Signing of Program of Cooperation between National Film Board of Canada and Brazilian Audiovisual Secretariat

On March 22, 2006, capping a week-long series of film and audiovisual-related events in Brazil, Canadian Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson, Jacques Bensimon, visited Brasilia to sign a groundbreaking program of cooperation with the Audiovisual Secretariat of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture.

The signing ceremony was well attended by Brazilian media, and featured remarks by the Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, Canadian Ambassador to Brazil Guillermo Rishchynski, Mr. Bensimon and his counterpart, Orlando Senna, Audiovisual Secretary within the Ministry of Culture. There was great enthusiasm on both sides for the potential of this new agreement, not only in facilitating cooperation between the two agencies in areas such as co-production, research and training, but also as an instrument for deepening and broadening cultural ties between Canada and Brazil.

In his remarks, the Minister emphasized the importance Brazil ascribed to this new program of cooperation, and paid tribute to the important collaboration which exists between Canada and Brazil in the cultural arena, and in particular in the negotiation of the international instrument on cultural diversity.

For his part, Mr Bensimon praised Brazil's cutting-edge role in the area of digital cinema, which was allowing for a week-long NFB retrospective film series to be broadcast simultaneously in five Brazilian cities (Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Porto Alegre). He also highlighted the similarities between Canada and Brazil in multicultural/multiethnic terms, and the potential of the program of cooperation to help break the isolation of certain communities, particularly aboriginal ones. At the end of the ceremony, Mr. Bensimmon presented Minister Gil with the gift of a piece of art by a Canadian aboriginal woman.

Brazilian Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil (right),
holding up a gift from NFB Chairperson Jacques Bensimon (centre),
with Canadian Ambassador Guillermo Rishchynski (left) looking on.