Small-scale arts projects getting no funding, neglected by province: artists

A Quebec filmmaker says she has no choice but to shut down the film festival she’s been putting on for six years due to a lack of support and government subsidies.

Filmmaker Magenta Baribeau says this year’s Montreal Feminist Film Festival will be the last.

Baribeau is one of many artists who say small-scale arts and culture projects are being neglected.

“I’m really afraid that if we all leave the scene due to lack of funding, then only the major players are going to stay,” said Baribeau.

“I anticipated that it was going to be a little hard to get funding in the first few years. But then the pandemic hit and then it became extremely difficult to get funding. And then after six years of wonderful editions, the first before COVID, all of our screenings were sold out. We had to turn people away at the door. It was very popular. Everyone was really into it.

“And then now everything is so expensive that we just simply cannot continue without any funding”

Magenta says they compete with major festivals.

“For a lot of the funding, we need to either show at least five feature films, be over at least five days and things like that, that a small festival simply cannot do without funding because we kind of need funding to be able to do that,” she said.

“And so it’s like a vicious circle.”

Magenta Baribeau. (Credit: Facebook/Magenta Baribeau)

Seema Arora has been working in the film industry for the last 15 years and feels she can’t get funding because she’s an English-speaking artist.

“Nobody is giving the voice to the multilingual artists and the Anglophone artists,” said Arora, the casting director, producer and director at Zensa Media International. “The industry is set up in a way in Quebec on how to starve the Anglophone and the multilingual artists.

“You’re applying for an English grant and it’s all in French. You know, and there’s nobody there to help you translate all that for hours and put all that package together with a budget and all the details of your project. It’s unreasonable.”

A lack of funding often means workers must volunteer or accept to be underpaid.

“Everyone that works in the sector has either cut their losses and completely left the sector to work in something else, or they have to have like three roommates and they’re 45 years old,” said Baribeau.

“We really need, not just investment in culture because that’s so broad, but we need to pay special attention to smaller initiatives and to have some funding just for that.”

Seema Arora. (Credit: Seema Arora/handout)

Arora says it’s time for a change.

“We have to stop just saying it’s not right,” she said. “I want to see some concrete actions. We are in an election time in Quebec.

“We have to have more support for arts, and we have to oblige people in leadership roles to do their job and to represent not only the francophone artist that’s sitting at the table.”

The last edition of the Montreal Feminist Film Festival is on now until Sept. 11.