newsletter fall 2013

FALL
2013
MANITOBA
News
203-245 McDermot Avenue Winnipeg MB R3B 0S6
(204) 339-9750 manitoba@actra.ca
PRESIDENT / NATIONAL
LOR’S REPORT
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COUNCIL- year. A ghoulishly good time was had by all. The
costumes were great, the drinks cheap and everyone got goodie bags.
Talia Pura
After enjoying such a busy spring and
summer, it is rather disheartening to be facing winter without any projects to look forward to. Hopefully this situation will change
and announcements of another shoot will
come out soon. In the meantime, the absence of projects will give you
ample time to make your own.
There will be another Member-Initiated
Project (MIP) Festival of your works in
the spring, so it isn’t too late to make
one. If you don’t want to get a longer
one finished, take advantage of our
iMIP category. These one-shot, twominute videos made on a personal recording device is easy as taking out
your smart phone!
It was great to see so many Members out to our Hallowe’en party this
I have just returned from Ottawa where I
joined other ACTRA National Executive Members
as well as home-grown industry stars like Gordon
Pinsent and his daughter, Leah, in meeting MPs
and speaking about the issues that affect our
Members. Less Than Kind’s Jesse Camacho, Daintry
Dalton (our Regional Director) and I teamed up to
speak to individual MPs about keeping
our industry institutions and funding
bodies strong, income averaging for
artists and signing the Beijing Treaty—
the international agreement that would
allow residual payments to come in for
your work from anywhere in the world.
In spite of many other “interesting distractions” on the Hill right now, our reception was packed and our message
heard by many. Remember that it is important for each of us to understand and
react to those out-of-Ottawa things that
affect us coming these days. The cur-
Our bewitching President.
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rent government is doing everything it can to under- LET THEM EAT POPSICLES!
mine unions. We all know how important our union is
in keeping our working conditions and contracts
strong. You may have seen the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) TV commercials on the theme of
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“Fairness Works”, reminding the public that
unions are good for everyone. It is unions that brought
safer working conditions, maternity benefits and reasonable wages for everyone—heck, it was unions that
brought you the weekend!
Dave Sauer, President, Winnipeg Labour Council
The ACTRA Manitoba Branch Council is
working hard to make Manitoba a good place to be
an actor. If you have questions or concerns,
please bring them to my attention or speak with
any one of our friendly Council Members. I’d like
to give out a big shout to all those who are serving,
or have ever served, on Council. The work you
are doing for Members is important. And as always, we can all depend on our Branch Rep, Rob
Macklin, to answer questions and keep things running.
vaious workers in their workplaces, was emblazoned with a different slogan, “Support jobs across
Canada”, “Equal Pay”, “Health Benefits”, “Vacation
Time”. My initial thought? I could go for a popsicle. After the quick craving collapsed, I started
thinking about the Canadian Labour Congress
(CLC) “Fairness Works” ads on TV and their potential effect. Unaware of the commercial behind
him, I stopped “Joe” mid-sentence and asked him
what he knew about unions. The quick turn in the
conversation caught him off guard and a puzzled
look emerged. “I’m not too sure. I know they do
good stuff for workers who have them.“ His reaction can be replicated across the country.
Have a great winter!
Last week I was sitting in a local coffee
shop with a friend. The usual banter between friends was interrupted when I
looked beyond his shoulder at the television mounted on the wall. Popsicles or
some other frozen hand-held treat flashed
across the screen. Each frozen treat, held by
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Average Canadians often find themselves
aware of unions, but their role in Canadian society
is somewhat unclear to the untrained eye. Ardent
unionists may look at the situation through a dire
lens, but within Joe’s re- 17 sponse there
is an opportunity for optimism
over
pessimism. Herein lies what, I believe, is the essence
behind the CLC’s push with its recent launch of
Fairness Works.
