Patrice James, executive director at the Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa, holds a sign in support of the arts. If proposed cuts go through, the group stands to lose 42 per cent of its city funding.
The Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa is among the many arts groups that would be devastated by the proposed municipal funding cuts.
These cuts, which exceed $4 million, would force artists’ centres such as IFCO to struggle in maintain programming.
The co-op, which has served the community for 17 years, stands to lose 42 per cent of its city funding under the budget proposals.
“It’s extremely disheartening,” says Patrice James, the organization’s executive director.
“Arts is always the scapegoat. They see it as dispensable, but it’s not. It’s what makes a city
thrive, " he says.
James expresses concern for the livelihood of local artists, who enhance the lives of both residents and tourists in the capital. “It could mean driving away the best and brightest,” she says.
Funding reductions from the municipality would likely also affect the co-op’s other core sources of financial support, among them the Canadian Council for the Arts in Ottawa and the Ontario Arts Council.
Linda Balduzzi, the executive director of Arts Court, says the
10-per-cent cut in funding the Daly Avenue Arts Centre may face has a much greater impact for some of its clients in the performing, visual, literary and media arts. Besides IFCO, Arts Court is home to some two dozen arts organizations.
Balduzzi says this would mean she will have to “either increase rates to programs so that no one can afford them, or seriously limit what we offer the community.”
The co-op fills a unique niche in Ottawa. It provides the only facilities, training, and funding for motion picture film stock in a digital age.
James says cuts would be extremely detrimental to the functioning of IFCO, which would find it nearly impossible to continue awarding grants. The workshops, open to both members and the general public, would also be in jeopardy.
“There’s obviously a need in the community,” James says, explaining that the co-op provides a “good launching pad” with tailored workshops for youth, women and minorities, production grants, and discounts on equipment for budding filmmakers.
James attributes the raison d’etre of IFCO and similar arts groups to the belief that “artists are born, but are created as well.”
This is reflected in the group’s 150-strong membership, which ranges from students to construction workers.
As an artist-run media-arts production centre, it's hands-on workshops are taught by seasoned members, with some 50 local productions being put out each year.
“If an organization like ours did not exist, people would never have the opportunity to investigate that side of themselves,” says James.
David Tse, 20, an aspiring film director currently in his final year at Norman Johnson Secondary Alternative School, was a co-op student last year and took part in IFCO’s diversity workshop, where he collaborated on a 3-minute film with two other multi-ethnic participants.
Tse is now working on his first film, which he says will be a 30-minute comedy.
“I wouldn’t be able to get it done as well or as fast. In the workshop I learned the ebb and flow and the whole process,” he says, had he not had his experience in last year’s workshop.
“I enjoy it as a hobby and a place to meet people professionally. Everyone brings a different expertise,” says Jean-Claude Batista, a computer programmer who joined IFCO four years ago, has directed four shorts and has some scripts in mind.
“Film is my art outlet,” he says.