Patricia Phillips is back in business following Alliance Atlantis’ acquisition of her Great North Productions and the subsequent closure of AAC’s film and TV ops.

Phillips (The Life of Robert Markle: An Investigation; Aw gee, forgetting me… Nell Shipman) resurfaced in June under the banner Amerimage Productions of Toronto, subsidiary to Montreal-based Amerimage-Spectra and owned by Quebec entertainment giant L’Equipe Spectra. Phillips will head the Toronto operation as senior producer and general manager.

Amerimage already has a pair of productions underway thanks to a deal with AAC to release the rights to a handful of projects Phillips was producing or developing as head of AAC’s factual division prior to its closure.

‘Alliance Atlantis was very good to us. They assigned [the productions] to me,’ says Phillips, a 20-year veteran in the biz. ‘I think it was very honorable of them.’

The shows currently on the Amerimage slate include the second season of Dead Men Talking, a factual series for Discovery Health in both Canada and the U.S. about mysterious deaths of famous people such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Judy Garland. The show will be aired in the U.S. under the title Medical Secrets. Alliance Atlantis will distribute. The prodco is also readying a show under the working title Japan’s Atomic Secret for History Television in Canada, History Channel in the U.S. and National Geographic International.

According to Pierre Touchette, president of Amerimage-Spectra, the Toronto production house will focus on documentary productions and will operate with complete autonomy from its Montreal parent, which specializes in performing arts programming. ‘We are treating it as two different companies. One is science and history, the other is art,’ he says.

Touchette says part of what made Phillips the best candidate to head up Amerimage was her extensive experience developing international coproductions such as Kinmel Park Riots (Canada/Whales), The Rat Among Us (Canada/Austria) and Surviving Extremes (Canada/U.K.).

Edmonton-based Great North was acquired in 2000 for $6 million as part of a buying spree by AAC that also included Halifax-based Salter Street Films. AAC president and CEO Michael MacMillan has said that at the time AAC felt it needed to diversify its productions into comedy, MOWs and documentaries to offset its reliance on the weakening drama market.

Phillips’ reemergence comes closely on the heels of former Salter principals Michael Donovan and Charles Bishop opening The Halifax Film Company. AAC shut Salter’s doors last year.

Former TVO executive Touchette originally founded Amerimage 10 years ago in Toronto before moving his operation to Montreal and coming under the L’Equipe Spectra umbrella.

In addition to owning production operations, L’Equipe Spectra also operates Spectra International Distribution, the Montreal Jazz Festival, music festival Les FrancoFolies de Montreal and the Montreal High Lights Festival, which celebrates food and performing arts.

-www.equipespectra.ca