Still riding high after receiving the Genie for best documentary for the Ontario-banned doc Grass, Ron Mann and his production engine Sphinx Productions are busier than ever with at least five flavorful projects in development.

"I’m committed to making documentaries about alternative culture," said Mann a week after accepting the ironic Genie nod and being spotlighted by Cinematheque Quebecoise in Montreal. "We’re still a small company that’s deciding which way to go, but at this point it’s about making films for the love of making films. A lot of doc makers disappear after one or two movies, but for me it’s not a ticket to making long-form dramas, the form still excites me."

And why shouldn’t it? Mann’s production lineup is consistently in line with his zest for the zany.

The first project on the slate, Hip Stories for Hip Kids, originally titled Confessions of a Hot Roddin’, Pin- Stripin’, Customizin’ Teenage Icon (a nod to Tom Wolfe), is a throwback to the 1950s hot-rod craze.

Produced and directed by Mann, the $1.5-million, feature-length doc intends to introduce eight- to 12-year-olds of today to the "crazy car culture" of the past by focusing on such characters as Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, famous for his far-out car The Beatnik Bandit and his rebel logo Rat Fink.

Incorporating 10 minutes of animation, the film began shooting in l.a. in December, with principal photography beginning in March across the u.s. and Canada.

Telefilm Canada, the ctf, Rogers and Film Transit are financing partners on the film, with Lions Gate on board for distribution and Citytv committed for broadcast.

SXSWX8 is a series of eight opening films for the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, tx, March 9-17.

After making a splash with Grass at last year’s sxsw, Mann was invited to make the festival’s under-a-minute preludes, which in this case are comical bits about film projection gone awry.

Each short uses archival footage, original music by Windsor, on-based dj Ritchie Hawtin, and a scratchy black-and-white look.

For the Love of Movies is a feature doc that turns the camera on the world’s most renowned movie critics, including David Sterritt and James Agee.

Produced by Mann and directed by Boston film critic Gerald Peary, the $500,000 film started shooting at the New York Film Critics Society awards ceremony in January, where celebrities such as actor Tom Hanks and director Steven Soderbergh were captured in top form. And in early February, the doc took to the Rotterdam film festival.

Mann says the project is intended for The Independent Film Channel (u.s.), but has yet to attach a broadcaster. Given the subject manner, the producer is certain it will garner a heap-load of attention on the festival circuit.

On Earth Day, April 22, Mann hits the road with Woody Harrelson to shoot Woody Harrelson’s What Every Young Person Should Know, a documentary on the actor’s bike trip down the Pacific Coast Highway as he visits college campuses and educates students on the benefits of yoga, diet and getting off the corporate grind.

In a verite approach, a first for Mann, the director will follow close behind with a hemp-fueled bus in which organics will be grown for the trip.

The excursion, says Mann, is a throwback to Ken Kesey’s Electric Cool Aid Acid Test. "Who knows what film stars and rock ‘n’ rollers might drop in".We’ll probably wind up visiting Kesey when we pass through Oregon."

City is the Canadian broadcaster and Mann is currently in negotiations with Lions Gate and a big American independent to distribute the $600,000 project.

And finally, for the National Film Board, Mann is in development on Thumbin’ a Ride, a social history of hitchhiking in Canada, executive produced by Peter Starr.

"We’ll be looking at what hitchhiking meant in its heyday, in the 1960s and ’70s," says Mann, whose researchers have already come up with personal hitchhiking anecdotes from more than 400 people from across Canada.

*Knightscove jumps on board Jay Jay the Jet Plane

just over a year after Knightscove Entertainment set up shop in Toronto and l.a. with a $50-million insurance-backed bond issue, the producer/financier is putting the money to use on some hefty children’s and family productions.

Diverting from its core mandate to produce and/or finance live-action feature films in the style of Free Willy and Fly Away Home, the company has announced a coproduction deal with l.a.’s Porchlight Entertainment on the animated preschool series Jay Jay the Jet Plane.

Fourteen new half-hours are in production – joining the 26 existing half-hours – for broadcast daily on PBS KIDS Ready to Learn service, beginning June 1.

