Montreal: Producer/director Louise Carre and Tunisian editor Kahena Attia are in the editing stage on Carre’s latest feature-length documentary, Mon Coeur est temoin (Burka, demain un nouveau printemps?), a moving profile of the lives and hopes of Arab women.

Carre spent five long years overcoming all sorts of obstacles while researching and shooting the film in far-flung locations in Western Sahara, Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian peninsula.

Carre says the goal is a better understanding of the women, their lifestyles and their economic, political and family roles. Also featured in the film is an interview with 26-year-old Arab journalist Naema Hamouda, who was assassinated by Islamic extremists shortly after the filming.

The director’s credits include the short film Germaine (1991) and the feature Qui a tire sur nos histoires d’amour? (1986).

Mon Coeur est temoin is a majority Quebec/Tunisia coproduction officially sanctioned by unesco as part of its World Decade of Cultural Development Program, 1988-97.

Les Films Virage and Maison des Quatre, Carre’s house, are the Quebec coproducers in association with the National Film Board. sodec and Vues d’Afrique have provided additional funding, as has Centre Sahel of Universite Laval.

Radio-Canada and TV5 are the Canadian broadcasters. Z’ Yeux Noirs Movies is the Tunisian coproducer and 2M and ertt are the broadcasters.

Botsford helms Dead Innocent

E.N.G. lead Sara Botsford makes her feature film directorial debut in the Blackwatch Communications psychological thriller Dead Innocent, shooting 24 days in Montreal and suburban Laval from Feb. 4 through to March 6.

The film stars Genevieve Bujold (Dead Ringers) in the role of an upscale lawyer who steps into a nightmare when she returns home to find her baby-sitter murdered and her young daughter kidnapped. The apartment has been strangely taken over by video equipment, and the terrified lawyer soon discovers she’s being watched. Graham Greene stars in the role of a good cop.

Blackwatch executive producer William Mariani says the $2.3 million film is one of three pictures slated for ’96, including a drama called Maggie with Botsford directing this fall.

The ’96 slate and the first Blackwatch feature shot last year, Obstruction of Justice, exported by Oasis Pictures International, are being financed by a ‘unique $7 million public share offering,’ a mix of tax deductions on a limited partnership investment and rsp options on shares in the production entity. Mariani says he’s looking for good commercial scripts.

Craft credits on Dead Innocent go to producers Mariani and (editor) Michael Doherty, dop Rodney Gibbons, pm Kathy Wolf and composer David Findlay. The film is being crewed by the stcvq and is based on a screenplay from Ottawa-based writers Alan Templeton and Mary Crawford.

Blackwatch features will be distributed in theaters by Blackwatch Distribution on a shared-commission basis with Toronto-based Cineplex Odeon.

Nathalie’s baby

Following shooting on the George Mihalka sex comedy L’Homme Ideal, CFP Productions has acquired film rights to Maman last call, a Quebec bestseller on boomer motherhood from prominent Le Devoir journalist Nathalie Petrowski.

Petrowski, who has distinguished herself in English Canada through her contributions to CBC Radio’s Morningside, earlier directed an nfb-funded doc in the French Programme’s American Experience series. She’s writing the screenplay based on the 134-page book while Alain Chartrand (Ding et Dong, le film), who proposed the adaptation to cfp vp Christian Larouche, is slated to direct the $2.5 million comedy as early as this fall.

Larouche says the film ‘will be a lot more substantial than the book,’ which has sold close to 20,000 copies to date.

Larouche says a decision on development funding from sodec and Telefilm Canada should be known within days.

As for L’Homme Ideal, it’s one of six Canadian films slated for release by cfp this year, either this summer or fall, says Larouche.

R-C seeks winners

Radio-Canada’s competitive international documentary series, Course Destination Monde, is seeking eight would-be world travelers for its 1996/97 edition.

This amazing opportunity, open to eight young people born after June 30, 1978 and fluent in French, requires the chosen to go it basically alone in a dozen or more countries, filing four-minute documentary reports every 10 days for a period of 27 weeks.

The docs are aired on the tv show and judged by a panel, with major prizes awarded. Applicants must prepare a written profile of themselves, their interests and studies, as well as a vhs or s/vhs report no longer than three-and-a-half minutes. The 1995/96 batch of Course competitors, selected from among 359 applicants, visited over 50 countries.

Requests for ’96/97 applications should be sent to: La Course Destination Monde, Dossier de Candidature, Societe Radio-Canada, C.P. 9089, Succ. Centre Ville, Montreal, Quebec. H3C 3P3. Phone requests will not be accepted. The deadline is April 9.

Radio-Canada is also sponsoring a screenwriting competition. Four 55-minute drama scripts will be selected, produced and showcased on the Sunday night cultural program Beaux Dimanches. Winners receive a $2,000 bursary plus a sardec royalty payment of $8,170. The network’s audience relations service has the details.