Keep police hands off documentary footage

Dear friends and fellow supporters of free and independent documentaries and journalism:

The documentary THERE ARE NO FAKES is on one hand being credited by police for inspiring an investigation that recently led to eight arrests, 40 charges laid and 1000 paintings seized in what they are calling the “biggest art fraud in the world.” At the same time they have obtained a Production Order to seize all filmmaker Jamie Kastner’s raw footage to use in their investigation and case.

We are fighting the Production Order to keep our raw footage private. Our case will be heard in Thunder Bay on July 7, 2023.

While we applaud the police's investigation and are pleased to see documentary work yield real-world results, we regard the seizure of footage as not only unnecessary but an intrusion on basic freedom and independence fundamental to all documentary makers and journalists.

Those interviewed for THERE ARE NO FAKES did not consent, by appearing in the film, to speak to police. If speaking to documentary makers becomes synonymous with speaking to police, people will stop speaking, and exposés such as THERE ARE NO FAKES will no longer be possible.

The judicial standard required for a Production Order is that police are not able to obtain the information any other way. Yet in this case police have stated that they have obtained 271 statements, including from the 17 people interviewed for THERE ARE NO FAKES.

The police have acknowledged that our film provided a roadmap for their investigation. But now we must incur significant expense to fight their seizure of our footage.

We are a small, independent production company, the budget for this film, which was released four years ago, has been spent long hence.

We have retained one of the best lawyers in Canada working in this realm, but he cannot afford to work for free.

We ask you as supporters of independent documentaries, journalism and free speech to help us fight this battle by donating towards our legal costs.