AIDS conference calls for video proposals

Organizers for an upcoming conference on AIDS are accepting applications from video, film, and documentary producers to create a four- to six-minute opening video for the 25th International AIDS Conference, to be held in Toronto Aug. 13-18.

The video will feature IAC’s anniversary theme of ‘time to deliver’ and should play like a movie trailer. For details on the commissioning process and a copy of the creative brief, contact Nicole Amoroso, AIDS 2006 local host secretariat, at nicole.amoroso@aids2006toronto.org. All proposals must be submitted by March 3.

Diversity database

CHUM Limited has launched a free online database, aimed at reporters, that features more than 300 experts from various communities. Diversity Online offers contacts with experts on topics including arts, ethnicity, business, religion, science, sexuality, disabilities health and technology.

‘Diversity Online will be an invaluable resource for Canadian media,’ says Prem Gill, director of multicultural programming and public affairs at Citytv Vancouver. It also includes biographies on each expert and is administered through City Vancouver. See

diversity.chumtv.com.

Ferns joins O.C.

Pat Ferns has been named to the Order of Canada and is expected, shortly, to formally join its ranks along with 56 other prominent citizens from the fields of business, public service, the arts and science. Ferns – the producer, speaker and former head of the Banff Television Foundation ­- will be made a member of the order, its lowest rank, by Governor General Michaëlle Jean.

The appointments also include Montreal filmmaker Gudrun Parker (Your Move), financier Gerald Schwartz, and a promotion for broadcaster David Suzuki to the order’s highest rank of companion.

Haig goes to Hot Docs

The Don Haig Award has linked arms with Hot Docs, and going forward will be presented through the annual doc festival in Toronto. The $10,000 prize, presented to an emerging filmmaker of both documentaries and fiction since 2003, is cosponsored by the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Don Haig Award Committee. Haig, a prolific independent and National Film Board producer, died in 2002.

Film Circuit hits the road

Seven Canadian films – 3 Needles, Mémoires affectives, La Neuvaine, Sabah, Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés, A Simple Curve and Exotica – have been chosen to roadshow through Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland this spring as part of the fifth annual Canadian Cinema Showcase: North of Hollywood, part of TIFF’s touring Film Circuit.

Meanwhile, Film Circuit audience members recently voted Michael McGowan’s Saint Ralph as the best Canadian film of 2005, and Paul Haggis’ Crash as best international film, among the titles that played on the circuit in 2005.