Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the committee members, as well.

I'd like to start by telling you a bit about our organization. Fondation Québec Cinéma emerged from the Quebec film community's need to pool its resources in order to promote its works. We are dedicated to promoting Quebec film, artists, craftspeople and professionals, and to building our national film heritage.

Our major areas of focus have always been access to content, education and outreach. Each and every year, the foundation's activities reach more than one million people at home and abroad, through the Jutra awards, and the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois and Tournée du cinéma québécois film festivals. In fact, I was invited to appear before the committee today to talk to you about the Tournée du cinéma québécois festival.

The festival goes to the heart of the foundation's mission, which is to promote Quebec's films, facilitating access to content and showcasing Quebec's film artists and craftspeople across the country. The foundation is thankful to its institutional partners—Telefilm Canada, SODEC, the Secrétariat aux affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes and the Canada Council for the Arts—for enabling it to continue its work as a cultural mediator, facilitating access to content and bringing works to Canadian audiences.

Furthermore, we are extremely proud of the fact that the Tournée festival helps satisfy the needs and expectations of Canada's francophone community, by making French-language works accessible. The festival is a major event in every community it stops in, bringing festival audiences new films and putting on special activities in schools, featuring film artists, craftspeople and professionals. They are really the ones who bring the festival to life. By supporting the tour and introducing their films, they enhance the highly valued synergy of the festival showcase.

Quickly, I'd like to give you a few statistics on the 2014-15 festival. Already this year, we've seen a 34% increase in the festival participation rate. More than 20 guests and artists from Quebec's film community are touring with the festival. We've reached more than 7,000 Canadians, both francophones and francophiles, members of the general public and students alike. One indicator, in particular, is significant because it speaks to the committee's efforts to promote exceptional Canadian content. We noted that 48% of young participants had never seen a Quebec film before. We are also pleased to note that, thanks to festival stops in these communities, theatrical films are enjoying a second wind, as are more specialty films that either weren't released or distributed or were subject to limited Canadian release.

We would like to make a few recommendations. Greater funding would, of course, be welcome, as always. But we also believe that working with partners to integrate measures into certain settings would make it possible for projects like the Tournée festival, as well as other promotion and outreach projects focused on Canadian film, to reach the public. Such an initiative would better position us to access the audiences we seek at specific times throughout the year.

The purpose of the Tournée festival is certainly not to make money but, rather, to build Canadians' knowledge and recognition of our cinematographic production and the vast landscape it represents.

In conclusion, I'd like to point out that audience fragmentation is a very real issue for us. In our view, there is no such thing as a bad place to promote film, be it in commercial movie theatres, libraries or art cinemas. Our goal is to stay in step with the audiences we serve, audiences with different views and beliefs.

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