VANCOUVER, B.C.: Hollywood’s Greatest Trick, a new documentary and news series produced for the McClatchy daily newspaper chain in the United States, takes a hard look at the visual effects (VFX) industry and BC’s film tax subsidies.

The film includes footage of BC finance minister Michael de Jong, NDP MLA George Heyman, and an extensive interview with Canadian Taxpayers Federation BC Director Jordan Bateman. Bateman is critical of the billions of taxpayer dollars handed out in corporate welfare to US film studios.

“VFX in Vancouver is the industry that taxpayers built,” Bateman says in the documentary. “We bought this industry lock, stock and barrel by putting hundreds of millions of dollars in company’s pockets to get them to come here.”

The documentary looks at the challenges facing the VFX industry and the pressure on VFX artists.

“The Canadian people shouldn’t be fooled into thinking it is Canadians doing those jobs,” said Mariana Acuña Acosta, a veteran visual effects artist, noting the phenomenon of VFX artists migrating to follow tax subsidies. “Half of Mexico is there.”

The CTF has long been critical of film tax credits, noting taxpayers paid for $38.3 million of the $65.6 million Sony Pictures spent on wages in BC from 2010-14. The CTF estimates only half of the dollars spent by taxpayers on the BC film industry is ever recouped by the provincial treasury.

Last month, a Fraser Institute study noted that film subsidies took up one-third of the money brought in by the province’s so-called revenue neutral carbon tax. That means last year, British Columbians paid 2.7 cents on every litre of gasoline to prop up movie studios.

The BC portion of the documentary Hollywood’s Greatest Trick runs from 11:30 to 14:50