Regina’s Minds Eye Pictures will executive produce Tri-Media Productions’ $2-million feature Blue Dot, a joint venture with Frank Procopio of TMJ Productions in Toronto, who is writing, directing and coproducing.

The dark comedy follows a Toronto woman who helps collapse a counterfeiting ring and bring a Mafia boss into custody. She enters the witness protection program and ends up at a Saskatchewan trailer park where she becomes involved in a much bigger counterfeiting scam at a local bingo hall.

A Canadian distributor is being sought. Game plan is to shoot next fall.

Saskatoon-based Tri-Media is also developing a family movie/ series pilot, Secret of the Sentinel. Judith Silverthorne has completed a first draft on the story of a young girl who befriends the child ghost of her grandmother.

Saskfilm and the CTV Saskatchewan Development Fund have committed funding to the two-hour, $1-million movie.

Just wrapping production at Tri-Media is Tough Stuff, a three one-hour doc series illustrating the fighting spirit of individuals coping with life-threatening illnesses and disabilities. The docs have been licensed to scn and Vision tv.

Tri-Media is also seeking a distributor for Nikiskisinan: We Remember Them, a one-hour documentary salute to First Nations Canadian war veterans, coproduced with Blue Hill Productions of Saskatoon for scn.

*$10 million international copro slated for Manitoba

Credo Films of Winnipeg is partnering with Norwegian company Northern Lights and Denmark’s Balboaz Productions on the $10-million feature film Taiga.

Taiga is a word describing the cold, barren, harsh landscape located south of the tundra in the Soviet Union – a vast, isolated area the size of the continental u.s.

Written and to be directed by Peder Norlund of Norway, the film is described as a modern-day survival myth (in the vein of Lord of The Flies ) in which a group of teenagers must fend for themselves after a plane crash in Taiga. The organized society they set up slowly degenerates under the hardships and stresses of their isolated environment.

Credo’s Kim Todd and Jamie Brown will executive produce.

The shoot is scheduled to begin next winter north of Winnipeg. An international a-list ensemble cast is being put together by u.k. company Jeremy Zimmermann Casting.

*StarDust Casting opens

A new Winnipeg company, StarDust Casting, has been launched by Frank Adamson, a longtime actor and president of SkyWest Productions, and Jacqui Druxman, an entrepreneur whose business ventures include magazine publishing.

StarDust will service films shooting throughout Manitoba. The company is currently casting the John Aaron/Regent Films’ production Nostradamus.

*Cinepost back in business

Saskatoon director/producer Bill Stampe has revived Cinepost Films, following the bankruptcy of Newhaven Media which had previously bought out his film and video company.

Stampe is busy working on a slew of commercials, as well as developing documentaries and drama projects. Cinepost has picked up Saskfilm and CTV Development Fund money for Sheets to the Wind, a $135,000 documentary on the Ku Klux Klan in Saskatchewan that’s slated to shoot next year.

*Training program sets off on its own

The Manitoba Motion Pictures Industries Association’s training arm has become an autonomous, incorporated, not-for-profit organization.

While the mandate of the new Film Training Manitoba stays essentially the same – to train Manitoba-based film and tv crews – the emphasis of the development program is on upgrading the skills of existing crew members.

‘The mmpia training program has grown to a size where we need our own board office and staff,’ says Valerie Shantz, who has been named executive director of Film Training Manitoba. ‘What this means is we can do more and speed up our goals in training.’

Film Training Manitoba is funded by the provincial government’s education and training department as well as Manitoba Film and Sound.

A board of directors will consist of a representative of mmpia, the Directors Guild of Canada and IATSE 63. The remaining three members will be appointed by Film Training Manitoba’s member groups.

The first set of appointments will be made later this month. Until then, the executive of the former mmpia training committee will make up the first board. These include Lesley Oswald (mmpia), producer Vonnie Von Helmolt, Richard Horne (mmpia), Clive Perry (dgc), Olaf Dux (iatse) and Lee J. Campbell (actra).

*Rosie winners

Canada’s longest-running industry awards show – the Alberta Film and Television Awards – celebrated its 25th anniversary on April 24 in Edmonton, with Rosies handed out in 43 categories.

Dancing Stone Films’ Heart of the Sun (the first project licensed through the A-Channel Drama Fund) picked up four awards: best dramatic direction (Francis Damberger), art direction (Ken Rempel), dramatic cinematography (Peter Wunstorf), and lead female performance (Christianne Hirt).

White Iron Productions scored four Rosies: Honker won for best commercial and short-form script writing (Steve Williams and Jeff Lennard), Killing Time for best doc over 30 minutes, and You for short-form direction (Rico Labbe).

Honored with the Best of the Competition prize was Mad Shadow Films’ By This Parting, which also took home prizes for best experimental film and non-dramatic editing (Scott Parker).

The Anaid Productions/Minds Eye Pictures coproduced kids’ series Mentors won for best series and special effects/animation (Studio Post).

Anaid is also one of the producers behind The Tourist, which was awarded a Rosie in the informational category.

Alberta Filmworks’ In The Blue Ground: A North of 60 Thriller captured Rosies for dramatic editing (Chris Hodgson) and overall sound (George Tarrant).

Other double award-winning programs were Illusions Entertainment’s Question of Privilege (another A-Channel Drama Fund project) for best drama over 60 minutes and best dramatic scriptwriting (David Schultz). Great North Productions’ The Beat: Sightings took the under 60-minute drama category and best performance by a male (Brian Dooley).

Great North’s Tickling The Dragon’s Tail: The Story of Louis Slotin picked up the non-dramatic directing prize (Tom Radford).

Best doc over 30 minutes went to Interstate 80 Entertainment/Vicom Media Productions’ Rebels: A Journey Underground, which also took the non-dramatic screenwriter award (Kevin Alexander).

Stories from the Seventh Fire, produced by Ava Karvonen and Gerri Cook, won in the children’s category.

Other winners were ITV News at Six (news), Karvonen Films’ World of Weasels (non-dramatic cinematography prize), Midnight Highway Film Company’s Batus – Medicine Man (best composer/ musical score – Mike Shields) and Blue Moon Productions’ Belly Boat Hustle (short/vignette).

The awards are organized by the Alberta Motion Pictures Industries Association.

*AMPIA board elected

Minds Eye Pictures’ Josh Miller is the new president of the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association, replacing Black Spring Pictures’ Dale Phillips. Margaret Mardirossian of Anaid Productions and former president of ampia, returns to the board as vp-north, replacing Gerri Cook of Dinosaur Soup Productions.

Other new members include Kathleen Holowach (Blue Sky Communications) as treasurer and Ted Boniface and Paul Roscorla as board directors.

Returning ampia board members include White Iron Productions’ Lance Mueller as vp south, Linda Kupecek (secretary) and directors Connie Edwards (SOULEADO Entertainment), Joanne Levy (A-Channel Drama Fund), Gordon Imlach, Doug Lord and Kerrie Penney (New Moon Media) and Gerri Cook.