Vancouver: Producer and festival programmer Michael Ghent is exploring the potential of a new public-private partnership for B.C. documentary filmmakers.

DocWatch, a proposal by the B.C. branch of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, suggests B.C. documentary producers can do more to build their audiences if they pool their financial resources for publicity. For example, if 15 documentary productions ante up $5,000 each toward publicity and hand it over to DocWatch, that’s $75,000. With matching funds or sponsorship from British Columbia Film, Telefilm Canada and other funders, the publicity kitty could grow to $187,000, says Ghent.

With that money, DocWatch may pay for full-time, year-round publicists, publicity handbooks, electronic press kits, receptions at film festivals, catalogues, promo reels, ads, representation at international markets, a website and other services.

Should DocWatch be a success in Western Canada, the concept could be expanded to regions across the country and across genres.

Ghent, who is consulting a variety of stakeholders, says support is strong for the concept. The next phase, if his report is approved and the logistics between producers, distributors and DocWatch can be worked out, will be operations.

B.C. produces about 40 documentaries per year.

Body snatchers

Production gets underway Jan. 23 with what might be the first sitcom out of Victoria. Alienated, the story of a family whose bodies are inhabited by aliens, will do 11 half-hours now and another 11 half-hours later in the fall, a schedule dictated by funding, says Cynthia Chapman, a documentary maker contracted to oversee production.

The episodes, funded by CHUM, the CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund and tax credits, cost about $200,000 each.

The comedy is conceived, written and directed by lauded short filmmaker Mark Sawers and produced by Vancouver’s Bright Light Pictures. No cast was signed at press time, but the producers were hoping to use as many Victoria actors for day parts as possible.

Alienated will air first on Space: The Imagination Station and then air on the New VI in Victoria.

Leos in Aquarius

Deadlines loom for Leo Awards 2003 applicants: Jan. 15 for programs completed between January and June 2002; Jan. 31 for programs completed between July and December 2002.

Entry forms for the annual awards recognizing the work of B.C.’s production community are available at www.leoawards.com.

Trophies, meanwhile, will be handed out over two nights, May 9 and 10, at the Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina.

Definitely Weird

Yaletown Entertainment, which began producing its information series in high definition years ago, is realizing its investment with sales to Discovery HD Theater, Discovery’s new high-definition channel in the U.S. that launched this summer. The U.S. channel is airing both Weird Wheels (with 39 episodes) and Weird Homes (which has 52 of its 91 episodes in HD) in primetime and is negotiating for more content.

In other Weird news, Weird Weddings launched as a new, 13-part HD series on Life Network in October after a successful special earlier this year.

Word play

Strictly Captioning & Transcription Services of Vancouver has picked up the descriptive video services contract for May Street Group’s MOW Croon, which was delivered to CHUM in December.

According to the company, Strictly Captioning is the first B.C. company to offer the service (akin to closed-captioning for the hearing impaired) for visually impaired audiences.

‘We’ve worked to position ourselves to offer DVS when it first began to emerge on WGBH in the United States,’ says director of operations David Malecot, who is business partner with Jeff Barringer. ‘We have developed an efficient homegrown system to provide our own high-quality, competitively priced service.’

And one he hopes will attract cross-border productions from the U.S. along with domestic productions.

‘One of the things that has given closed captioning a boost overall is both the Canadian and the U.S. governments have established legislation requiring broadcasters and the producers to deliver it,’ says Malecot. ‘I expect that the same will eventually happen with DVS, although to a much more limited extent.’

Kudos

Bombies, a documentary by Bowen Island-based Lumiere Productions, has won another award. Producer Jack Silberman’s piece about the problem of unexploded cluster bombs left by the U.S. 30 years ago in Laos won the 2002 Japan Prize, which recognizes excellence in educational television programming.

Bombies has also won honors at the San Francisco International Film Festival (the Golden Gate Award for best social/political television documentary); European environmental film festival Oekomedia (Special Prize); Vermont International Film Festival (Best of the Festival); and European educational media event Basel-Karlsruhe Festival (Swiss Prize).

Apres ski

Out of Bounds is a new gay and lesbian film festival hosted in Whistler Feb. 11-15 during Altitude Eleven, Whistler’s gay skiing event. Organizer Michael Ghent says the program will screen at the brand-new Village 8 Cinemas, opening early in 2003 in the centre of Whistler village. For info, go to www.outontheslopes.com.