Couple's love affair with Bye Bye Blues gets classic Canadian film out of copyright limbo Search for wartime jazz drama highlights plight of many older Canadian films
By Glen Schaefer, The Province October 18, 2014
By Glen Schaefer, The Province October 18, 2014
The love story between a law professor and an actor has saved a classic Canadian film from copyright oblivion — and could help to rescue more buried cinema treasures.
Joel Bakan first fell in love with Bye Bye Blues and its lead character when the movie came out in 1989.
“I adore this film,” Bakan, a University of B.C. law professor and part-time jazz guitarist, told the audience at a film festival screening this month.
Writer-director Anne Wheeler’s story of a woman who joins a travelling jazz band to support her children during the Second World War featured some of Canada’s best jazz musicians.
“It’s part of the cultural consciousness among jazz musicians in Canada,” Bakan said.
Much of the movie’s appeal centred around singer-turned-actor Rebecca Jenkins’ starring debut in the movie. As fate would have it, the lawyer and the actor met more than a decade later, fell in love and married.
They raised a family, and now the two sometimes play jazz standards with a combo in clubs around Vancouver.
But during those years Bye Bye Blues got lost, as Canadian film distributors were bought and sold, merged or taken over.
“The rights to the film had become so confused they could not be located,” Bakan said. “As a result, broadcasters had stopped broadcasting the film, there were only a handful of battered VHS copies for sale online and in the few video stores still operating, and a digital version of the film was impossible. The film was going to die.”
Bakan started digging in 2010. He hired a copyright research firm and spent several years trying to locate the rights before a Toronto copyright lawyer suggested another tack: a little-used provision in Canada’s copyright act that allows a licence to be issued if the rights are “unlocatable.”
“I was trying to find out who owned the film and I realized that to win this case in effect, I needed to prove that nobody owned it,” Bakan said.
After their application, the copyright board granted a licence in Jenkins’ name to broadcast and digitally distribute the film.
Past licences granted under those provisions had been for film clips and photographs, but Bakan’s success marked the first time the board had allowed a licence for an entire feature film. “It’s groundbreaking in that respect.”
As a result, Bye Bye Blues is now available on iTunes, and distributor Mongrel Media is looking to set up VOD streaming and shop the film to broadcasters again. Provisions have been made for royalty claims by the film’s participants, but no one is in this for the money.
“The more important part of this is to make sure that it’s available,” said Mongrel’s Hussain Amarshi. “I don’t think there is a huge amount of revenue to be made on this.”
Bakan agreed: “There’s absolutely no reason commercially to care about it. That’s the problem with all these old Canadian films — they’re not commercially important, but they’re artistically and historically important.”
Bakan said he spent about $20,000 to rescue Bye Bye Blues, and added that he expects any subsequent application to go more smoothly.
“The question I ask is, you’re flipping through the channels and you very seldom see an old Canadian film on TV. You see newer ones — but none of the old films. Our cinematic history is either not on DVD, not in digital form, not on Netflix, not available on iTunes, and not being broadcast on TV because of this problem.”
It’s hard to know how many films are similarly buried due to lapsed or lost copyright, but director Wheeler is now looking into saving more of her early films — including 1987’s Loyalties.
Former film distributor Leonard Schein was one of the people who fell in love with Bye Bye Blues back in the day. His company Festival Films distributed the movie in its initial release, before his company itself was bought.
The buyer changed owners, then it was split off from its parent company, then there were a couple of other mergers over the decades. Bye Bye Blues got lost somewhere in that corporate shuffle.
“I’m sure there are a lot of films in that position,” Schein said. “When I first started in 1978, there was a minimum of 20 Canadian distributors. Now there’s probably five.”
Vancouver International Film Festival program director Alan Franey said he was excited to learn what Bakan had done with Bye Bye Blues.
“What Joel has done legally is to change the footing so that a filmmaker, the content creator, can say ‘in the eyes of the law I have a print of this or a copy of this, and unless anyone objects than I will allow it to be shown,’” Franey said.
“Quite often, in our year-round programming here, we will talk about showing a film and we just can’t find anyone who has the rights. You often have willing parties all around (wanting to show a film) and it’s still an obstruction.”
As to how many such films there might be, “I think you can put the question the other way — rather than saying which films are buried and not available, you could look at a list of the best B.C. or Canadian films from say, longer than 10 or 15 years ago, and ask yourself how many of them could you show at a festival, or on television now. I wouldn’t say the majority, but a very significant portion.”
Franey knows of at least one such film he couldn’t show — B.C. director Phillip Borsos’s epic 1990 biography of pioneering Canadian battlefield doctor Norman Bethune, which starred Donald Sutherland.
After hearing what Bakan had done for Bye Bye Blues, Franey arranged a dinner with Bakan, Jenkins and the director’s widow Beret Borsos, so that Borsos could hear what Bakan and Jenkins had done. Franey said he hoped other filmmakers would get the message as well.
“When you’re talking about culture and a national cinema, the imperative really shouldn’t be about making lots of money,” Franey said. “We’re really talking about our own cultural heritage here. Canada is a young country, this sort of thing is in its infancy, legally speaking.”
