*Vancouver prodco makes history

Vancouver’s Duncan Productions has produced the first four installments of the new Faces of History 14-hour series on History Television.

The life of Francis Rattenbury, the architect of Victoria’s Empress Hotel and Legislature who was murdered by his wife’s 18-year-old lover, aired Nov. 2 at 9 p.m. The follow-up segments – coproduced by Robert Duncan and Barbara Shearer – chronicle the lives of W.A.C. Bennett, Agnes MacPhail and Buzz Beurling.

Edmonton’s Great North is delivering the series to History.

Duncan Productions recently did the Vancouver Television documentary V6A 1N6, about the drug use and poverty on Vancouver’s downtown Eastside.

*A Chris for CineNova

Toronto’s CineNova Productions took the first-ranking Chris Award in the humanities division at the 45th Columbus International Film and Video Festival earlier this month for its 60-minute docudrama Titanic.

Produced for Global Television, Canal d, Discovery Channel and Canal+, Titanic was also nominated for the Christopher Columbus Award as the most innovative and creative production in the festival.

A joint effort by CineNova’s three founding partners, Titanic was directed by Christopher Rowley, produced by Jane Armstrong and executive produced by David Lint.

*CBC wins Engineering Emmy

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has presented cbc with an Engineering Emmy award.

CBC won the award for its ‘pioneering application of SMPTE 270 Mb/s serial digital technology to large scale television facilities.’ Serial digital technology is used to route television pictures and sound around the inside of television stations and network centers. cbc is the first broadcaster in the world to apply this newest digital technology on a large scale at the CBC Broadcast Centre.