Vancouver: Local producer Ogden Gavanski is the Canadian partner in the Spanish coproduction My Life Without Me, a project with legendary director Pedro Almodovar as executive producer (El Deseo Productions of Madrid, Spain).

The English-language, independent production wrapped April 26 and has a budget valued at less than $2 million. It stars Sarah Polley as a young woman who hides her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before. She makes a list of things to do, including finding her husband a new wife. It’s based on a short story and, despite its European roots, is set in Vancouver.

Spanish writer/director Isabel Coixet commands a cast that includes Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me), Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction), Scott Speedman (Felicity), Alfred Molina (Frida), Deborah Harry (Hair Spray) and Spanish star Leonor Watling.

Batboy

Bardel Entertainment of Vancouver is in production with the new 13-episode animated series Silverwing, based on the Ken Oppel novel about a teenage bat ‘whose bravado has frightening consequences.’

Director Ian Freedman, art director Francisco Alvalos and 3D producer Ross Bellyea are using 3D Maya-generated backgrounds, traditionally produced elements and 2D character animation.

The series debuts next spring on Teletoon.

If you hype it, they will come

The Parkinson’s Enigma is proof, says B.C. producer Terence McKeown, that Canadian documentaries can draw audiences if they are promoted.

The April 7 premiere broadcast drew a national average-minute audience (2+) of 1.28 million, making it, according to Nielsen Media, the most-watched show of the evening for CTV, the highest-rated CTV documentary of the year and one of the highest-rated documentaries ever for the network. Nationally, the Raincoast Storylines production – which featured Michael J. Fox talking about his struggle with Parkinson’s disease – was beaten by the Celine Dion concert on CBC, but won its timeslot in the Toronto-Hamilton market.

But it doubled CTV’s average numbers in the 7 p.m. Sunday timeslot, outperforming No Boundaries, Alias, Law & Order, 60 Minutes, a big hockey game in the West, and all the national newscasts that night.

The Parkinson’s Enigma was written, directed and narrated by Jerry Thompson, and produced by McKeown and Bette Thompson.

Democracy in action

Vancouver director Moira Simpson is in production with the National Film Board documentary Kosovo Dreams, which follows a Vancouver refugee lawyer and her daughter to war-ravaged Kosovo. As part of a huge, international mission trying to bring democracy to a country with sporadic electricity and water and other infrastructure problems, the women encourage the Kosovars to participate in the first free central elections.

Tracey Friesen produces.

In other doc news, Vancouver’s Out Yonder Productions, in association with Video Publishing Group, debuted its documentary Saturn’s Eyes: Satellites Taking the Planet’s Pulse, on Discovery Channel Canada April 16.

Producer Monty Bassett and editors Kris Fleerackers and Edi Osghian spent six months creating full-motion video from still satellite imagery and transforming it into the completed science documentary that follows the development of satellites over 40 years.

Monster’s doll

Halle Berry’s best actress Oscar earned Lions Gate Entertainment a 32% jump and $2 million in box office for Monster’s Ball the weekend after the March 24 Academy Awards. Tallies have trailed off since, but by April 7 the drama had grossed an estimated $25.2 million and was tracking to do 15% to 30% better box office than LGE’s original targets.

‘Theatrically, we have more than broken even cash-wise,’ says Gord Keep, senior VP for LGE in Vancouver. ‘Certainly [the Oscar] has taken the film to a whole other level and gives us more credibility.’

Monster’s Ball cost about $4 million to make and promotion has cost about $6 million.

Monster’s call

Producer/director team Sheera and Peter von Puttkamer (Gryphon Productions) of Vancouver spent two years hiking through leech- and snake-infested jungles to make the documentary Monster Hunters, about people trying to prove the existence of creatures that science says don’t exist. Like, blood-sucking alien vampires, 260-year-old bat-winged demons and Tasmanian Tigers.

The two-episode Monster Hunters, commissioned by Discovery, will air on TLC May 7 and June 25. The production recently won two Platinum Awards at the 35th Annual Houston International Film Festival.

Paper trail

The New VI’s calls for scripts generated more than 725 submissions.

‘The response has been staggering,’ says Barry Dodd, director of programming and independent production at the CHUM station. ‘Obviously, there’s both a wealth of talent and a shortage of opportunity for our independent filmmakers. Our ultimate goal is to help Vancouver Island writers and producers channel their talents into finance-able, marketable, theatrical feature films and made-for-TV movies.’

The project is a key step for CHUM’s Victoria station to fulfill its $12-million, seven-year commitment to independent production. The successful applicants should be chosen by the end of May.

Meanwhile, The New VI kicked off its Inside Pandora’s Box series of open-door, interactive TV productions April 14 with Canadian rock band Big Sugar. The band’s acoustic concert and Q&A session was taped for future broadcast.

Alex Lee hosts.

Hooray for Bollywood

Atomic Cartoons cofounder Rob Davies, recently elected president of the Association of B.C. Animation Producers, was in Bombay April 21-26 with other Canadian animators for the latest Team Canada trade mission. Among the events was a networking roundtable between Canadian and Indian entertainment companies.

‘With a coproduction agreement between Canada and India currently in negotiation and India’s film industry expecting an annual growth rate of a phenomenal 25% over the next few years, it’s hard not to get excited about the possibilities that exist between our two countries,’ says Davies.

Meanwhile, Atomic has signed a development deal with Canada’s prolific and widely published political cartoonist, Adrian Raeside, to codevelop and coproduce Raeside’s Dennis, the saga of a well-meaning Dragon.