Vancouver: The early Telefilm Canada eip funding letters for documentaries are in and Vancouver’s Paperny Films has a 75% success rate. lfp funding, of course, is still in question, but three new projects – worth $1.1 million in production budgets – are moving forward.

For cbc’s Life and Times, the documentary-oriented Paperny is doing a one hour on abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler. Also for the cbc, the production company will create a two-hour standalone special called True South Strong and Free, which chronicles the lives of Canadians living in the u.s.

For History Television, Paperny is producing a two-hour special called Murder in Normandy, which is about a battalion of Canadian pows killed by the Nazis in World War ii.

Morgentaler and Normandy are set for fall debuts, while True South is scheduled for a spring delivery.

At press time, Paperny was scrambling to find funding to replace the eip that didn’t come for the biggest project – a four-part series called Titans, based on the book by Peter C. Newman. That series is earmarked for the CanWest Global network.

*Indie haven

Vancouver continues to be a hotbed of low-budget, independent Canadian production.

For instance, A Good Burn (Clutchkick Digipics) wraps production May 7 on a crime-comedy story line involving four small-time criminals and their underground poker-room heist. Locals Francoise Yip, Peter Williams, Alisen Donn, Ronald Selmour and Edd Wright star. Kyle Davison is director and coproducer with Ray Chim. The feature will be shot on video.

The Sixth Day (Zelig Entertainment) wraps three weeks of production May 21.

The story, inspired by the Bible, involves a young man of wealth and the young prostitute he falls for. The cast includes Christine Willes, Penelope Corin and Fabiana Dominguez.

In making this film, producer/ director Leandro Vina – a native of Argentina – bought the rights to the screenplay El Sexto Dia by Argentine Dalmiro Saenz.

Double Edges, a much wealthier independent Canadian drama, goes into production May 3-28. The multimillion-dollar production is about a female advertising executive who gets involved in a power struggle and murder when she uncovers the true identities of the two men she has been dating.

At press time, the only cast locked in was American Linden Ashby (Mortal Kombat, Melrose Place). Glen Tedham produces and Penelope Buitenhuis is the director.

Meanwhile, The Artist’s Circle, a short drama by Isis Media Works, wraps camera work May 2 and boosts a bagful of proven talent. The cast includes Stargate regulars Michael Shanks and Don S. Davis and the dop is Emmy winner Joel Ransom of The X-Files and Harsh Realm. The director/writer, Bruce Marchfelder, has previously been a producer for projects like New City’s Arctic Blue.

The Artist’s Circle, a 10-minute story about being held captive by a piece of artwork, is privately financed and will be offered to the Sundance and Toronto film festival selection committees.

*TV times

The Vancouver office of Dufferin Gate is handling another Showtime mow. This one is Brotherhood of Murder, starring William Baldwin. Based on a true story about white supremacists, the production has a May 10 to June 9 shooting schedule.

Local production manager Richard Davis is overseeing Rachel Wagner, Star, which is another mow for Showtime. Starring Bethany Richards, the production is about a one-time child star who is washed up at the age of 16 only to find a normal life before she’s offered another big Hollywood break. Production runs to May 31.

Shavick Entertainment heads into production with its latest Fox Family movie May 10 to June 7. The Spiral Staircase is about a family that discovers ancient secrets and a murderer living among them after they are cut off from the rest of the world by a storm.

And Toys of Glass, an mow for the USA Network, goes to camera May 10 to June 4 with a story about archaeology and baby science. When a couple goes for invitro fertilization, an error is made and the woman is impregnated with the sperm of a 2,000-year-old man. A drama, in case you were wondering.

*Hockey talk

Avanti Pictures, which gathered a handful of Leo nominations late last month, has completed the camera work for the documentary Ice Time for Old Guys. Filmed on location in Cranbrook, b.c., Ice Time is about an old-timers hockey team and the run-up to a rematch with a women’s team.

Tony Papa directs and coproduces with Leigh Badgley. The program will air on ctv, Knowledge Network and scn.

*Sound F/X

Vancouver short filmmaker and skating choreographer Kevin Cottam has won a Bravo!Fact grant to create the short skating video Liberato, an abstract essay on the sound of skate blades on ice. The project, produced by Erin Smith, was shot in Marseilles with members of Cottam’s Xotika ice show cast late last month.

*Notice board

For the third year in a row, Vancouver’s Mainframe Entertainment won the Gold Medal in the best animated production category at the Worldfest Houston Awards. This time it’s Shadowraiders (War Planets).

* Elizabeth Murray’s National Film Board film Surviving Death: Stories of Grief won the Wilbur Award, presented in Washington, d.c. at the National Press Club by the American Religious Communicators Organization.

* Vancouver’s MV Video Publishing, which lists documentary distribution as one of its services, has become one of two new sponsors of the b.c. chapter of the documentary-minded Canadian Independent Film Caucus and will contribute to the local branch’s lobbying, promotions, productions, post-productions and distribution efforts. MV Video also does production and post-production.

The other sponsor is Super Suite Video Production, also of Vancouver.

* Organizer Anita Adams kicked off The Unplugged Alibi, a monthly script-reading series, April 25 at the Alibi Room restaurant in Vancouver.

Held the last Sunday of every month, Unplugged will feature the work of local writers and actors in readings of short scripts or scenes from feature-length efforts. Writers John Dowler, Andrew Pope, Kevin Ramsay and Kate Tremills were featured last month.

* A lot of work will culminate May 11 for Squamish filmmaker Adriane Polo when her feature Wild Wind (Sea to Sky Productions) debuts at Vancouver’s Pacific Cinematheque. The film about two friends at life’s crossroads stars Samantha Sewell and Maya Massar.