Eastlink invests $690K in Nova Scotia film productions

William MacGillivary of Picture Plant productions, which is behind the CBC miniseries Studio Black, said he's thankful that Eastlink decided to continue to fund local productions like his.

MacGillivray and other local producers had hoped the fund would have been available earlier, before the busy summer shooting season. He said he's glad it's available now.

"That's a big relief to all of us," MacGillivray said.

"Kudos to Eastlink for doing this. Hopefully we can all move forward with this and do more local production."

Eastlink said in a news release it has contributed $3.9-million to the Independent Production Fund over the last six years.

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Uncertainty with local fund

There was some uncertainty with the funding when the province dissolved Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia, and folded it into the Department of Business after eliminating the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism in 2015.

It took months for Nova Scotia Business Inc., the arms-length agency responsible for business development, to release the funds after it received approval from the CRTC that the Independent Production Fund was approved. It's not clear why.

"It took a long time for that approval to happen. Until that approval happened, Eastlink had no where to put the money if they chose to put the money into a local fund," MacGillivray said.

"Finally, earlier this year, the CRTC approved NSBI to manage the fund, and then subsequently Eastlink had a place to put the money."

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'Authentic stories'

That funding is helping Studio Black tellstories based on thosecollected in the 1920s by an African American ethnographer, civil rights activist and folklorist Arthur Fauset.

Nearly100 years ago, Fauset heard there were black Nova Scotians and decided to head north to capture their stories.

Canadian poet and playwright George Elliott Clarke mentioned Fauset's 1935 book to MacGillivray and his partner,Terry Greenlaw. They found a copy and approached CBC to make the show.

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Studio Black is putting together the second season of its acclaimed miniseries, which employs black actors, directors and crew members, to tell "authentic stories from Nova Scotia and create a voice for people who don't normally have a voice in mainstream media."

Earlier this year the productions'first four-episode season was nominated for best miniseries at the Canadian Screen Awards, along with Book of Negroes, which had a budget 20 times that of Studio Black.

MacGillivary said they are currently working on the second season.