An interview with Jacques Bensimon, Government Film Commissioner and chairperson of the National Film Board - Canada - Interview

TAKE ONE, May, 2002 by Wyndham Wise

Jacques Bensimon grew up in Morocco, North Africa, and arrived in Canada as a young adult. He became a freelance journalist then, due to the lack of film studies programs in Canada, completed his film education in New York. In 1967, he was hired by the NFB and eventually headed the program committee of the French production unit. Later he became responsible for reorganizing all of the international infrastructure for the Film Board. He spent two years in Africa, the first year travelling from Mauritania to Ghana and Nigeria. He then flew down to Nairobi, Kenya, to set up a film unit there, and for a year produced a film once a week. In 1986, he helped launch TFO, the French network of TVOntario, and specialized in establishing international co-productions. Moving on again, he became executive vice-president of the Banff Television Foundation and its chief operating officer in 2000. Then the NFB came calling.

Did your appointment as Government Film Commissioner come as a surprise to you?

It came as a complete surprise. To tell you the truth, like many people who left the Film Board, it stays within you. Once you have been an NFBer, it's very difficult to get that out of your blood. But I had been looking at the NFB from a distance, appreciating some of the things it did, not appreciating other things. When the Film Board came to me in Banff, I had already bought a house and we were committed to staying there. Pat Ferns [president of the Banff Television Foundation] is a man of vision, but he is always on the road, and we had to build a new infrastructure for the Foundation. I was happy to help put that in place. To tell you the truth, I went back to the NFB out of a sense of duty more than anything else. This place has given me so much -- in terms of structuring me as an individual, as a filmmaker -- and has given so much to this country, that when the offer was presented to me, it was like military service. I couldn't refuse.

Can a public institution like the NFB survive in a world of privatization and globalization? There are not too many examples to be found worldwide.

You're right, and the NFB has often been the exception to the rule. If you look at the equivalent of the NFB that Grierson helped create in Australia, it has been a model on its own as well. Honestly, the question would have to be turned back to Canadians. Do we want a NFB? That is the key question. Do we want, in this country, an institution that is independent from the political, financial and social pressures. That is the answer we need to seek. The British, for example, have proven through the BBC that you can have a very strong public broadcaster and at the same time you can rationalize and be efficient in finding new funds and new means to help the institution survive. We have to look at ourselves, in our souls as Canadians, and decide whether we deserve a NFB. So far, after 63 years, we have said yes. At times we have said yes on the edge of our lips and we have managed to cut $30 million out of its operations. A society needs to define itself, in my opinion, not only through its private investment but through its public commitment. The NFB is not as essential as hospitals but it is essential to our souls, as Canadians, to our educational system, to our vision of who we are as a people.

What are your goals for your term in office?

It's essential that the NFB evolve within a world where it is not going to reinvent the wheel; but it has to refine its programming approach. It's got to be able to enter partnerships with others in the Canadian film and television industry. What we can't recreate is an ideal NFB where it did everything on its own. We have to enter into as many partnerships as we can. To that extent, we are talking to a lot of institutions, be it film schools, festivals or private companies, making sure the NFB is part and parcel of the evolution of the industry. Secondly, we need to find new means and new funds that will allow us to realize our vision. In order to do that, we have to maximize our revenues. I don't intend to do this in any crass way. I think we have to be very smart to fully maximize the revenues from what we are doing. I have worked with Arte, the French network, for example. There is no reason why the NFB shouldn't be able to sell its successes to the rest of the world and maximize its revenues. The third t hing, by the time I leave, I want to make sure that the next generation is at the helm of the NFB, that they have taken over not only the filmmaking side of things, but the infrastructure, the human resources and financial sides. I would like to see this generation take a hold of this institution and feel about it the way my generation has felt, that it is a central Canadian institution. To me, the next generation is the key ingredient. These are some of the key goals that I would like to see realized by the time I leave office.

Will the Film Board continue to make films to fill the digital universe, or will it become involved with feature--film production again?