Reach for the top

Toronto: Sometime this month a team of 20 climbers, crew and sherpas in the employ of Discovery Canada will leave base camp and, with luck, hoof it to the top of Mount Everest, shooting six hours’ worth of HD footage along the way for a $1.8-million miniseries set to air this fall.

In keeping with the cable channel’s newfound love of all things extreme and dangerous, Ultimate Survival: Everest is being billed as an unprecedented look at the trials of climbing the world’s highest mountain, and sped through development last year following a pitch by mountaineer Ben Webster.

‘We want to see all the stuff as it’s happening, while they’re in the situation,’ says exec producer Marni Bacharier-Shulman. ‘It’s more reality than reality.’

Webster has been on the mountain since March, acclimatizing to the high altitude along with director David McIlvride (Forbidden Places), DOP Frank Vilaca (Forbidden Places) and the climbers. Vilaca will only go partway up the mountain, however, and McIlvride is staying at base camp, reviewing dailies brought down by sherpa runners. (It’s hard to think clearly above 25,000 feet.) The final ascent will be shot by climbers-turned-cameramen Andrew Lock of Ottawa and Hector Ponce de Leon of Mexico.

Discovery’s Valerie Pringle is also at the camp, doing promo spots for Daily Planet and parent network CTV.

The climb will take two to five days, depending on the weather. Bacharier-Shulman produces for Discovery, Ken MacDonald and Jane Gilbert for Daily Planet. Alison Love is production manager, working for Webster’s Canadian Adventure Productions. Sean Davidson

WestWind gusts to Taiwan

Regina: Regina-based WestWind Pictures is currently shooting season three of its doc series English Teachers in Taiwan. The $1.1-million series, created and directed by David Hansen, explores Taiwanese culture through the eyes of a group of young Canadians teaching English as a second language.

Principal photography began on Jan. 1 with DOP Patrick McLaughlin (waydowntown) and will wrap June 30, with plans to deliver to Life Network in November. Michael Snook and Clark Donnelly executive produce with producers Maria Spinarski and David Hansen, who also writes.

Funding for the series comes from the LFP and SaskFilm, as well as provincial and federal tax credits. Laura Bracken

Oy vey TV

Vancouver: Television producer Daniel Leipnik of Vibrance Alive Entertainment in Vancouver is creating a new 13-part documentary-reality series for Channel M, Vancouver’s multicultural station. The Mazel Tov Chronicles will film Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, Pesach celebrations, Purim, Sukkoth, and many of the other events in the Vancouver Jewish community that are the ‘celebrations of life’ in the Hebrew calendar.

‘We’ll actually watch a family carry out the rituals such as looking for a wedding dress, selecting a rabbi and synagogue for the wedding, the caterer, and the reception hall,’ says Leipnik. ‘There’s nothing funnier than the daily drama that goes on in Jewish households and between Jews, their families and friends. This series will be a wonderful expression of what it is to be Jewish’

Leipnik is currently screening for Jewish families. Production begins in the fall, with broadcast next spring.

In 2002, Channel M acquired and aired Leipnik’s 10-part documentary series My Mother, My Hero, exploring how the Holocaust shaped mother-child relationships. Ian Edwards