From Joe’s response, we’re aware workers
know that unions “do good things for workers who
have them”. Not a bad place to start. But this
statement can be a blessing and a curse. We’re at
a crossroads with Joe. Joe’s statement could lead
us to discussion about the “entitlements” unionized
workers have over non-union. This line of thinking
is sold to working Canadians by many of the antiunion forces out there, be they business groups,
media organizations, political parties, or ideological
think-tanks. Their effort is to divide working people and enrich themselves and their benefactors in
the process. Joe could be buying it —not a tasty
popsicle, I imagine.
“good things” and the unions are not only working
for their members, but for workers in general.
What could help tip the discussion in that direction? Popsicles. And not just any popsicles with
labour’s victories inscribed on them. What’s more,
these victories are ones we’ve shared with workers
across the country. Joe is non-union, but still has
vacation pay/time, some health benefits, and the
women in his workplace are paid the same wage.
Unfortunately, he’s not aware of the back story behind even those benefits, let alone the added benefits a union does provide. So let’s give him a
popsicle...
Joe’s starting point presents an enormous
opportunity for us as a labour movement. Workers
are not, in general, openly hostile to the labour
movement. Yes, we have naysayers in the flock
who think it is “baaaaaaaaah-d” for unions to exist.
But there are more “Joes” out there, lots of them.
They’re even our own members. The Fairness
Works campaign is about reaching out to union
and non-union workers who may not be aware of
what we do as a movement. 3.4 million workers in
Joe could also start talking about how more this country have union representation and we
workers should form unions to get more of those need to have 3.4 million conversations about what
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their unions do. In that same breath, we have to
have millions more conversations with our nonunion workforce. A popsicle doesn’t sound like a
bad way to break the ice.
tough (some would say bullying) interview style, at
first takes a rather condescending attitude to
Brand, but after getting his ears pinned back he
tries to respond more seriously. By this time
Visit www.fairnessworks.ca for more infor- Brand is in full rhetorical flourish and Paxton becomes little more than the wall against which
mation.
Brand’s verbal volleys rebound. It’s a shame, bePOLITICAL ACTION VERSUS POLITI- cause Brand’s pyrotechnics do not age well on a
CAL APATHY: RUSSELL BRAND VER- third or fourth viewing.
SUS JEREMY PAXMAN
Brand makes some very strong points; the
environment continues to decline, the gap between rich and poor is widening, and governments
increasingly ignore the needs of the people in favour of the needs of a privileged few. Changing
the party in power rarely means substantive
change, unless that change is towards further imbalance in favour of the rich and powerful. On the
other hand, I am not sure that he connects these
points to his argument for revolution.
Kevin Longfield
One of the hot internet videos is an interview between comedian Russell Brand and TV journalist Jeremy Paxton. Brand attracted a lot of attention for
saying that he has never voted because voting
would represent being co-opted by a system that
works against the needs of the planet and ordinary
people. He makes an eloquent, informed argument that the current political system has resulted
As Brand surely knows, revolutions are ugly
in a decline of civilization instead of the general things. Once they start rolling, it is impossible to
improvement that democracy is supposed to cre- predict what they will crush and how long they will
ate.
last before the stability necessary for a peaceful,
Viewed purely as entertainment, the inter- prosperous life will return. If you put the evils of
view is hard to beat. Paxton, renowned for his czarist Russia on one side of the scale and the
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depredations of the Stalinist period on the other, I
am not sure which way the balance would tilt.
People should therefore a very, very cautious before they advocate revolution. At the same time,
extreme social inequality will bread a revolution
whether someone advocates one or not. Clearly,
something needs to change.
.The central weakness in Brand’s argument
is the mythical power attributed to one vote, and
the implication that voting is the sole lever of power that the common person possesses. My blood
pressure rises every time someone complains
about their vote being wasted because this candidate (or party) lost. Yeah, right: would the outcome have been any different if you had stayed
home or voted for someone else? For most elections an entire city block could stay home without
changing the outcome, and metaphorically at
least, that’s what happens. In many elections, the
stay-at-home party wins, but rather than sending
an empty seat to represent the constituents, we
send the second-place candidate, often meaning
that our “representative” has the explicit support of
only a fraction of the eligible voters. The message
this system delivers is that the voters don’t give a
rip what representatives do, and this message,
combined with the blandishments from well-heeled
people who DO give a rip what happens, has a
predictable result.
