Telefilm Canada investigating allegations of misconduct versus personnel

A statement from Telefilm does not name the personnel, citing privacy considerations, but the investigation comes right after allegations surfaced on social media about the perform of Telefilm feature film executive Dan Lyon.

Final Friday, Canadian writer-director Pavan Moondi posted a sequence of tweets criticizing Lyon’s “opaqueness” in his selection-generating at the Crown corporation and his causes for rejecting funding for two of his assignments. He called for Lyon to phase down, alleging the executive as effectively as Telefilm have taken way too lengthy to commit to the 2016 pledge to replicate a lot more range onscreen and increase variety initiatives by 2020.

Responding to Moondi’s tweets, writer Melissa D’Agostino alleged that Lyon created a sexually inappropriate comment to her at a party while supplying her a meeting at Telefilm to discuss about one of her screenplays. D’Agostino mentioned she spoke about the incident in the film #MeAfterToo in 2019 and sent an email to Telefilm HR asking about filing a official grievance, but no just one emailed her again.

Telefilm, Moondi and D’Agostino have declined requests for interviews.

Lyon has not responded to requests for remark.

Calls for transparency, leadership alter

The tweets from Moondi and D’Agostino have sparked calls for transparency, accountability and modify in leadership to reflect more range at Telefilm, which also vowed in 2016 to attain gender parity in essential movie roles by 2020.

On Tuesday, Canadian grassroots corporation BIPOC Television & Film called on Telefilm to reveal its figures on its funding for marginalized groups and its workers make-up.

The team also known as on Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault and Telefilm Canada government director Christa Dickenson to make numerous changes at the company, including to its board of directors, to reflect the racial range of the region.

Telefilm responded to BIPOC Television set & Film in a assertion on Wednesday, addressing its concerns about diversity and inclusion inside the agency and noting it cannot supply detailed figures to the group’s issues about selected funding, “as the information was not gathered.”

Having said that, it did supply other stats, including those people for tasks funded from its Indigenous stream, and data collected in the modern COVID-19 major-up for underrepresented communities.

Position of electric power

As a element movie government at Telefilm for the Ontario and Nunavut area, Lyon decides who gets financing for their tasks with budgets below $2.5 million.

In his tweets last week, Moondi reported Lyon has an “inordinate amount of electricity” in his position and “fully unpredictable” flavor that is “disconnected from any expertise of the [indie] film scene exterior Canada.”

“I never know particularly how extensive he’s even been in that purpose, but it really is been prolonged enough to form full generations and what we understand as a ‘Canadian movie,”‘ tweeted Moondi, who’s created and directed three attribute films: Each day is Like Sunday, Diamond Tongues and Sundowners. He’s also composed for series, together with Schitt’s Creek.

The Los Angeles-based filmmaker also shared emailed correspondence he had with Lyon about why he did not get funding for his tasks.

The screenshots of the email trade that Moondi posted clearly show Lyon wrote to Moondi that the script for his most latest task did not appear “shut to output-ready” and that the marketplace-broad mandate towards gender parity “helps make the problem even additional competitive” for projects that never have ladies in critical resourceful roles.

Moondi replied expressing it is really the 2nd year in a row that Lyon cited “gender parity” as a rationale for rejecting his projects and that he “looks to fully price reduction that the author, producer and director of the venture is a individual of colour.”

D’Agostino tweeted that in the previous two a long time, she has appeared for other avenues to fund movies.

“You shouldn’t have to develop your personal funding/streaming program to prevent harassment & discrimination,” she tweeted.

“We will have to reckon with the fact that women, BIPOC & other marginalized filmmakers continue on to be discriminated towards, harassed & misled by funders & essential orgs in the Cdn movie business. There is PR & lip company, but no serious modify or motion.”