Drinking up at the Agora round table

Calgary – On any given Friday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., members of Calgary’s film community can be found at local watering hole The Joyce on Fourth, huddled around a large table marked with a gold plaque that says ‘Edmund’s Table.’ The weekly tradition was initiated in the fall by Edmund Oliverio, a partner in one of Calgary’s newest production companies, Agora Films International.

‘Even when we had to reschedule the meeting on a Thursday one week, we still had nearly 30 people attend,’ says Oliverio of the new tradition’s growing popularity.

In 2005, the first productions will get underway at Agora, formed by industry vets Oliverio, Glenn Ludlow and John Labow. At 58, Oliverio wasn’t about to retire and decided to revisit his film career because, he says, working in the industry was the most fun he remembers having. Oliverio worked in Alberta’s film and television industry as a producer and publicist in the 1980s and early ’90s.

As luck would have it, Ludlow, one of Alberta’s first film commissioners, and Labow, a prolific documentary filmmaker who was instrumental in the creation of TVOntario, both moved back to Calgary around the same time and were keen to join Oliverio in the new venture.

In addition to bringing the film community together around a pint, Agora principals have also taken an active role mentoring emerging talent in the province. The company sponsors four students between the ages of 18 and 20, allowing them to enroll in training courses, attend industry events and become active members of the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association.

Oliverio says he hopes Agora’s documentary Lisa Mayes-Stringer: The Story of Passion and Challenges, the first project the company will complete, will help build popular support for women’s sports. It focuses on the life of the first black woman to captain the national bobsled team.

Also in development at Agora is Extreme Trek, a doc that follows three waiters from Banff’s Keg Steakhouse as they tackle the 256-kilometer trek along the rarely used Glacier Trail that connects Jasper and Banff.

Agora is also developing the MOW Espionage on the Hill, based on the true story of how journalist Paul Jackson, now a media critic for the Calgary Sun, was asked by Russian officials to become a spy while working as a reporter on Parliament Hill as a young man. Jackson went to the RCMP and ended up breaking a story about 17 Russian spies picked up in Canada. Laura Bracken

High school confidential

Vancouver – Make Believe Media of Vancouver is in post with Secrets, a one-hour CBC documentary about teen sexuality and HIV/AIDS.

Even with teens having more access to no-holds-barred sexual information, through sources like the Internet and television, than any generation that came before, the blinders are still on, say the program’s producers.

‘The amazing thing to us was the striking inconsistency in basic knowledge among teens,’ says director Arlene Ami. ‘Some could teach us a thing or two about sexual health and making good choices, and others lack even the most basic knowledge about HIV/AIDS.’

Trish Williams is the writer and coproducer with Lynn Booth. Brett Harvey is DOP and Kelly Morris is editor.

During production, the filmmakers launched a Canada-wide confidential survey online. They have also conducted video talk-back sessions in several Canadian cities.

The production also involves CBC Newsworld, Discovery Health Channel Canada and Knowledge Network and will air on CBC this spring. Ian Edwards

East meets West

Winnipeg – Liz Jarvis of Winnipeg-based Buffalo Gal Pictures is currently producing Appassionata: The Extraordinary Life and Music of Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté, a feature-length performance documentary due to air on CBC’s Opening Night in the fall. Jarvis produces with Paula Kelly, who also writes and directs. The documentary, coproduced by Buffalo Gal and Winnipeg’s Journey Films, follows the composer, pianist and violinist’s life and career – from her mysterious origins in Russia, through her 1953 move to Winnipeg, to her tragic death in Germany in 1974.

Shooting started Oct. 21, 2004 and is due to wrap March 4. Locations include Winnipeg, Austria and Germany.

The doc, budgeted at under $1 million, is funded through the CTF’s EIP and LFP, Manitoba Film and Sound and the CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund. Laura Bracken

But wait! There’s more!

Winnipeg – MidCanada Entertainment may have expanded beyond its Manitoba roots, but productions underway at the Winnipeg-based production company are staying close to home.

MidCanada’s executive producer Kevin Dunn opened a new office in Hamilton, ON, in July. He says the company was looking to expand beyond Manitoba and that the new office puts it closer to broadcasters and potential interprovincial coproduction partners.

And yet he is currently gearing up to shoot a one-hour, high-end documentary about one of the city’s most accomplished and well-known companies, K-Tel. The doc for CTV investigates K-Tel’s international success and its influence on pop culture and advertising.

As Seen On TV: The K-Tel Story starts shooting Jan. 20 at locations including Winnipeg, Toronto, Nashville, L.A. and the U.K. Dunn produces with Danielle Audette and executive producer Wayne Sheldon. Cam Bennett writes and directs.

The under-$1-million doc, produced with funds from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and the CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund, is slated for delivery to CTV in the fall. Dunn says he hopes Manitoba Film and Sound will also get on board once it announces funding results for 2005. Laura Bracken