Montreal: Arnie Gelbart, president of Montreal-based Galafilm Productions, is doing his part to boost Canadian drama, with a feature and two MOWs currently underway, several children’s properties in development, as well as a doc series in production for Showcase.

Going forward, Galafilm’s slate will be more focused on children’s programming, according to Gelbart, who says producing four seasons of The Worst Witch, a Canada/U.K. dramatic kids series, encouraged Galafilm’s move towards children’s programming. Galafilm also produces the youth series 15/Love.

Children’s programs in the works at Galafilm include The Large Family, a preschool series about a family of elephants, and Harold’s Planet, a show about a space-traveling creature based on Ralph Lazar and Lisa Swerling’s popular animated website Haroldsplanet.com.

Galafilm also recently completed the three-hour family miniseries Fungus the Bogeyman, about dirt-loving creatures that live underground, which Gelbart says he hopes will grow into a series for domestic broadcaster CBC. The live-action/CGI animation show is coproduced with the U.K.’s Indie Kids and will air on BBC at Christmas and on CBC early in the new year.

In addition to more children’s programming, Galafilm will also be shooting more HD. Gelbart says the company’s slate of high-end docs, such as the six-hour anthology series Chiefs, helped it adapt to the new format and encouraged increased use of HD for dramatic fare such as Steel Toes, a feature currently in production.

‘If we want [a production] to survive, it should be shot in HD. I also believe in the future of electronic cinema, and I see [Steel Toes] fitting into that movement,’ says Gelbart, citing a growing number of digital cinemas in countries such as India and England.

Gelbart is producing the $1.2-million HD feature with Francine Allaire (Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story). Eight days of principal photography were completed in Montreal Oct. 4-11, with an additional 19 days commencing Jan. 10, 2005. The film, produced with funds from Telefilm Canada, SODEC, the CBC and Movie Central, is based on David Gow’s critically acclaimed play Cherry Docs. Gow wrote the screenplay and codirects with Mark Adam, who is also the DOP. Film Tonic will distribute in Canada.

In Steel Toes, David Strathairn (A League of Their Own, The Firm) plays a liberal Jewish lawyer representing a neo-Nazi skinhead who is on trial for the racially motivated murder of a Pakistani man. Strathairn played the same role when Gow’s play premiered in the U.S., and stars alongside Andrew Walker (Wicked Minds) and Marina Orsini (The Last Chapter II: The War Continues).

Meantime, Gelbart, Allaire and coproducer Anne Marie LaTraverse are in post on the CTV MOW Tripping the Wire: A Stephen Tree Mystery. CTV’s Lesley Grant executive produces the Ontario/Quebec copro with Toronto’s Pink Sky Entertainment.

Stephen Surjik (Little Criminals) directs the two-hour murder mystery, starring Clark Johnson (Homicide: Life on the Street) as a detective whose dedication to solving homicide cases stems from a murder in his own past, which threatens to emerge and destroy his life and the lives of those around him.

Tripping the Wire, written and created by Greg Spottiswood and Peter Smith, shot in Montreal Sept. 13-23. It is funded by CTF, SODEC and the Ontario Media Development Corporation, with development funds from CTV’s Writer Only Drama Development initiative. PorchLight International will handle worldwide sales.

The first block of principal photography on a second CTV MOW, Endgame in Kosovo: The Louise Arbour Story, began in and around Montreal Oct. 27. Additional shooting will take place in Germany and Holland Nov. 23 to Dec. 14. Gelbart, Allaire and LaTraverse executive produce with Randy Holleschau and produce with Germany’s Christine Ruppert.

The two-hour MOW, directed by Charles Biname (Seraphin: Un Homme et son Peche), focuses on the story of Louise Arbour’s experiences as chief war crimes prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and her struggle to indict Slobodan Milosevic for crimes against humanity.

Gelbart says the coproduction with Germany’s Tatfilm has been challenging, especially because it is being shot in three different countries and demanded the recreation of events in Yugoslavia leading up to Milosevic’s indictment.

The cast includes Wendy Crewson (Sex Traffic), John Corbett (Sex and the City), William Hurt (The Village), Heino Ferch (Run Lola Run), Stipe Erceg (The Educators), Leslie Hope (24), Claudia Ferri (Mambo Italiano), Neville Edwards (Dawn of the Dead) and Michael Murphy (Childstar). Ian and Riley Adams (Agent of Influence) penned the script with Michelle Lovretta.

In addition, Gelbart is executive producing Webdreams, a Showcase doc series that follows a unique cast of characters who live their lives in the very public electronic playing field of Internet adult entertainment in Montreal.

Principal photography started Sept. 30 and will continue in Montreal, as well as various cities in North America and Europe, until the end of November. Galafilm’s Michael Kronish is producing eight half-hours, with Ziad Touma and Joshua Dorsey directing. Gregory Fine is content producer. The series received additional funding from the CTF’s EIP and LFP, as well as provincial and federal tax credits.