Crime pays

Regina: Regina-based Partners in Motion is scheduled to produce between 60 and 70 hours of fact-based programming this year, including two doc series and a one-off.

The second season of Crime Stories, a $940,000 doc series chronicling some of the most shocking crimes in Canadian history and the techniques used to solve them, started shooting at various locations across the country in March and will wrap in December.

Directed by Chris Triffo, three episodes have already been delivered, with three additional eps to be delivered in the fall.

Broadcasters include History Television and Canal D and the National Film Board will distribute.

Nova Herman produces, with Ron Goetz executive producing. The series was produced with funding from the LFP, SaskFilm Documentary Fund and CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund, as well as national and provincial tax credits.

Triffo is also directing Escape from Iran, a one-hour documentary about six people who looked to the Canadian Embassy in Tehran, Iran for sanctuary and escape when students seized the American Embassy taking 60 prisoners 25 years ago.

Principal photography started Feb. 1 and will continue until the end of June in locations including Iran, New York and Ottawa.

The $405,000 doc received funding from the NFB, LFP, SaskFilm Documentary Fund and tax credits.

Herman and Goetz produce and executive produce, respectively, with Colin McNeil writing. Partners in Motion will deliver the doc to History in November.

The company is also shooting seasons five and six (2 x 8 hours) of Disasters of the Century for History. Season five, which started production in April and wraps in June, features international disasters, while season six, which started shooting in October 2003 and wraps in July, focuses on Canadian catastrophes. Laura Bracken

He said, she said

Toronto: Red Queen Productions (Punch Like a Girl) is on the road between Toronto, New York and L.A. this spring and summer for The Perfect Couple, a TV hour for CBC about the profound friendships formed by gay men and straight ‘fag hag’ women.

Partners Justine Pimlott and Maya Gallus will shoot three couples, intercutting the stories with archival footage and assorted clips from pop culture including, possibly, both Will and Grace and the British series Bob and Rose.

(Although their first job should be to adopt a less grating term than ‘fag hag.’ Allow us to suggest that the Japanese equivalent, okage, at least has a nice ring to it.)

Gallus produces, Pimlott directs and is aiming to get the $400,000 doc to air on Passionate Eye and Radio-Canada by December. It will also air on Showcase, IFC and RDI. Perfect Couple scored $30,000 from the Banff pitch sessions in 2003, and is also backed by Telefilm Canada and CTF.

Red Queen is also developing a feature doc about transsexual youth called Girl Inside, to be coproduced with the National Film Board. Sean Davidson

Taking It Off supersizes

Edmonton: Anaid Productions of Edmonton is gearing up to shoot season four of its weight-loss doc series with a new format and expanded episodes.

The 2003 Gemini winner for best lifestyle series, Taking It Off has been expanded from 10 to 13 eps for season four and will air on Life Network in one-hour segments, up from its half-hour format in previous years.

Participants whose weight-loss journeys are captured on camera over six months were previously restricted to Edmonton residents, but this season the show is expanding to include Calgary and Halifax. Shooting takes place over six months ending in December, to air in 2005.

Margaret Mardirossian produces Taking It Off, with creative director Neil Grahn and editor Sophie Mardirossian.

The $1.6-million series is funded through the LFP, EIP, Alberta Film Development Program and the Rogers Cable Fund. In addition, the series will be followed up by the one-hour doc Keeping it Off?, which checks on the progress of past participants. Laura Bracken