While much of the glamour and glitz of the Geminis will be reserved for those who achieved notable success in the last TV year, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television will honor seven individuals who have had an enduring impact at the Industry Gala on Oct. 19.

Actress Jennifer Dale will be feted with the Earle Grey Award, presented to a performer for ‘a body of work in Canadian television, or for significant contribution to the international profile of Canadian television.’ In addition to several major screen credits, Dale’s work on Canadian TV dates back to the early 80’s, including the CBC series Vanderberg, as well as Side Effects, John Woo’s Once a Thief and Power Play. More recently, she has taken on roles in the CBC western mini Revenge of the Land and MTV’s Live Through This. Dale has been nominated for six Geminis and one Genie.

While she says that she appreciates the honor, Dale, turning 48 this year, considers the timing a little paradoxical.

‘It’s not without a certain element of bittersweet irony for me to be acknowledged for a ‘body of work’ award at a time when there is just simply not enough work for too many of us,’ Dale says. ‘But, at the same time, one tries to find the blessing in adversity and accept the challenge. So, like a lot of people who have devoted their lives to this business, I’m trying to reinvent my creative life and find ways to keep my creative will alive.’

To that end, Dale has spent the last two years co-writing a film script, developing a one-woman play called Duse – about actress Elanora Duse, opening next spring at the Tarragon Theatre – and coproducing and hosting the upcoming Bravo! series Actor’s Notes.

Perhaps it is because she is so troubled by the climate that Dale finds the nod from the Academy so significant.

‘I believe it is extremely important, maybe in these sorts of times more than ever, that we have a body like the Academy that keeps on appreciating the gifts and the talents of our artists,’ she says.

Keeping the humanitarian

For this year’s Humanitarian Award, the Academy has selected CJOH-TV’s Max Keeping, as much for his work off the screen as on. Keeping began his tenure at the Ottawa CTV affiliate in 1972, arriving as news director and anchor, having previously served as national anchor at CTV for seven years. He has since led the CJOH news team to the number-one position in the market.

Beyond his professional acumen, the 61-year-old Keeping has dedicated himself to his community, averaging more than 200 charity appearances a year, including the recent Terry Fox Run and a banquet with Senators defenseman Wade Redden for cystic fibrosis. He has also been the host of the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon for the past 20 years.

Keeping is currently raising funds to build Roger’s House (named for the late Roger Neilson), a pediatric palliative care home on the grounds of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. That institution has chosen to recognize Keeping’s work with critically ill patients by naming its new wing the Max Keeping Pavilion. The newsman also runs his own charitable foundation for kids and has been acknowledged with the Order of Canada.

Keeping says he is humbled by the honors heaped upon him, including the Gemini, which recognizes ‘contributions and commitments to community and public service.’

‘As an industry, you don’t hear a lot of us talking about serving,’ he says. ‘The word ‘service’ doesn’t come up in boardrooms as often as it should. It doesn’t come up in decisions taken that affect viewers.

‘Having come into the industry at a time when people were given television licences – and it was like being given a licence to make money – a lot of those people took those licences and said, ‘We have to do a lot more than make money for ourselves. We need to use these licences to build better communities,” he explains. ‘That’s what I think we should be doing with the power of our medium.’

Keeping says he plans to offer the $10,000 prize accompanying the award to the Children’s Hospital.

In other awards, Outstanding Technical Achievement will go to Dan Diaconu, who designed the new Focusing Indicator System. The system, heralded for improving production efficiency and artistry, uses two tiny video cameras mounted on either side of the motion picture lens to allow a camera to be focused like the process of human vision.

The Margaret Collier Award, honoring a writer’s body of work, will be given to Charles Lazer. Lazer, recently the exec producer on Beastmaster and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, has a long list of credits, including penning episodes of Goosebumps, Road to Avonlea, Max Glick and My Life as a Dog as well as co-creating and exec producing Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy.

The Canada Award, for excellence in mainstream TV that reflects racial diversity, will go to Carry Me Home: The Story of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale. The project was produced by Liam Romalis and directed by Romalis and Gerald Packer. Airing on VisionTV, the production examines the inspiration and impact of the career of black conductor Nathaniel Dett.

Finally, the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism will be passed to filmmaker, historian, author and journalist Brian McKenna. McKenna has directed The Making of a Leader, the television memoirs of Pierre Trudeau, as well as the war docs The Killing Ground, War at Sea and The Valour and the Horror. He is also a founding producer of the CBC’s the fifth estate.