Montreal: Cineflix and doc producers Glen Salzman, David York and Katherine Buck are hiring top producing talent as the house looks to double its slate in the year ahead.

Salzman says Cineflix is moving away from the Canadian public funding model, where content requirements are high and predictability and success tend to be low. ‘We are looking at more of an international market and picking projects with international appeal, either in terms of coproductions or through presales. We’ve been quite successful. With this production cycle we will have produced about 23 hours. We expect to double our production in the coming year.’

New production includes 13 half-hours of Gene Hunters, profiles of real scientists on international quests in genetics. Licensees include National Geographic Int’l, Discovery Canada – which will premiere the show in early February – France’s La Cinquieme and German regional broadcaster swr. The show is a coproduction with the u.k.’s Café Productions – recently rescued from the brink of bankruptcy by Alliance Atlantis Communications. Chris Lent is producing out of the Cineflix office in Toronto. The budget is $2.2 million.

‘We shot all over the world, an hiv story in Nairobi, in South America, Australia, Europe and North America,’ says Salzman. ‘This is not boring science in the lab. This is people on actual quests with amazing locations.’

Other episodes in The Gene Hunters adopt futuristic or environmental storytelling approaches, or the popular forensic investigative slant.

Cineflix is completing production on six new episodes of the docusoap Birth Stories (12 half-hours in all), a reality-based series about the life-changing events of childbirth. The show is licensed by Life Network in Canada, Discovery Health in the u.k. tvontario and Vision tv, and was shot entirely in the Toronto region. It’s a coproduction with Andrea Nemtin of PTV Productions (The War of 1812) with funding support from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund for the first phase of production. Discovery u.s. and Vision came on board for the second six episodes. Leslie Fruman and Nick Hector are series producers. The half-hour budget is $100,000. Salzman says Life likes the show, and is close to renewing for 26 additional episodes.

Cineflix is also producing The Mission, a one-hour doc profile of International Red Cross and world-famous Canadian field surgeon Chris Giannou. Judy Jackson is the director. Licensees include tvo, tfo, Canal Vie, Vision tv and Knowledge Network in b.c. Telefilm and Rogers’ top-up money helped with funding.

The hit series Dogs with Jobs (www.dogswithjobs.com) has been renewed by Life Network, an exclusive first window, and Radio-Canada. International sales include pbs, National Geographic Intl. and Discovery International. Rogers Cable Fund also contributed.

The 13 new half-hours from series producer/writer Barbara Boyden profile 39 dogs hailing from South Africa, Namibia, Switzerland, Japan, the u.s. and Canada. The original series concept is from Merrily Weisbord (Inside the Body). Directors include Ole Gjerstad, Susan Mawhood, Serge Marcil, Paul Kilback and Naomi Wise. The budget is $2 million.

Salzman will be attending natpe, Jan. 22-25 in Las Vegas, and mip-tv. ‘We were in the u.k. and in Washington, d.c. and I was recently in Australia at the Science Congress. We travel a lot because that’s where our money is coming from,’ he says. *