TORO Magazine curious about Montreal’s bilingual music industry: Excerpts from interview with M pour Montréal founder Sébastien Nasra

This article out of Toronto’s TORO Magazine has some interesting tidbits that underline a current trend towards an increasingly nuanced curiosity about Montreal ‘tel quel’… (Geoff)

Excerpts from TORO goes to Montreal (TORO Magazine, Nov. 16, 2011):

“This year TORO will be covering the sixth annual M for Montreal festival, an industry conference and music showcase series bridging the gap between Francophone indie rock and pop and Anglophone/international artists, including Active Child, M83, The Barr Brothers, and more.

That gap has narrowed in the past several years; Malajube and Cœur de pirate have achieved crossover success while retaining their native language, and Montreal has become known not only as a breeding ground for buzz bands, but a true Canadian centre for music culture and business.

Cool Music Notes – An Interview with Dave Cool!

1.       Can you tell me a little bit about yourself: what do you do? What motivated you to do what you do today?

Currently I’m the Director of Member Services for the Canadian Independent Recording Artists’ Association (CIRAA), as well as the Blogger-in-residence for Bandzoogle, a website builder for musicians. I’ve been involved with music since I can remember. When I was 5, my Dad needed a drummer for his rock n’ roll cover band, so he trained me like a monkey to play a few beats and I went from there, going on to play drums and bass in punk bands, to working in recording studios, running a record label and booking venues.

2.       Can you give me some insight on how the music world works? This would be for someone who has an outsider perspective (non-music person  or for someone from a different arts background  ex. visual arts, theatre, etc)  to better understand this artistic practice and perhaps demystify the idea of the artist who is immediately discovered, like an epiphany, and on their way to stardom? Or does it work like that?

Because of reality television and mainstream media, often the perception is that musicians and bands can become instant successes. But the reality is that many of the artists and bands who are successfully making a living took many years to get there. Even The Beatles spent years performing 8-hour sets, 7 days a week in Germany before breaking into the American market. It doesn’t happen overnight, and there are no shortcuts. It’s like any other profession; it takes years of practice to hone your craft as a songwriter, performer, and often times, a business person too.

3.       Can you tell me what emerging musicians  need to know in order to make it in the music business? Where do you start if you live in Quebec? What resources could they seek? What are some music-based organizations out there to help a musician?

CBC: Does the Canadian government invest enough in arts and culture funding?: Q interview with James Moore

• Click here to read the complete article in its original context (CBC.ca)
• Click here to listen to the interview (CBC audio stream)

James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages,

(Source: CBC.ca) Heritage Minister James Moore paid a visit to Q Tuesday morning to discuss arts funding and defend recent decisions by the Conservative government to deny grants to certain organizations.

A well-spoken Moore spoke with host Jian Ghomeshi for just over half an hour – slightly longer than scheduled – and touched on the current cultural climate in Canada.

“Culture in Canada is so widespread, so diverse, so impressive … One of the things we do best in Canada is intellectual property, that’s to say arts, culture, movies, television,” he raved.

The interview later turned to indie theatre festival SummerWorks, who lost federal funding, in part some speculate because of its decision to put on a play about a Toronto 18 member.

Moore said the decision was not in response to the controversy generated by that particular play but rather that money had gone to other worthy organizations.

He invited SummerWorks to apply next year.

Moore went on to address the CBC’s funding, saying that while there will be no privatization of the public broadcaster anytime soon, he expects all corporations to trim costs.

On SunTV and Margie Gillis, BackoftheBook.ca

Context: A video of Sun Media’s Krista Erickson browbeating dance legend Margie Gillis went viral last week. For posts about the ensuing debate, click here and here. For posts on a similar debate in the French media last month, see here, here and here.

 —–

On SunTV and Margie Gillis (excerpts), by Louis Laberge-Côté

Canadian dancer Louis Laberge-Côté, currently a teacher at Nationaltheatre Manheim in Germany, offered this assessment.

[...] And by the way, culture sector workers (including artists) are taxpayers just like any other worker in Canada, something Miss Erickson seems to easily forget.

[...] Each time an artist like Margie Gillis receives a grant, Canadians are hired: dancers, actors, musicians, composers, rehearsal directors, lighting/costume/set designers, photographers, administrative and marketing staff, to name a few. Rehearsal and performing space are rented. Eventually, posters, flyers, ads and programs are designed, printed and distributed. Many audience members go to a restaurant before or after the performance traveling by car, taxi, or public transportation. Previews and reviews are written in newspapers and magazines. Tourists come to a city or decide to stay longer to see a specific show or exhibition. Touring artists fly and travel all around the world on commercial airlines. The list goes on and on.

