Canada celebrates 20 years of TV in Banff.

One must look to the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, to unearth the roots of the Banff Television Festival. The Games included an international, non-competitive film festival organized by Fil Fraser, who is now CEO of Vision TV. Following the festival's success, Fraser, along with Horst Schmid (Alberta's then-Minister of Culture) and David Leighton (then-president of the Banff Center for the Arts), decided that it should be an annual event to take place in Banff, in Western Canada.

In search of support for the event, they visited Jean Lefebvre of the Canadian Film Development Corp. (now Telefilm Canada) who, convinced the world didn't need another film festival, recommended that they instead consider a TV festival. But, "television was held in considerably low regard as an art form [when] compared to cinema, and it was a prejudice I held as well," admitted Jerry Ezekiel, now the Festival's senior vp.

Fortunately, "from the first program competition it was evident that there was a lot of good material out there," said Ezekiel. "If it wasn't sexy, it became sexy. The quality was there and the impact was there. We lost all reticence when speaking about television as an art."

One early pledge of organizers involved the awarding of prizes. In 1979, claims Ezekiel, a number of long-established TV festivals handed out prizes based on politics instead of on quality. Banff organizers decided that their festival would reverse that trend.

In 1978, Leighton pursued Carrie Hunter, a former journalist, to be the Festival's first executive director, but she was nonplussed. Leighton explained that he and his colleagues were starting an international TV festival. Hunter asked, "What's that?" His reply, recalled Hunter, was: "We don't know."

The first festival, held at the Banff Center, was a financial disaster. In the end, the Alberta government came through with significant base financing, enabling the Festival to wipe out its deficit and get back on track. "We flew by the seats of our pants for the first three years," said Hunter, "But it was an amazing time in terms of how little we knew - we'd never been to a festival, let alone run one."

Hunter and Ezekiel helped create the undeniably Western Canadian flavor that became one of the events greatest selling points - the festival's barbecue a case in point.

As the festival grew so did its need to focus on conference programming and the international marketplace. Enter W. Paterson Ferns, an independent Canadian producer who is now the president and CEO of the Festival. Ferns was unimpressed with his first Festival experience (as a producer) and let it be known. Hunter replied to Ferns' letter of complaint with an invitation to sit on the board and, in 1985, Ferns succeeded Leighton as chairman. When Ferns reflected back on the state of the Canadian TV industry in the early 1980s, he viewed it as a time of construction. The period marked the recognition of independent production by the CBC, the creation of Telefilm Canada's Broadcast Fund, a growing engagement of private broadcasters in Canadian programming and the emergence of pay TV. "It was a period of flux and the Festival was a response to emerging opportunities available at the time," commented Ferns.

One such opportunity was the chance to encourage ties between Canadian independent producers and the international marketplace. Ferns looked for ways to enhance both the conference schedule and the international savvy of Canadian producers.

As the Festival grew with the television industry, more enticements were put into place in order to encourage the Canadian entertainment industry to play a larger role at Banff. Trina McQueen, CEO of Discovery Canada and Chairman of the Banff Television Foundation, was a key player in garnering commitments from various organizations. Later on, as a CBC executive, she developed the CBC Keynote Address at the Festival. Subsequently, as a NetStar executive, she organized that company's million-dollar donation in support of the festival's international activities.

McQueen pointed out the breadth of industry support in Canada and abroad: "The funding of Banff reflects the growth of Canadian television. Early on, the strong elements of provincial and federal funding engendered a strong private industry. Now, the larger production companies are able to contribute to the Festival," she explained, adding, "We are also seeing a tremendous increase in international sponsorship."

Ferns marked the Festival's progress this way, "From the early days, the Festival has matured into an increasingly sophisticated must-attend event in Canada. 1998 registrations were at an all-time high of 1,744 delegates."

So what about the future? According to most delegates, Banff's challenge is related to growth. Laurier LaPierre, a longtime participant in the Festival explained, "It's truly accepted in the industry that if you want movies you go to Cannes, and if you want television you go to Banff. But if it becomes like Cannes in terms of the thousands of people attending, Banff could lose its fundamental intimacy."

The concern is echoed over and over in conversations about the Festival, but both McQueen and Ferns believe there is a way to expand the best parts of the Festival while maintaining the intimacy and accessibility of the event. "Our strength has been that we knew what we were - an event for program makers - and we have resisted becoming a conventional marketplace for buying and selling programs," noted Ferns.

But, Ferns admitted, "I am most pleased that the awareness of the Banff brand has grown around the world and is associated with excellence. Our campaign to market Banff has paid off." Fern pointed out what is perhaps the tell-tale sign of this achievement: "I spend less time on the phone spelling Banff."

Fran Humphreys is the communications manager for the Banff TV Festival.