In 1997 civil war broke out in Zaire and, fearing for his life, a young primatologist was forced to abandon his research station deep in the Lomako Forest. Jef Dupain had been in the troubled west African country for several years, studying the endangered bonobo ape – one of the most human-like and least understood of the great apes. As the nation, now called the Congo, tore itself to pieces, the fate of the apes remained a mystery until last November when Dupain and director Kenton Vaughan (The Devil You Know) made the long trip up the river, into the rainforest.

The resulting one-hour doc, Ghosts of Lomako, airs this fall on CBC’s The Nature of Things, via 90th Parallel Film and Television Productions.

‘They went on a real Heart of Darkness expedition,’ says exec producer Gordon Henderson, ‘to see what had happened with the war, if the bonobo had survived or the people [Dupain] worked with survived. It became a real dialectic about human and animal needs.’

Vaughan, soundman Ao Loo and DOP Mark Caswell were the first western film crew to set foot in the Congo since 1998. Editor Geoff Matheson is now cutting the doc at 90th and Kurt Swinghammer is doing the music. The $500,000 project is backed by CTF, Telefilm Canada and CIDA.

Henderson is busy with many projects right now, with help, as always, from 90th production manager Susanne Cuffe. Director/producer Andrew Gregg is currently working his way cross-country for They Built the Railway, four hours for History Television.

Backed by EIP and LFP cash, the doc is shooting for less than $1 million and is slated to air sometime in ’04. Henderson again exec produces and Matheson will edit through the summer and fall.

‘We got some new information, new voices from the past,’ says Henderson. ‘It’s about people who worked on the railway.’

Henderson is also developing a three-hour special with CBC and the National Film Board about the ongoing renovations to the Royal Ontario Museum, and has teamed his producer/director Mike Downey to coproduce Dumped: The Documentary. The one-hour for CTV will put in for CTF cash this fall and, if all goes well, look at how people deal with breakups.

Director Mick Gzowski, son of radio legend Peter, is also developing a Witness documentary about his other famous relation, the 19th century industrialist Sir Casimire Gzowski.

Who’s the Bossy?

Watch for Chantal Ling and Katie Tallo to be pressing the flesh in Banff this week – the Ottawa producers and co-bosses of Bossy Pictures will talk up a host of developing film and TV projects with help from the National Screen Institute, which is mentoring Ling on the finer points of global marketing.

‘It’s huge for us,’ says Ling of the NSI program. ‘It can really open doors I might not be able to on my own.’

The company is developing three tween TV shows and three feature films, including an adaptation of the Irish novel Jackie Loves Johnser OK?, and two scripts by Tallo – the black comedy Gracie’s Kiss and Heaven’s Own Child, a life-after-death musical.

Bossy is also in production on 13 half-hours of Joey, a new tween toon for YTV, with help from copro partners Atomic Audio and Funbag Animation Studios, both of Ottawa, and Screentiger in the U.K.

The $2.2-million series follows a young girl through the ups and downs of preteen life and is slated to debut in January 2004. The show is backed by CTF’s LFP, tax credits and YTV and will be distributed outside Canada by Screentiger.

Joey was developed at Ling and Tallo’s previous company Twist Pictures and their former partners, Dave Bigelow and Serge Cote, remain stakeholders in the show. Ling and Tallo exec produce along with Frank Taylor of Funbag and Screentiger’s John Travers. Funbag’s Curtis Crawford will direct and share the producer chair with Screentiger’s Claudine Massin. Cote is doing the ‘pop fusion’ music and Atomic’s Bigelow will edit.

Meanwhile, Bossy’s most recent project and its first feature film, Posers, arrived in video stores on May 20, via distrib and coproducer Seville Pictures, and is due to air on The Movie Network in September. Talks are also underway with Showcase, Showcase Diva and The Independent Film Channel. It’s the story of a brutal murder in a nightclub, starring Adam Beach (Windtalkers) and Jessica Pare (Stardom).

Play time

ESPN is in Toronto until September shooting its first drama series Playmakers, a behind-the-scenes look at life on the gridiron. Local production designer Rocco Matteo, fresh from the Lives of Saints set, is working on this one alongside production manager Brian Gibson. Pam Simmons is production coordinator, working under producers Orly Adelson (Valley of Secrets) and Jamie Paul Rock (Mutant X).

The wonder twins

Teen phenoms Mary-Kate Oslen and Ashley Olsen (It Takes Two) will next month begin work in Toronto on their latest adventure comedy, New York Minute, for Warner Bros. and director Dennie Gordon (What a Girl Wants). Seven weeks of production will be split between here and the Big Apple and the picture is slated for release in 2004.

The fresh prince

Susan Sarandon (Stranded) is also back in town this month, with Julia Stiles and director Martha Coolidge (Leap Years), for the four-week shoot of The Prince and The Freshman, a romantic comedy about a college student who falls for an incognito European royal. Paramount will release next year, Lions Gate International will handle world distribution.