Simple
survival in the television and film production business anywhere is an
achievement, and Norflicks is proud to have been around for 25 years. Look at
most of the big names that began in production that long ago, and I will show
you a company that has segued into distribution. That’s where production
companies go, to prosper or to die. Norflicks so far has resisted the temptation
to do either.
But we
would not have been around so long if we had not gone beyond the Canadian
broadcasting system and its various funding agencies for our program financing.
Norflicks
and its predecessor companies have co-produced with Britain, (the BBC, Carlton,
London Weekend and Southern Television) the US, (Time Life Films, RKO the New
York times, WNET, WNED, and Showtime) Germany (Polyphon, NFP teleart, Sudwest Funk) Czech Republic, (Czech Television) France,
Japan, Australia and South America (Brazil).
In
addition, 40 of our programs were produced in a second language, primarily
French, which provided a modest additional source of funding.
More
than two thirds of the funding for our highly acclaimed war series’ No Price Too High, Far From
Home, Test of Will, Night
Fighters, Seapower to Superpower, came from Canadian foundations not usually
associated with the funding of television productions or with broadcasting.
Sponsors
such as Noranda, Imperial Oil, and General Motors were important contributors
until this kind of sponsorship was effectively ended by Canadian broadcasters.
Government,
and other mandated sources of funding have not been neglected, and a number of
Norflicks productions have had CTF and Telefilm support, and we’ve done a
number of co-productions under co-production treaties with
This
variety of funding has enabled Norflicks to concentrate on programs that
originated with us or our co-producers; driven by content which engaged our
passions, our intellect and our sense of humour.
For a
variety of reasons not always of our making, Norflicks has tended to concentrate
in certain specific areas such as military history, (more than 30 hours of
programming) the work and thoughts of Jean Vanier, (40 programs with one of the
leading Christian thinkers and activists on the planet) more than 20 programs on
social issues, 30 half-hour episodes of Wingfield,
a successful television adaptation of the popular one-man stage show featuring
Rod Beattie, some notable biopics of artists such as Alden Nowlan, poet, Karen
Kain, ballerina, and William Hutt, actor, the latter nominated for a Gemini for
Best Canadian Documentary in 2007, plus more than 150 contemporary profiles in
the series The Originals with CITYtv.
Past
productions also include a memorable series on great cities featuring
international figures of prominence including: Peter
Ustinov’s Leningrad, John
Huston’s Dublin, Elie Wiesel’s
Jerusalem, Glenn Gould’s Toronto,
Jonathan Miller’s London, George
Plimpton’s New York, and
others. In a previous co-production with the BBC and Time Life Films, we
produced hour long programs on
Drama
has been more difficult to fund, but Norflicks also has a respectable record of
drama production starting with The
Newcomers/Les Arrivants, a 6 part
mini-series which won an Emmy nomination; and The New Avengers starring Patrick Macnee and Joanna Lumley.
Four
MOW drama/comedies – Billy Bishop Goes
to War, with John Grey and Eric Peterson, 1982, winning the Anik Award for
Best Picture; Quebec Canada 1995 in
1983 starring Kenneth Welsh, Martha Henry, John Neville, Jackie Burroughs,
Louise Marlow and Albert Millaire ; Labour
of Love with Maury Chaykin and Michele Scarabelli in 1990; and Balls Up! with Brent Carver, Albert Schultz and Torri Higginson in
1998 .
We’ve
also done two MOW bio-pics: Hal Banks,
Canada’s Sweetheart in 1987 (Anik Award Best Picture, also Best Director
Donald Brittain, Best Screenplay by Richard Nielsen) and Dietrich
Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace, starring Ulrich Tukur, Robert Joy, John Neville
and Johana Klante, (which won the Nymphe D’Or for best MOW, Monte Carlo,
2000).
Two
dramatic features: The Wars, 1981,
starring Brent Carver, Martha Henry, and Bill Hutt, garnering 3 Genie awards and
8 nominations; and Oh What a Night!
1993, starring Corey Haim, Robbie Coltrane, Barbara Williams and Geneviève
Bujold, written Richard Nielsen and produced by Norstar.
Children’s
drama: The Little Vampire, Writer/Producer
Richard Nielsen, Director René Bonnière, a 13 part children’s television
series based on the book by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg, a co-production between
Norflicks, Polyphon and Southern Television UK, rated #1 with viewers 18 and
younger in England and Germany and #2 in France, starring Gert Frobe, Michael
Gough, Lynne Seymour, Bruno Gerussi, Joel Dacks, Christopher Anton, and Marsha
Moreau.
Norflicks
credentials in investigative journalism include the series Connections, which Richard Nielsen executive produced, at the
request of the CBC, which exposed the existence of organized crime in