Jamie Brown, CEO/executive producer at Winnipeg’s Frantic Films, and his team are currently in production on Music Rising, a one-hour doc for CTV about the titular charity group aiding New Orleans musicians affected by hurricane Katrina.

Music Rising, an organization put together by legendary Canadian music producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd’s The Wall), U2 guitarist The Edge and Gibson Guitars, is putting musical instruments back in the hands of players who lost their guitar, piano, saxophone – or whatever hardware served as their livelihood – to Katrina. The hurricane devastated the Big Easy, a musical hotbed for more than a century, and much of the Gulf Coast last fall.

‘Some of these people can’t earn a living if they don’t have a sax,’ says Brown, who is producing the project with Frantic’s Lynne Skromeda. ‘We hopped on the train early on and have been following the growth and establishment of this.’

Gibson has produced a line of 300 custom-made Music Rising guitars that will hopefully raise $1 million for those afflicted by the hurricane. The doc will tell the stories of the organization, the musicians and the music festivals in New Orleans as they try to rebuild.

Don Young (Klondike: The Quest for Gold) is directing. Although Skromeda would not divulge the budget for the project, she says production will continue until May and the doc is earmarked for a summertime airing on CTV.

www.franticfilms.com