[...] Looking at it proportionally, it is easy to see that cultural funding doesn’t represent that much money in the big picture. In fact, wanting to cut these amounts to help the economy is somewhat similar to wanting to cut the toenails of an obese man, just so he could lose some weight. Somewhat ridiculous, don’t you think? Especially since by comparing these numbers with the ones from the Conference Board, we can also see that this “small” collective investment is actually quite a profitable one; the Conference Board estimates that in 2007, the expenses related to culture on all levels of government together (federal, provincial and local) reached $7.9 billion. This $7.9 billion generated $84.6 globally, something we all benefit from, and not only the “cultural elites” as Miss Erickson likes to believe.

[...] But let’s use a more contemporary example; Cirque du Soleil started from nothing and is now worth around $2 billion. In the early ‘80s, the founders were a few unknown artists living in Baie-Saint-Paul with no rehearsal space. I am pretty sure Miss Erickson would have gladly described them as “walk like an Egyptian” “artsy fartsy” “cultural elites”, to use more of the colourful language she enjoys so much. But luckily, Guy Laliberté didn’t meet with Miss Erickson when he needed public support. He met with Québec Premier René Lévesque who took the time to listen. Thanks to a politician who had faith in culture, this little circus with no audience at the time became a highly successful international enterprise. But this didn’t happen in one day. It took many years of research, development, and trial and error which were at first not profitable.

[...] In fact, many artistic movements and creators were at first not appreciated by their contemporaries. For the longest time, jazz music had a very limited audience. Artists such as Van Gogh and Stravinsky, whose work is greatly appreciated nowadays, had very difficult beginnings. Many of the things we can enjoy today as “normal entertainment” would have been completely misunderstood just a hundred years ago. And that’s normal, as this is how humanity evolves. Should we stop artistic evolution just because it requires effort and personal exploration to fully appreciate it, especially knowing that this pattern (avant-garde works not being mainstream) has existed for centuries? Obviously no.

And of course, this pattern also exists in other fields. Take science for example. There is practical science which has clear direct function. And there is leading-edge research, which doesn’t necessarily have immediate results. But leading-edge research is the reason why diabetes treatments, X-rays and supersonic planes exist today. I don’t understand why artists are being publicly described as spoiled elitists when the government also supports the pharmaceutical industry, high-caliber sports or higher education. Everything is financed by the state. And everybody benefits from it. When an athlete competes on an international level, we’re all winners. When an artist like Margie Gillis presents her work internationally, the effect is the same. [...]

La Presse and Rue Frontenac respond to aggressive Margie Gillis interview on Sun TV News

Canada Live with Krista Erikson, June 1 2011

A video of Sun Media’s Krista Erickson browbeating dance legend Margie Gillis went viral last week. For context and a link to the video, click here. We have yet to notice discussion in Canada’s English papers, but journalists for La Presse and RueFrontenac.com have filed responses this week.

Translated excerpts and links to the complete original articles are available below.
(Translations by ELAN).

*****

Marc Cassivi, La Presse

La compassion de Sun TV News / The Compassion of Sun TV News
Marc Cassivi, La Presse (June  7)

“Why do you need grants for this?” asks the journalist, falsely earnest, mockingly miming Margie Gillis’ hand gestures [from the video clip]. “Because art in our country is not profitable,” the dancer responds, calm despite multiple provocations. “Why would taxpayers pay for something that isn’t profitable?” exclaims the journalist, as if revealing a self-evident fact.

She says this with clear disdain. With the short-term fiscal logic of those who can see no reason for art: Why would you get $1.2M in taxpayers’ money to make silly gestures with your arms?

Why, you ask? Because without public financing not only would there be no contemporary dance, but no theatre, literature, music or television as we know them in Canada. Even private television, which benefits from tax credits and other public supports, would be unrecognizable.

[...] At that moment I found myself wondering if Krista Erickson, in her frenzy of sophistry, would lead the same style of interview with Don Cherry, who never misses a chance to recall his support for the war. Don Cherry who, for his frequently contemptuous commentary between two periods of hockey on public television, takes home a salary estimated at more than $700,000  (and refuses to reveal the actual total of his contract).

[..] These details don’t interest Sun TV News. But an average $100,000 per year to support the activities of one of the most respected dancers in the country and the members of her troupe, well, that is fodder for a scandal.