The other manifestation of the myth of the
vote is the idea that voting is all we need to do as
citizens. We shouldn’t complain about what politicians do fi we do not intervene between elections.
Complaining after the fact can be emotionally satisfying, but it is far more powerful to intervene in
the electoral process before legislation comes forward. Business interests might want to deregulate, and if no one present the opposite case,
who’s to blame if politicians vote according to the
only advie (or orders) that they are offered?
That’s where political action come in.
ACTRA has been very active and occasionally
very effective in representing our interests to politicians. ACTRA can be even more effective,
though, if individual Members make their views
known to politicians.
FILM TRAINING
Jan Skene
In October, Film Training Manitoba brought in
Paul Christie, former Manitoba actor and Agent with
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The workshop itself was very informal. After
Paul and the participants explained a bit about
ourselves and our connection to the industry,
much of the workshop was Q & A-based, with Paul
using the questions to open up about certain topics. He also made use of a computer and projector to show us head shots, demo reels and certain
As Training Liaison, I am always interested to web sites to supplement the points he was makhear from anyone who takes part in a Film Training.
ing Workshop. Feel free to call or contact me
There were a few things I’d known or susthrough ACTRA if you would like to share an experience you had in a training workshop, or if you pected already (i.e. that Winnipeg is a good place
to grow a career, that you don’t need an agent for
have any suggestions for future workshops.
theatre, etc.) but it felt valuable to hear it from
THE PAUL CHRISTIE WORKSHOP
Paul.
Kevin Gabel
LEARNING FROM HISTORY
The Characters, as part of their Expo 2013. We asked
one of our Members who attended the event to
give a sound-bit report on his experience in the
workshop. Thanks to Kevin Gabel for sharing a bit
of his training experience with me and our fellow
Members.
I took part in the Paul Christie workshop Kevin Longfield
because I wanted to get a better picture of
The recent Conservative convention advowhat the industry outside Winnipeg is like. I’ve
had a few friends from theatre school move out to cated introducing “right to work” legislation in
Toronto this year and I want to know more about Canada. Our local Council President, Talia Pura,
agents and the industry “climate” in places like To- defines this term as “the right to work for low
ronto and Vancouver before I consider a big step wages”. Basically it is an attack on union labour,
like moving.
“allowing” people to work outside union contracts and
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the protections those contracts offer.
ton of salt before she returned home to make
breakfast.
What might those protections be? I’ve been
Paid employees suffered similarly from being
learning some lessons as I research my grandfather’s life. He was born in 1892, and at age 13 he able to maximize profits without the nuisance of
was apprenticed to a blacksmith. Before that, he regulation. Women would typically bag the salt in
45 pound units. For moving almost a ton of salt
worked at a Cheshire salt mine.
she would earn tuppence, about a penny in the
But, unions do more than prevent child la- British decimal currency—even accounting for
bour. My research uncovered an 1892 strike by
over a century of inflation, that’s a pittance.
watermen, the people who shipped the salt to LivSince it took about a ton of coal to produce
erpool, to protest work “days” that lasted 40 hours
or more—that’s right, 40 hours without sleep. I’ve two tons of salt, the industry created widespread
air pollution, including sulphur dioxide. This polluhad some long days on set, but nothing like that!
tion, besides being dangerous to public health,
Scarcely less badly off were the people who damaged the local farming industry in a manner
worked the salt pans. Pans were large vats that not unlike the damage caused by fracking and oil
evaporated brine to remove salt. Salt pan workers sands. Further, subsidences, massive cave-ins
were typically subcontractors who got piece work caused by undermining the land under salt mining
for operating evaporating pans almost nonstop. towns, caused building to tip over and brine lakes
These men would come home to sleep only on
to appear in farm’s fields overnight. Salt compaSaturday night, and the rest of the time they would nies denied responsibility for subsidences as long
sleep next to the pan. This does not mean that
as they could.
they would not see their families, because often
Finally, there was the issue of foreign workthe whole family would also work the pan. Operaters.
