Christina Jennings

World Screen Weekly, September 27, 2007

Chairman & Co-CEO

Shaftesbury Films

Launched in 1987, Shaftesbury Films has become one of Canada’s leading production houses. The company was founded by Christina Jennings, who says she has always been led by her entrepreneurial spirit. Having been an urban planner and a travel agency and restaurant owner, all before she was 30, Jennings soon found herself attracted to the production arena, where she first began working on commercials, documentaries and corporate films. Together with Jonathan Barker as president and CEO, and Scott Garvie as senior VP of business and legal affairs, Jennings set about building Shaftesbury with an emphasis on dramatic and comedic storytelling and found success early on with the feature film Camilla.

Starring Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) and Bridget Fonda (Single White Female), the film was picked up for U.S. distribution by Miramax. As a British-Canadian co-production, Camilla solidified the importance of international revenues for Shaftesbury, which has always kept its eye on telling “universal stories,” Jennings says.

“Right from day one it’s been about saying, in Canada we can create this terrific programming but it’s got to work outside our borders,” Jennings adds. “Our two success stories right now are ReGenesis and Life with Derek. They’re in over 100 countries, they’ve each been translated into more than 15 languages and we’re on a fourth season for each of those.”

ReGenesis was Shaftesbury’s first foray into one-hour drama. It is a science investigation series about the North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission and its special operations team that unravels bio-terrorism threats. Jennings said she came up with the idea for the show when she realized that as a parent, “my world was getting more and more focused on science,” she says, including topics like genetically modified foods. “I knew that science was on top of everybody’s mind.” The show launched in U.S. syndication this fall.

Shaftesbury is continuing its television drama production efforts with the new series Murdoch Mysteries, a co-production with CHUM Television and Granada International. Set in the Victorian era, the 13-part series follows William Murdoch, who uses newly developed forensics science techniques to solve gruesome murders. The television series is based on a series of novels by Maureen Jennings (no relation) that Shaftesbury had previously adapted into a series of TV movies, Murder 19C: Detective Murdoch Mysteries.

The company has, in fact, worked with a number of authors, Jennings says, including Margaret Atwood and Mordecai Richler. “The focus in the company has always been on creativity and creative partnerships,” Jennings explains, adding that the company recently picked up the rights to adapt Vincent Lamb’s acclaimed Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures.

For a number of its productions, including ReGenesis and Murdoch Mysteries, Shaftesbury has worked with third-party distributors to sell the rights outside of Canada. The company does, however, have its own distribution outfit with the Shaftesbury Sales Company, headed by Shane Kinnear. “When we decided to get into the distribution business—and it’s an expensive game—we decided we would focus on kids and family programming.” Jennings explains. “When it comes to a ReGenesis or the movies that we do, whether it’s 8 Days to Live or In God’s Country, we sell off the international rights. It means that those movies have a real shot internationally because they are going out with companies that have big track records, big output deals [with broadcasters.]”

A separate division of the company, SK Films, is involved in the production and distribution of IMAX and other large-format features. “There’s a huge range to what we do,” Jennings says.

That range extends to Shaftesbury’s development slate, Jennings says. “We put a lot of our own money into development. What it means is that as the market changes, as it always does, we’ve got TV movies when people are looking for TV movies, we have one-hour series when people are looking for one-hour series. We go from science fiction to straight drama to comedies. We have a big portfolio and we’re able to quickly respond” to broadcasters’ needs, she says.

A large development slate also allows Shaftesbury to grow its production volume, a strategy it has opted for over acquiring other distribution companies or external libraries. “There’s been a lot of merging of companies, in the U.K. in particular, and there’s been some in Canada,” Jennings says. “We’ve been courted a lot. This year we’re doing about C$90 million of business—we’re probably one of the top-three companies in the country. What’s interesting about us is, we are a highly profitable, privately held company. We’ve really kept our nose down. It’s been about working hard, keeping that quality as high as it can be. We keep going.”

—By Mansha Daswani