[Click here to read the complete original article on www.cyberpresse.ca]

*****

Patrick Gauthier, Rue Frontenac

La maison de verre / The Glass House
Patrick Gauthier, RueFrontenac.com

In short, the two Quebecor commentators [Krista Erickson and Nathalie Elgrably-Levy] feel taxpayers’ money should stay in the taxpayers’ pockets and the free market will take care of the rest.

Here, we face a superb example of “Do as I say, not as I do.” As reported in Rue Frontenac two years ago, Quebecor pockets its fair share of grants every year.

A simple click on the Canadian Heritage site reveals that for the year 2009-10 alone, eight magazines by TVA Publications (a Quebecor property) pocketed $2,108,657 in grants under the Publications Assistance Program.

The same empire that denounces $1.2M given to one of the greatest dancers in history and her company over [13 years] pockets, with out laughing, more than $2M a year for MAGAZINES that sell ads and often do little more than publicize the empire’s own products.

For example, TV Hebdo alone received more than three-quarters of a millions dollars last year. Whereas 7 Jours (which just won the prize for best selling edition at newsstands, for the one with Celine’s twins on the cover) collected $48,380.

[Click here to read the complete original article on RueFrontenac.com]

French radio host asks Anglo filmmaker ‘La question qui tue’

Excerpt from French radio host fires loaded question at Jacob Tierney, by Brendan Kelly for The Gazette

Jacob Tierney's new movie, Good Neighbours, is based on Quebec writer Chrystine Brouillet's novel Chère voisine. Photograph by: Dave Sidaway, The Gazette

To steal a line from Tout le monde en parle, it was most definitely La question qui tue.

It came a few minutes into Jacob Tierney’s interview on top-rated radio morning show C’est bien meilleur le matin on La Première Chaine of Radio-Canada a few days back. The anglo Montreal filmmaker was there to talk about his new movie, Good Neighbours, a darkly comic Hitchockian murder mystery that opens Friday, and host René Homier-Roy asked Tierney why his N.D.G.-set movie – which stars Jay Baruchel, Scott Speedman and Emily Hampshire – didn’t better represent the cultural diversity of this west-end borough.

It was, to put it mildly, one heckuva a loaded question. You don’t need to be a film critic to understand why Homier-Roy was taking Tierney to task on this point. I’ve never heard a radio or TV host ever ask a Québécois filmmaker why his or her movie wasn’t representative enough of Montreal’s multicultural mosaic.

But Tierney faces this hot-button question – and probably always will in Montreal – because he is the guy who dared to say publicly last summer that francophone Québécois cinema has not done enough to represent anglos and other minority groups.

He’s absolutely right, and he’s not the first person to say this. But he was the first anglophone filmmaker to say it and that’s why he was roundly lambasted on radio call-in shows and in no small number of newspaper columns.

A couple of hours later the same morning, in a café just up the street from the Radio-Canada tower, Tierney talked about La question qui tue.

“That’s a very particular way of looking at diversity,” Tierney said.

“I think a movie where you have native actors, Jewish characters, Chinese people … look it’s a small movie and I’m not going to try to list off all the nationalities that exist in it. I don’t want to get into this stuff again, but I think it’s plenty diverse. To tell me that Good Neighbours is not diverse. I call a huge bullish– on that.”

Continue reading on www.montrealgazette.com/…/

Fagstein blog analyses Epic Meal Time on Tout le monde en parle

Just tripped across an excellent Fagstein blog post from last month breaking down the heightened response to Epic Meal Time’s appearance on Tout le monde en parle (scroll to bottom for video of the show). The West Islanders conducted the interview in English and response was swift. Even though this is an old story, we thought the Fagstein analysis was worth sharing. Click the title for the complete article, which includes highlights of the flood of Twitter response, video responses from Youtube, and discussion of education policies, anglo guilt, entre autres… Definitely worth a read.

Un souper presque Epic (excerpt)
April 14, 2011

(…)

I put in a request with Epic Meal Time’s agent (yes, they have one), but have heard nothing yet. For the sake of argument, let’s assume they’re like me and many others from the West Island and that they went to English public school. Let’s also assume they know some French but not enough to have an in-depth conversation.

It makes me wonder if I would have been judged so harshly if I had been on the Plateau of this show, and with a mix of nervousness and a desire to be clear I had asked that the interview be done in English. My conversational French is okay, but my grammar is awful. There’s a reason I don’t blog in French often. I have too much respect for the language to expose people to my destruction of it.

