Telefilm Canada forges new path by Etan Vlessing
Source : Hollywood Reporter
December 1, 2004
Promising to look more to homegrown talent than Hollywood to bolster Canada's ailing film industry, Wayne Clarkson, most recently executive director of Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre, has been appointed as the new CEO of Telefilm Canada, the country's largest film financier, effective in January.
Clarkson replaces Richard Stursberg, who stirred controversy this year by paying CAA a retainer to shepherd Canadian producers around Hollywood to cast and finance commercially driven projects.
Clarkson said he intended to revisit the CAA agreement to judge its effectiveness after taking the reins next year. "I've heard of (the CAA agreement)," he said. "I don't know its details. The real question is whether it's working.
Clarkson, who for 25 years nurtured young Canadian directors as head of the Toronto International Film Festival, the Ontario Film Development Corp. and most recently the CFC since 1991, said he preferred looking closer to home for ways to boost the domestic boxoffice for homegrown movies.
"It's not my nature to look to solutions in Hollywood. But if Hollywood can advance Canadian talent, I'm all for it," he said.
