Sunny side of the doc

While the Vue sur les docs Grand Prize went to British director Kim Flittcroft’s film Tales From a Hard City, new documentary streams in Europe were a welcome consolation prize for the record crowd at the Marseille International Documentary Festival.

Paul Hamann, head of docs at bbc, announced two new slots (one dedicated to history, one to contemporary biographies), and that BBC1, which airs 200 hours of documentaries a year, is opening to independent producers from abroad.

In a call for innovative projects, president Jean-Marie Cavada declared most of French channel Television de la Connaissance’s programs would be produced with independents, describing the new channel’s focus as general-interest educational fare.

NSI’s new board

The National Screen Institute has a new board of directors with producer Tom Dent-Cox as chair. Members are Malofilm’s Robert Blair, Susan Brinton of CanWest, Jim Burt of the cbc, filmmaker Marcel Carriere, producers Andrew Cochran, Kevin DeWalt, Derek Mazur and Glynis Whiting, actor Tom Jackson, Barbara Janes of the National Film Board, ctv’s Peter Lower, Laurie McInnes of Great North, Seaton McLean of Atlantis, cfcn’s Bruce Nelson, Cinemaginaire’s Denise Robert, Insight Productions’ Alyse Rosenberg, Tom Rowe of Pacific Motion Pictures, Superchannel’s Doug Steeden, Garry Toth of the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation, writer Nancy Trites-Botkin, and ex officio Ruth Bertelsen acting as a consultant to the board. Also announced are new dates for the 1995 Local Heroes International Screen Festival: March 12-18.

TWIFT’s new board

Toronto Women in Film and Television has a new board of directors for this fiscal year ending May 1995. Copresidents are past twift president Martha Fusca and producer/director Daniele J. Suissa; Debra Henderson of the Canadian Film Centre is vice-president; treasurer is Shelley Levine of Peat Marwick Thorne and filmmaker Vanessa Dylyn is secretary. Other board members include Isabel Bassett, Helga Stephenson, Lili Fournier, Mary Powers and Mireille Watson. The non-profit organisation also announced a new acting executive director, Smadar Peretz.