That in mind, it seems perfectly understandable that two guys from the West Island who make Internet videos aren’t the best French speakers and prefer to express themselves in the language they’re most comfortable in.

And yet, it bothered me.

It wasn’t so much that they were talking in English. But they had earpieces during the interview, which means they needed the questions to be translated. That’s kind of a depressing statement about the state of French-language education in English schools in Quebec (again, assuming that’s how they were educated).

But even that didn’t bug me as much as this: They didn’t even try.

One thing I’ve learned about Quebec’s French language protectors (at least the reasonable moderate ones) is that they appreciate effort. It’s the thought that counts.

When Brian Gionta introduced the Canadiens at the beginning of the season in quite possibly the most atrocious French anyone has ever heard this side of an Alberta public school, the fans appreciated it. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t pronounce the numbers right or that he called Maxim Lapierre “Maxim Laperrière”. He acknowledged that French is the language spoken here and he wanted to make an effort, if only a tiny one, to speak to them in that language.

But Morenstein and Toth couldn’t manage even a “bonsoir” or a “merci”, perhaps because they were playing their tough-guy characters, or perhaps because they just didn’t care and had no respect for the show, the host or the audience they were addressing.

Epic Meal Time's Harley Morenstein and Sterling Toth on Tout le monde en parle (photo: Karine Dufour for Radio-Canada)

The language of poutine

It’s funny because Epic Meal Time has probably been one of the best ambassadors for Quebec cuisine of the past decade. Just two days before taping TLMEP, they released this video of them heading into the woods and preparing a meal that included tourtière and tire sur la neige (words that Morenstein utters in slightly accented but perfectly understandable French).

One of their earliest videos was of the Angry French Canadian, a “meal” that included poutine, steamés and maple syrup on a baguette.

They’re not exactly promoting Quebec as the healthiest place in the world to eat, but they’re not hiding where they come from either. If it wasn’t for the language thing, you’d think they were the most proud Quebecers you’d ever seen.

Except that in Quebec, everything is a language thing. (…)

Continue reading the original article here: http://blog.fagstein.com/…/epic-meal-time-on-tlmep

Watch the original Tout le monde en parle interview here:

After 15 years, commercial debut for “The Bend” by Montreal filmmaker Jennifer Kierans

When Jason (Adam Butcher, right) investigates his brother's suicide, he discovers Kelly (Sophie Traub) and Scott (Tommy Lioutas) know more than they let on Photograph by: Courtesy Filmoption International

Filmmaker no longer on the waiting list

By BILL BROWNSTEIN, Excerpt from The Gazette April 7, 2011

If patience is a virtue, Montreal filmmaker Jennifer Kierans could be considered for sainthood. After a 15-year gestation process, Kierans’s first feature, The Bend, finally makes its commercial debut Friday in Montreal and across Canada.

“I was even beginning to think this was some kind of bad dream, that I never really made the film at all,” Kierans says in a phone interview from New York City, where she is encamped with husband Barry Julien (the Emmy award-winning head writer on the Colbert Report) and their young son. “Talk about commitment.”

Indeed. The Bend turns out to be a more prophetic title than Kierans could have ever imagined. She concedes there were times when she felt that she was going around the bend, never to return to sanity.

In 1996, Kierans, a lawyer-turned-comedian-turned-filmmaker, began writing the screenplay for The Bend.

In 2007, after finally obtaining financing, shooting began in Montreal.

In 2009, The Bend made its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival.

And now – red carpets and klieg lights for Friday’s opening? Not exactly. But Kierans ain’t complaining.

The Bend was worth the wait. This is an understated yet explosive and captivating psychodrama about the impact of a teenage boy’s suicide on his family and friends(…)

Continur reading on www.montrealgazette.com/…/

 

 

Video| Montreal’s Jay Baruchel on The Hour (March 21)

Actor Jay Baruchel talks about what he hopes will be his directorial debut – a horror film that involves drugs, a police officer and contemporary race relations. Not too controversial then.

Hobo With a Shotgun: madcap movie

The buzz actually began in 2007, when Eisener and his friends threw together a fake trailer for a contest announced on Ain’t It Cool News. Shot on a $150 budget for beer and pizza, their two-minute clip won the competition – co-sponsored by the SXSW Film Festival and Robert Rodriguez – which led to the trailer playing before all Canadian showings of Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s double-feature Grindhouse.

Eisener’s stock rose when his film Treevenge won the audience-voted best short film award at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival in 2008 and received an honourable mention at Sundance.

Read more at: MontrealGazette.com