In the 1982 strike I mentioned earlier, the
ing the pan like this was the only way a family
could support itself—essentially, an entire family companies brought in foreign workers to break the
sharing one salary. Often the mother would load a strike. These would typically be Eastern Europe-
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ans stranded in Liverpool who needed a few extra
pounds to make their passage to America. Mine
owners would also bring in foreign workers to depress wages, and house them in crude houses
build out of cinders—double exploitation.
I also found evidence of union solidarity. In
1893 a coal strike affected then salt trade. Brine
workers, who depended on coal, faced poverty.
Rock salt workers voted to share their work with
the brine workers s so no one would starve. (I
should also mention that the rock salt mine owner,
Brunner, subsidized this initiative by chipping in 20
pounds a week.)
ment's media-based corporate tax credits. The
five-year period has seen the industry rebound
with the launch of new companies generating good
jobs, according to the study.
"The media production industry thrives on the
energies of highly skilled and creative people and
with the drive of entrepreneurs who aren't afraid to
compete with the world," the premier said. "We
are pleased to partner with the industry, which is
growing in sophistication and creating new products, good jobs and new economic opportunities."
Since 2008-09, the media production industry
has produced 336 projects, an average of 67 per
Let’s make sure that fairness rules in 21st year. Of those projects, 64 per cent (or 43 per
century Canada.
year) were domestic productions and another 18
MEDIA PRODUCTION’S ECONOMIC IM- per cent (or 12 per year) were co-productions with
out-of-province companies.
PACT
An economic impact study released by On
Screen Manitoba reports that Manitoba's media production industry has emerged stronger
than ever from the 2008 economic downturn
thanks to support from the provincial govern-
"In the past five years, we have seen Manitoba media production companies take greater control over their own projects and the intellectual
rights that come with them," said the premier. "Manitoba companies have developed the
business skills and are well positioned to reap the
benefits of owning these rights as they sell their
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productions to broadcasters
around the world."
and
distributors salaries paid to Manitoba residents and qualifying nonresident employees (deemed residents) for work perThe premier noted that in the last two years, formed on an eligible film or video produced in ManiManitoba's production industry, which includes Ab- toba. The basic rate of the credit is 45 per cent. In
original companies, has developed major anima- combination with incentives to encourage frequent
tion and visual effects capabilities. For example, filming in Manitoba and filming in rural and northern
Opus VFX, a division of Buffalo Gal Pictures, has locations, as well as a five per cent Manitoba producer
worked on a range of large Hollywood productions bonus, a film project may be eligible for up to a 65 per
including Avatar, Superman Returns and X-Men.
cent credit on eligible salaries.
According to a recent study by Nordicity,
Beginning in 2010, production companies
commissioned by On Screen Manitoba, the media have had the option to claim either the maximum
production industry in Manitoba had a total GDP 65 per cent labour-based film tax credit or a new
impact of $357 million over the last five years, with 30 per cent tax credit based on production costs
an annual contribution of $71.4 million. In the incurred and paid for labour, goods and services
same period, the industry attracted about $291 provided in Manitoba that are directly attributable
million (or an average of $58.2 million annually) in to the production of an eligible film.
production financing from outside of the provThe province also supports the media proince. These productions resulted in the equivalent
duction
industry through the Manitoba Interactive
of about 6,333 full-time jobs between 2008-09 and
Digital
Media
Tax Credit which is equal to 40 per
2012-13, with an average annual employment of
cent
of
the
remuneration
paid to Manitobans on
1,267 per year.
eligible projects to a maximum of $500,000 per
The provincial government supports the media project. Production firms can also claim up to
production industry by offering the Manitoba Film and $100,000 in eligible marketing and distribution exVideo Production Tax Credit, which is based on eligible penses that are directly attributable to an eligible
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project.
ron Merke, Geoff Banjavich, Sue Loewen, Amy Couldwell, Matthew Enns, Kathy Vitt, Curt Keilback.
