Montreal’s legendary Cinepix studio (purchased by Lions Gate in 1997) is renowned for fostering movie titans such as Ivan Reitman, David Cronenberg, and – of course – Don Carmody. Cinepix chairman John Dunning still remembers Carmody’s rookie days in 1973.

‘He was fresh out of university, working as a driver for Cinepix,’ Dunning recalls. ‘We were shooting George Kaczender’s U-Turn in Smiths Falls [west of Ottawa]. Don’s job was to run the exposed film from the set to the lab in Montreal for developing.’

As a one-way trip between these two sites takes about four hours, the constant driving eventually took its toll on the 21-year-old Carmody.

‘The next thing we knew, Don had totaled the car!’ Dunning says. ‘Turns out that he had fallen asleep while driving at night, and driven the car into a ditch.’

The accident aside, Carmody’s willingness to work hard impressed Dunning and his partner André Link. So they kept the young driver on staff, and let him work his way up the corporate ladder.

Carmody toiled briefly in the art department before getting into producing.

By 1975, Carmody had quickly risen to the level of Cinepix VP in charge of production. According to Carmody’s website, this meant he ‘hired and supervised all directors, cast and crew for over 20, mostly low-budget features in both French and English.’

He coproduced the first two Cronenberg features, Shivers and Rabid, which were produced by Reitman. Later that year, Carmody struck out to head up Montreal prodco and distributor Cinemarc Production for a couple of years.

Although he was no longer risking his neck driving film stock across provincial lines, moving into the executive suite didn’t save Carmody from grief. ‘We always suffered the stresses of shoots together,’ Dunning chuckles.

A case in point is the 1984 psycho-drama The Surrogate, which marked Carmody’s lone directorial effort; he and Dunning were both producing. During a cold, icy winter in Montreal, Carmody was on set at a Montreal apartment, while Dunning was dining in a nearby restaurant.

‘I got a notice that the shoot was down because the supposedly ‘trained’ dog we were using had bitten a lead actor,’ Dunning recalls. ‘Well, I rushed over to the apartment on Nun’s Island. It was extremely windy and icy, so by the time I got there, I was hyperventilating.’

Upstairs, the after-bite chaos was so intense that ‘Don was having a panic attack,’ Dunning says. ‘As a result, we ended up side-by-side on gurneys at the Montreal General Hospital emergency ward. We were released after an hour or two, because there’s no real treatment available for hyperventilating or panic attacks.’

Today, Dunning looks back at Carmody’s early days at Cinepix with affection and respect.

‘Don was always a hard worker and very efficient,’ Dunning says. ‘He rose rapidly through the ranks due to his talent and work ethic.’

-www.doncarmody.com