Fighting the Good Fight
inside out
By Rebecca Schechter, President, Writers Guild of Canada
This year's WGC National Forum was different from previous ones I've attended. There was a new president chairing the meeting for the first time in 10 years, and we had three new councillors and five new forum delegates at the table. Also, for the first time ever, we invited three inspiring guest speakers to talk to us about economic and international cultural issues. New voices, some new issues, many new perspectives.
In other ways, it was very much like the forums I attended as central region councillor over the last six years, especially since 1999–the disastrous year the CRTC changed the rules of the game for private broadcasters and drama production went down the toilet.
Since then, we've spent every forum poring over the stats, peering into the future, and looking for some shred of hope. Life as a screenwriter has always been difficult, but since '99 it's become downright grim. Every year there's less work in hour-long series and MOWs, and the downturn has spillover effects in every genre. These are tough times, and this year–as in the past–we learned from guild staff and delegates how tough it is.
The WGC industrial relations department report that they're finding contracts harder to police, which means they're finding it harder to protect writers. When times are tough, producers develop a death grip on their wallets. They get meaner, greedier and harder to deal with.
On the lobbying front, we heard an update on Telefilm. It's not news that Canadian films have a tiny percentage of box office, or that Telefilm is determined to raise that percentage. But what became clear when Telefilm got in bed with über-talent agency CAA is that they aren't even trying to address the stranglehold the US studios have over our exhibitors. Instead, they find an easy scapegoat: Canadian screenwriters. We're just not good enough to make films that will entertain Canadian audiences, they say. Instead, they figure CAA will be able to help "repatriate" Canadian talent in LA. Surely they must realize that A-list and B-list Canadian writers in Hollywood wouldn't work for the money they'd earn, even on a big-budget Canadian movie.
Then there's news from the small screen. Networks whose only interest in drama is to find the cheapest possible way to fill up most "priority" airtime. Networks who micro-manage projects into creative rigor mortis. And when the projects fail (one, after another, after another) who do they blame? Canadian writers.
It's around this point in the forum that we break for lunch and think seriously about slitting our wrists or giving up screenwriting altogether. But this year, as in years before, the suicidal moment passes. By the end of the meeting, nobody's depressed anymore. And that's even before we finish off the weekend with the Canadian Screenwriting Awards, always a fabulous evening.
The depression lifts because the stats and the complaining and the fear make us realize that we're all in the same boat. Because listening to a group of 25 articulate, funny, passionate writers reminds us why we do what we do and why we love doing it, even when times are tough. Because when we sit around that table, it becomes clear that the Writers Guild of Canada has grown into a strong, professional, extremely smart organization which is at the forefront of the industry coalitions, making the case that Canadian voices–our voices–need to be heard.
It's never depressing to be fighting the good fight in the company of good people, even when there's no guarantee you'll win.
