Black Fawn Films are exploring unique opportunities in low-budget genre thrills.Ben Alexis/Supplied
It is a terrifying time to be a Canadian filmmaker these days – and the team at Black Fawn wouldn’t have it any other way.
As so many homegrown filmmakers face one crisis after another, the two horror fiends leading Black Fawn – founder and co-owner Chad Archibald and operations manager CF Benner – are finding unique opportunities in low-budget genre thrills.
At the Cannes Film Festival this past May, the company, which launched in 2008 as a distributor of Canadian-made thrillers (I’ll Take Your Dead, The Oak Room, Death Valley), officially introduced its new international sales arm, its team convinced that it can maximize revenues for homegrown filmmakers who so often see their titles reach audiences worldwide, yet fail to reap any of the profits themselves. Meanwhile, last week Black Fawn confirmed that its next film, the buzzy thriller The Undertone starring Nina Kiri (The Handmaid’s Tale), will make its world premiere July 27 at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, the leading global launching pad for genre film.
Ahead of a scarily busy summer and fall, Black Fawn’s Archibald sat down with The Globe and Mail to talk about why Canadian horror is having an international moment.
Why did you choose Cannes to announce the launch of Black Fawn’s sales arm? What was the reception like?
It was our first time there at the Marché du Film [Cannes Film Market] as a company. But launching the sales company, it was amazing to simply sit down with people who we’ve worked with for 20 years, across 35 films, to connect in-person and directly go over what worked for them, what they need to work better and figure out different ways to help make this system work better for Canadian filmmakers.
What was the economic impetus of starting a sales arm?
We started as a production company, making our own films and doing everything ourselves. At a certain point, we decided to set up a separate company that would help us release films in Canada. And we’ve got to the point where we’re one of the top genre distributors in Canada.
But it felt like there was still an element that was missing in the whole film ecosystem, which is to ensure that filmmakers can see the profits from the movies that they make. As a filmmaker, it feels like you never know what you’re going to get from a distributor. What’s their plan? What are the costs in getting this film out there, and how much is a distributor going to take before a director sees a single dollar? Sometimes you have to act as a detective to figure out an answer as to where the profits are coming from on any one film. We want to streamline that, so we can give all the answers to our filmmakers.
I don’t feel you’d find many Canadian filmmakers who’d disagree that it’s hard to make money in this industry. But is it uniquely harder in the genre space?
I think genre films have so much longevity – they always perform well, even at an indie level. But there’s definitely times where it feels oversaturated because there are so many people making these movies. A big part of our mandate is trying to find ways to make our films break through the noise. And we’ve marketed our films at an indie level for so long that we’ve become really good at standing out amongst the crowd. But aside from that, it is getting harder for filmmakers to take the next step and get bigger budgets. Everyone is so risk-averse these days.
One of the interesting things in the genre space is that, tax credits aside, you’re not really utilizing public money: the arts council grants, Telefilm. It’s private money.
Yeah, Canada is strange and amazing. There have been so many amazing horror filmmakers in this country who have made such awesome films over the years that a lot of people look at Canadian horror and feel it’s a good investment. We’re lucky in Canada to have a system like Telefilm, but we also work with new, independent filmmakers who might not know how to access that kind of support, too.
Black Fawn’s next film, The Undertone, will make its world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival, in Montreal, on July 27.Ben Alexis/Supplied
So how do you ensure that those emerging filmmakers are not going to get, well, run out of the business? So that the country’s industry is not just pumping out one-and-done storytellers?
I’ve spoken with so many filmmakers who put their own money into a film, or their family’s money, and it is so, so hard to make your money back. If you allow yourself to get screwed in this industry, you will get screwed. Sometimes, you just want to get your movie out there so bad. But you’ll never be able to make another one again if you don’t get the money back. So that’s why we hope to navigate filmmakers to the right distribution partners worldwide – to say to them, you’re going to get a fair back-end split and make money. It’s about honesty and trust. I’ve been chasing contractual agreements from companies for 10 years, never seeing a cent.
Do you think that Canadian horror is viewed as a particular genre unto itself across the world? Are we unique overseas, or just mushed into whatever the rest of America is producing? I feel there’s a certain kind of ruggedness, a hunger to our country’s genre output.
We’re just so used to seeing what Canada puts out that I think we’ve become a bit blind to it. But it is really exciting going to festivals and talking to other distributors and programmers and hearing things like, “Oh, Canada’s got such a distinct style of horror.” It’s like going to another country and not thinking that you have an accent. But to others, of course you do.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
