Destinies Apart in Newfoundland

St. John’s – While promoting her dramatic series Random Passage in Iceland, Barbara Doran, president of St. John’s-based Morag Productions, was inspired to start working on her most recent project, Destinies Apart. The one-off doc examines how Iceland and Newfoundland, islands which once shared similar economic, cultural and physical landscapes, have developed very differently since Iceland gained independence from Denmark in 1944 and Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.

‘I was really impressed with how developed and sophisticated a culture Iceland has,’ says Doran. ‘Newfoundland has twice the population, but with all our riches and resources we continue to be a poor province.’

In addition to writing and directing, Doran executive produces the $400,000 doc, which follows Newfoundland writer Lisa Moore as she explores the concept of destiny by comparing the islands’ past and present.

Produced by Lynne Wilson, the one-hour doc went to camera June 7 and wrapped July 4 after a total of 23 shoot days in Newfoundland, Iceland and Denmark. Toronto-based DOP Michael Boland lensed the doc on the new Sony PDW-530 XDCAM.

Destinies Apart, produced with funding from the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, the Canadian Television Fund and CBC, will be delivered in January to air on the Ceeb’s Passionate Eye. Other broadcasters include VisionTV, Knowledge Network, The Documentary Channel, SCN and Iceland’s RUV. Laura Bracken

They’re here, they’re queer

Toronto – Commercial production house Filmblanc is moving into documentaries, and has started work on a one-hour special for OMNI Television about gay and lesbian immigrants in Canada, Gloriously Free. Editor and stage director Ed Sinclair (Stand Together, Love Among the Ruins) is at the helm with DOP Jeremy Benning (The Stone of Folly). The show shot through May and June in Toronto and will air in the fall after editing by Rod Deogrades (Max).

‘It’s not all talking heads. Creatively I think we’ll get something very nice,’ says exec producer Noemi Weis. The show will shoot in English but be versioned into other languages, thus qualifying for support from OMNI’s Independent Producers Initiative. A similar project, Escape to Canada, is nearing completion at Elevator Films, the factual spin-off of Trailervision.

Filmblanc is also developing a doc, Blind Date, about seeing-eye dogs, and is sniffing out broadcasters for other lifestyle and doc shows. Sean Davidson

Girl power

Vancouver – Infinity Films of Vancouver begins production this month on the documentary Girls Don’t Fight, an inside look at women in combative sports, from Olympic wrestling to professional boxing, for CTV.

Produced by Shel Piercy and Ken Craw, written by Craw (Ben Johnson: Drugs and the Quest for Gold), and directed by Jill Sharpe (Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial Culture), Girls Don’t Fight will travel from Vancouver to the Summer Olympics in Athens with Lyndsay Belisle, a member of Canada’s first Olympic women’s wrestling team, and then to Las Vegas for a look at the career of Jessica Racokzy, a Canadian professional boxer.

Infinity is also beginning preproduction on its first feature, Almost Heaven, shooting this September in Scotland. The romantic comedy is a U.K./Canada coproduction written, directed and produced by Piercy and coproduced with Allan Scott (Fourth Angel) of the U.K.’s Rafford Films.

According to the company, Almost Heaven is about a Canadian television director who begins an odyssey of self-discovery and fly-fishing in the Scottish Borders with a local woman who teaches him lessons in love, integrity and courage.

Infinity’s recent documentary Ben Johnson: Drugs and the Quest for Gold aired July 10 on CTV and July 14 on Discovery Channel. The documentary uses the Johnson steroid scandal of the 1988 Seoul Olympics to expose the drug culture in international sport. Ian Edwards

Cellar Door cooking at home and at large

Charlottetown – Charlottetown-based Cellar Door Productions and Halifax’s Ocean Entertainment have just wrapped 26 half-hours of their new cooking series Chef at Home and are in production on season four of Chef at Large.

Both series are executive produced by Cellar Door’s Gretha Rose and Ocean’s Johanna Eliot. In Chef at Large, chef Michael Smith cooks up local culinary delights in locations across the U.S. and Canada, while he approaches simpler home-cooking recipes in Chef at Home. Both series are for Food Network Canada and received funding from the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, with TechPEI providing additional funds for Chef at Home.

Chef at Home, a $1.3-million series directed by Trevor Grant, went to camera in April and wrapped in June to air on Food Network in the fall. Chef at Large, directed by Edward Mowbray, went to camera for 13 half-hours in June and is set to wrap in December. Previous seasons of Chef at Large have found successful international sales through Charlottetown-based distributor The Talent Group to international broadcasters including New Zealand’s The Living Channel, the BBC in South Africa and Scandinavia, T&T in Italy and SIC Mulher in Portugal. Laura Bracken