When I’m not seeing and writing about movies here on FITI, or helping program at Carbon Arc Cinema in Halifax, I’m producing radio for the CBC here in Nova Scotia. I’ve got the every-fortnight review column, The Knox Office, and occasionally will do an item about the local or broader film business.

My colleagues in Toronto, Jackson Weaver and Eli Glasner, did a story at the end of May around the Canadian Screen Awards where they were interviewing creators in the film industry about the challenges of making a living where — a recent report has shown — homegrown movies only earned three percent of the Canadian box office in 2023.

Here’s their story:

As the CSAs barrel on, filmmakers ask: Can Canadian film save itself?

The question is: How can a Canadian movie business survive, or even thrive, if so few of us want to go see Canadian movies at the cinema? Do streaming services hold the answer? I wanted to get a sense of the struggle from creators from Nova Scotia, so I called a few of them.

I spoke with Fawzia Mirza and Andria Wilson-Mirza (The Queen Of My Dreams), Michael Melski (Growing Op, Charlie Zone, The Child Remains), Floyd Kane (Diggstown, Across The Line) and screen historian Jennifer VanderBurgh.

You can give that item a listen here on the CBC Information Morning site, or copy and paste the url below into your browser:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-27-information-morning-ns/clip/16075646-why-canadians-watching-canadian-movies-theatre