[email protected]
“BYE BYE BLUES” - the classic, multiple Genie award-winning Canadian feature film in which Rebecca stars has finally come out in digital format and is now available for rent or purchase from itunes. Click link below:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/bye-bye-blues/id910745528
Joel Bakan first fell in love with Bye Bye Blues and its lead character when the movie came out in 1989.
“I adore this film,” Bakan, a University of B.C. law professor and part-time jazz guitarist, told the audience at a film festival screening this month.
Writer-director Anne Wheeler’s story of a woman who joins a travelling jazz band to support her children during the Second World War featured some of Canada’s best jazz musicians.
“It’s part of the cultural consciousness among jazz musicians in Canada,” Bakan said.
Much of the movie’s appeal centred around singer-turned-actor Rebecca Jenkins’ starring debut in the movie. As fate would have it, the lawyer and the actor met more than a decade later, fell in love and married.
They raised a family, and now the two sometimes play jazz standards with a combo in clubs around Vancouver.
But during those years Bye Bye Blues got lost, as Canadian film distributors were bought and sold, merged or taken over.
“The rights to the film had become so confused they could not be located,” Bakan said. “As a result, broadcasters had stopped broadcasting the film, there were only a handful of battered VHS copies for sale online and in the few video stores still operating, and a digital version of the film was impossible. The film was going to die.”
Bakan started digging in 2010. He hired a copyright research firm and spent several years trying to locate the rights before a Toronto copyright lawyer suggested another tack: a little-used provision in Canada’s copyright act that allows a licence to be issued if the rights are “unlocatable.”
“I was trying to find out who owned the film and I realized that to win this case in effect, I needed to prove that nobody owned it,” Bakan said.
After their application, the copyright board granted a licence in Jenkins’ name to broadcast and digitally distribute the film.
Past licences granted under those provisions had been for film clips and photographs, but Bakan’s success marked the first time the board had allowed a licence for an entire feature film. “It’s groundbreaking in that respect.”
As a result, Bye Bye Blues is now available on iTunes, and distributor Mongrel Media is looking to set up VOD streaming and shop the film to broadcasters again. Provisions have been made for royalty claims by the film’s participants, but no one is in this for the money.
“The more important part of this is to make sure that it’s available,” said Mongrel’s Hussain Amarshi. “I don’t think there is a huge amount of revenue to be made on this.”
Bakan agreed: “There’s absolutely no reason commercially to care about it. That’s the problem with all these old Canadian films — they’re not commercially important, but they’re artistically and historically important.”
Bakan said he spent about $20,000 to rescue Bye Bye Blues, and added that he expects any subsequent application to go more smoothly.
“The question I ask is, you’re flipping through the channels and you very seldom see an old Canadian film on TV. You see newer ones — but none of the old films. Our cinematic history is either not on DVD, not in digital form, not on Netflix, not available on iTunes, and not being broadcast on TV because of this problem.”
It’s hard to know how many films are similarly buried due to lapsed or lost copyright, but director Wheeler is now looking into saving more of her early films — including 1987’s Loyalties.
Former film distributor Leonard Schein was one of the people who fell in love with Bye Bye Blues back in the day. His company Festival Films distributed the movie in its initial release, before his company itself was bought.
The buyer changed owners, then it was split off from its parent company, then there were a couple of other mergers over the decades. Bye Bye Blues got lost somewhere in that corporate shuffle.
“I’m sure there are a lot of films in that position,” Schein said. “When I first started in 1978, there was a minimum of 20 Canadian distributors. Now there’s probably five.”
Vancouver International Film Festival program director Alan Franey said he was excited to learn what Bakan had done with Bye Bye Blues.
“What Joel has done legally is to change the footing so that a filmmaker, the content creator, can say ‘in the eyes of the law I have a print of this or a copy of this, and unless anyone objects than I will allow it to be shown,’” Franey said.
“Quite often, in our year-round programming here, we will talk about showing a film and we just can’t find anyone who has the rights. You often have willing parties all around (wanting to show a film) and it’s still an obstruction.”
As to how many such films there might be, “I think you can put the question the other way — rather than saying which films are buried and not available, you could look at a list of the best B.C. or Canadian films from say, longer than 10 or 15 years ago, and ask yourself how many of them could you show at a festival, or on television now. I wouldn’t say the majority, but a very significant portion.”
Franey knows of at least one such film he couldn’t show — B.C. director Phillip Borsos’s epic 1990 biography of pioneering Canadian battlefield doctor Norman Bethune, which starred Donald Sutherland.
After hearing what Bakan had done for Bye Bye Blues, Franey arranged a dinner with Bakan, Jenkins and the director’s widow Beret Borsos, so that Borsos could hear what Bakan and Jenkins had done. Franey said he hoped other filmmakers would get the message as well.
“When you’re talking about culture and a national cinema, the imperative really shouldn’t be about making lots of money,” Franey said. “We’re really talking about our own cultural heritage here. Canada is a young country, this sort of thing is in its infancy, legally speaking.”
[email protected]
“BYE BYE BLUES” - the classic, multiple Genie award-winning Canadian feature film in which Rebecca stars has finally come out in digital format and is now available for rent or purchase from itunes. Click link below:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/bye-bye-blues/id910745528