ACTORS’ GYMS
Our Actors’ Gyms continue to be very popular
and highly appreciated. Casting Agent Carmen Kotyk (on screen) was the facilitator for the July 24
gym. Participating were (back row) Andrew Cecon,
Shannon Jacques, Robyn Gel, Jason Malloy; (front
row) Nadine Pinette, Satara Subedar, Fernando Delayoan, Kerry Tait.
MANITOBA MEMBERS @ WORK
John Bluethner, Cashing In, Season 4, principal; Alice
Dano, Heaven Is For Real, background; Cashing In,
background; The Gaby Douglas Story, background;
Shannon Jacques, Cashing In, Season 4, principal; Brett
Robert Kelly, Strings, stand-in; Jim Kirby, Heaven Is For
Reall, background; Teen Lust, background; Daina Leitold, Deformed, principal, Wind City, actor; Jaylee-Lynn
McDougall, Strings, dancer; Terry Ray, Mindnight Sun,
The November 4 gym facilitator was Aaron stunt; Bunks, stunt
Merke. Participants were (l to r) Tiffany Prochera, Aa-
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WELCOME
ba’s Hallowe’en Party.
The costumes were
very imaginative and impressively executed, the
dancing was energetic, the schmoozing abuzz,
and the pizza quickly gobbled up.
NEW MEMBERS
Pierre Bohemier Michele Boulet
Liam Caines Justin Courchene Sarah Davey
Congratulations to the Best-Costume winners
Trian Dobrowney Yayoi Ezawa
Tyhr
Trubiak,
X, Darren Felbel, Mona Lesage, CathiElizabeth Lamont Anna O’Callaghan
Anne
Cook
and
Martin Ellis.
Brent Poplawski Marian Tarasiuk
Leigh Truant
Thanks to Council Members Talia Pura, Toni
Reimer, Ti Hallas, Daryl Dorge and Shannon Jacques
NEW APPRENTICE MEMBERS
(and, of course, Branch Rep Rob Macklin) for seeing to
Mitch Ainley Davielle Brokopp Ivy Chatelain hall rental, snacks, pumpkin carving, goodie bags, prizBrock Couch Matthew Enns Ferron Guerrero es, pizza, decorations, reception and cleaning up.
Darryl Hogg Cole Humphrey Micah Kennedy
It was a hoot and a howl. Don’t miss the next
Amanda Kristjanson Susan Loewen
Jarydee-Lynn McDougall Jeyi Namwira
one!
Tarina Paquin Linden Porco Tiffany Prochera
Kelly Seward Kerry Tait Kathy Vitt
Joe Wiatrowski Kim Zeglinski
NEW ACTRA BACKGROUND
Brett Robert Kelly Jim Kirby
Tom Young
HALLOWE’EN PARTY 2013
On Friday evening, October 26, some
70 Trick or Treaters, Ghouls, Semi-Deads
and Humanoids boogied at ACTRA Manito-
Zanna
Susanna Portnoy
A. Bubba McLean,
Talia Pura
Joyce
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Lois Brothers and Aaron Hughes
Mona Lesage and Darrren Felbel
Shannon Jacques and Terry Ray
Dena
Horrox
Alice
Dano
Ellen Gale
Daryl Dorge
Louise and Alf Kollinger
Guest and Tyhr Trubiak
Anthony Hart and Judy Cook
Leonard Walden
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Jim Kirby, guest and Tiffany Prochera
Rea Kavanagh and Sean
Talia Pura, Toni Reimer and Rob Macklin
Martin Ellis
Paul Magel and Nancy Sorel
Ti Hallas and
Cathi-Anne Cook
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President Talia Pura and Olie Alto, recipient of
the 2012 Victor Cowie Longevity and Achievement in the Performing Arts Award.
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