The first 26 episodes of the 3D/live-action series have already aired on Discovery Channel, but when pbs picked them up with an order for an additional 14, Knightscove president and ceo Leif Bristow says he couldn’t resist getting involved, especially since pbs’ viewership nearly triples that of Discovery.

Jay Jay, budgeted at us$11 million in total, follows the adventures of a curious six-year-old jet plane and his airplane friends who live and play at Tarrytown Airport, a place where "imagination takes flight."

Porchlight distributes the series, with Modern Cartoons handling the animation.

Meantime, Knightscove is keeping busy developing the live-action feature Olive, produced by Ralph Winters (X-Men), directed by LeVar Burton, written by Toronto scribe Murray McRae and created by exec producer Bristow and his wife Agnus.

Produced out of Toronto, the film tells the story of the friendship between a young figure skater and Olive, a greenish-colored female reindeer who leads Santa’s troop with her ability to see with her heart.

The $10-million film will shoot in either Toronto or Quebec from February to March 2002, with Whoopi Goldberg as the voice of Olive.

Currently in negotiations with a distributor, Bristow says the film will be released for Christmas 2002.

Another project in development at Knightscove is Virginia’s Run, a $7-million feature produced by Bristow and Robert Schwartz, head of production operations in Knightscove’s l.a. office, directed by Peter Markle and written by Valerie Trapp.

The film is about a 13-year-old girl who goes on a 100-mile horse race. "Rocky on horseback," says Bristow.

To be distributed by Alliance Atlantis, the film will likely shoot in Nova Scotia from May to July.

*CFC bolsters shorts,

Film Circuit places them

two 2000 Canadian Film Centre short dramatic films, In the Wings and Ernest, have been selected from across Canada to participate in the Toronto International Film Festival’s second annual Film Circuit, a program through which the festival selects 20 shorts from across the country and arranges distribution to theatres interested in running shorts before their feature presentations.

Last year, the Circuit arranged more than 200 bookings in independent and repertory theatres in Ontario, b.c. and Alberta.

The Film Circuit was originally developed to gauge the market for short films in Canada, says program director Cam Haynes. "Now we’re seeing if there’s a possibility of getting shorts money through theatrical release."

In the Wings, directed by Lisa Robertson (Breaking Water), written by Lynn McPherson (Dateline) and produced by Brent Barclay (Bagatelle) and Natalie Hoban (Shave It, Baby, Shave It), is about a rivalry between two veteran actors living in a performers retirement lodge.

Ernest, written and directed by Keith Behrman (White Cloud, Blue Mountain) and produced by Hoban, tells the story of a 15-year-old boy forced by his accountant father to keep books.

Also, the cfc’s five 2001 short dramatic film teams are currently in preproduction.

The works are: Juegos de Manos, directed by Javiera Fombona, produced by Kim Bozak and written by Lara McKinnon; Wonderful, written and directed by Bruce Spangler and produced by Don Booth; Three Sisters on Moon Lake, written and directed by Julia Kwan and produced by Ingrid Veninger; Declawed, directed by Sara Marino, written by Jason Belleville and produced by Alexandra Dombowsky; and In Memoriam, written and directed by Aubrey Nealon and produced by Fraser Robinson.

*ONtv returns to its CH roots

as a result of CanWest Global gaining ownership of ontv (formerly chch-tv) through last year’s wic split deal, the Hamilton-based station has been officially rebranded CH Television. And with its rejuvenated image, the station will return to its roots by reflecting the local concerns and interests of the Hamilton/Halton/Niagara region.

With a commitment to produce as much as 36.5 hours of local programs a week, its 6 p.m. newscast, CH News at Six, co-anchored by Dan McLean and Heather Hiscox, will expand to one hour.

The station has also launched a three-hour morning show, CH Morning Live. Hosted by Bob Cowan and Catherine Wegner, the show will tackle the news of the day along with traffic, weather, business, entertainment and sports.

And on March 5, the station launches CH Talk Live, a call-in show for the community to the discuss issues affecting the region.

ch has also committed to coproducing, in association with local producer David Wesley (Redcanoe Productions), a two-part doc special on the history of Hamilton, Hamilton: City at the Head of the Lake, scheduled to air in March.*