The ongoing controversy over the documentary “Russians at War” has put Ontario’s public broadcaster under scrutiny, which has said it will not air the film it helped finance.
A media expert says TVO is getting “the worst of all worlds” by investing in a project that can no longer be shown or monetized.
“TVO created something that their audience doesn’t get to see, other audiences will get to see and they footed the bill and got no reward for it,” said Chris Arsenault, chair of Western University’s master’s program in journalism and communications, in an interview.
“I can’t imagine a worse outcome for a network than what has happened.”
“Russians at War,” a film criticized by the Ukrainian community and some Canadian politicians, was part of the Toronto International Film Festival program until organizers suspended all screenings this week due to “significant threats” to festival operations. The film, which recently screened at the Venice Film Festival and will be shown at the Windsor International Film Festival next month, depicts the disillusionment of some Russian soldiers on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
TVO had planned to air the documentary in the coming months, but the network’s board of directors on Tuesday withdrew its support for the film, citing criticism it had received. The Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, Ukraine’s consul general in Toronto and others have called the film Russian propaganda and a “whitewash” of Russian military war crimes in Ukraine — claims the film’s producers and TIFF have rejected.
The announcement by TVO’s board came just days after the network defended the film as “anti-war” in essence. It was a change of heart that the Canadian Documentary Organization said “represents a serious threat” to media independence and raises questions about political interference.
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TVO has not responded to requests for comment and board chairman Chris Day declined to elaborate on the decision to pull the film.
“Suffice it to say, we heard significant concerns and responded,” Day wrote to The Canadian Press in an email response to an interview request.
Arsenault, who has not seen the documentary and could not comment on its content, said he is nonetheless concerned by the spectre of board intervention in independent editorial decisions, which he said “opens the door” to further meddling in documentary production and journalism.
“Russians at War,” a Canadian-French co-production, was partly funded by the Canada Media Fund, which provided $340,000 for the project through its broadcast grants program. A spokesman for the fund said TVO independently decided to use that money to support the production of the documentary.
Cornelia Principe, one of the film’s producers, explained that TVO also had to pay a licensing fee to broadcast the documentary. These fees can range from $50,000 to $100,000, she said.
Principe, who defended the documentary and its Canadian-Russian director Anastasia Trofimova, said she was surprised by the decision of the TVO board.
“Anastasia and I have been working on this with TVO for two and a half years… I was a bit out of it for hours. I couldn’t believe it.”
What happens next, he said, is “uncharted territory” for TVO.
“As far as I know, this has never happened before,” said Principe, who has worked with the broadcaster on several documentaries over the years.
TVO’s board of directors said the network would “review the process by which this project was financed and our brand was leveraged.”
Charlie Keil, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Cinema Studies, said the TVO board needs to explain why it took “something of a sledgehammer” to a film that appears to have been adequately vetted editorially.
“I think if they were honest, what the TVO board would say would be: ‘There is a lot of pressure now. We really don’t like it… We’re just leaving,’” Keil said in an interview.
Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop said in a statement that the decision by TVO’s board of directors “was the right thing to do,” but did not elaborate.
As a non-profit government agency, TVO is mandated to distribute educational materials and programs, but the Ministry is not involved with its broadcasting division due to CRTC licensing rules.
Another public broadcaster, British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, has confirmed it has made a $15,000 licensing fee contribution to “Russians at War” in order to be able to be a “second window” broadcaster for the film.
Asked if the documentary will ever air in British Columbia, a spokesperson for the network said they are “working on a public response.”
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland denounced the use of public funds for “Russians at War” and said she shares the “grave concerns” that Ukrainian officials and community members in Canada have raised about the film.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has said it will continue to protest against “Russians at War” as TIFF has said it will continue to screen the documentary at some point. A peaceful march and rally that made its way to the TIFF Lightbox on Friday afternoon included people placing sunflowers and photos of Ukrainian war dead on the sidewalk.
“Russians at War” will be screened at the Windsor International Film Festival, which runs from Oct. 24 to Nov. 3. The festival announced Friday that the documentary is among 10 nominees for the $25,000 WIFF Canadian Film Award.
“We hope that all of our nominees – and all of the films at WIFF – will generate meaningful, critical and intelligent debate in a safe, respectful and civil environment,” festival organizers said in an emailed statement.
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