete initiatives based on the following four strategic pillars:

1. Maintain and expand our core role as funder;
2. Develop our role as promoter;
3. Provide thought leadership by developing and sharing industry intelligence; and
4. Reinforce Telefilm’s organizational excellence.
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Earlier this year, Bell Canada announced that it cancelled its sponsorship to the Canada Council for the Arts for the Bell Canada Award in Video Art. For over twenty years, with the sponsorship assistance of Bell and the expert stewardship of Council, this prestigious award has honoured twenty-four innovative media artists at the vanguard of the medium, and has been a key instrument in establishing Canada’s national and international reputation for ground-breaking work in this field. It was the only award of its kind in Canada and considering the modesty of the amount involved ($10,000) its impact has been truly significant. In a letter dated 17 January 2011, each of the twenty-four previous Bell Canada award recipients signed urging the Canada Council to rescue and continue this extremely important honour through an ongoing annual award in public recognition of outstanding practice in the Media Arts field.

It would be a major loss to forfeit the momentum of such a unique prize. We cannot overstate the importance of the Bell Award, not only for the recipients but for its impact on the entirety of artist-driven media art practices in Canada. For more than twenty years, lacking any equivalent, it has been a visionary acknowledgment in a remarkable sector. We the undersigned appeal to the Canada Council for the Arts to continue its important work in sustaining a media arts award until another sponsor can be secured.

Petition: http://imaa.ca/ext/maap_en.html

Signatories list: http://imaa.ca/ext/m_results.html

Claudie Lévesque
imaa_aami
4067 boul. Saint-Laurent, #200-A
Montréal, QC |
H2W 1Y7
t: 514.522.8240
info@imaa.ca | www.imaa.ca
Skype: imaa_aami_info

The IMAA (Independent Media Arts Alliance) Speaks Out Against Bill C-32

Montreal, February 3rd, 2011 – In support of fair remuneration for media artists, the Independent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA) has signed on to the Canadian Conference of the Arts statement on Bill C-32, the Copyright Modernization Act. The IMAA joins a total of 88 national and provincial arts service organizations representing writers, performers, actors, illustrators, musicians, composers, publishers, poets, playwrights, producers and songwriters from all arts and culture disciplines. The IMAA represents 80 media arts organizations across Canada working in film, video and new media.

In its current state, parts of Bill C-32 stand to benefit larger companies and multinationals while other parts of the Bill could have a detrimental impact on independent media artists.

Bill C-32 includes a list of many new exceptions that are intended to allow educators, students, businesses and libraries to make greater use of copyright material in digital form, amongst other changes that permit greater use of copyrighted material in general.
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