Film and Media Arts - Television

Alberta has long been a popular location for various television and film projects. The varied landscape, from the endless stretch of the prairies, to the Rocky Mountains and northern forests, offers an ideal setting for film and television projects of any budget.

As early as 1910—when a silent film sponsored by the CPR was filmed in Strathmore—Alberta has been used as a filming location. Companies continued to descend upon the province throughout the 1920s, and well into the 1960s, though most were foreign filmmakers rather than local artists. It was during the Peter Lougheed's premiership, in the 1970s, that Alberta's full potential as a major film and television market was finally realized. Lougheed established one of the first film locations offices in Canada, attracting big name pictures such as Superman to Alberta by 1977.

The Alberta Motion Pictures Industry Association, a supporter of both Alberta film and television, was established in 1973 and was the first organization of its kind in Canada. Dozens of indigenous filmmakers took advantage of the support that the organization offered, and as a result, many films and television movies began to hit the mainstream. Fil Fraser, then owner of Fraser Communications Ltd., produced many of these pieces, including Why Shoot the Teacher, shot in Hanna, and the historical drama, Marie-Anne, shot at Fort Edmonton Park.

Despite the new-found support, Alberta's film and television industry was still suffering, with many broadcast organizations favouring work coming from the East over anything produced on the prairies. In the early 1980s, the provincial government founded a funding agency, the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation. The multi-million dollar investment soon paid off with the production of several television series created by local writers and directors.

The benefits continued to stimulate the industry throughout the 1990s, with Alberta at the forefront of some of Canada's most successful television series and movies. North of 60 began shooting in Bragg Creek, Alberta in 1992, and would soon prove to be one of the most popular television shoes in CBC history. Through its four year run, it would often pull in more than a million viewers per week. In 2003, its 10-year anniversary was celebrated with the airing of a feature length movie, Another Country.

Jake and the Kid, another CBC drama, was produced by the Edmonton-based company Great North Productions and filmed in Lac La Biche and Leduc. Throughout its three year run, from 1996 to 1999, the show was one of the top employers for film crews in the province.

With cutbacks to many government funded film agencies in the late 1990s, local productions have decreased in number. Despite this, many independent and smaller scale organizations still support Alberta film and television, and major motion pictures continue to find suitable shooting locations throughout the province. Localized television stations such as Access and A-Channel in Calgary and Edmonton offer funding and airtime for Alberta's writers and directors.