An additional 13 episodes of the children’s dramatic series Mentors has been licensed by Family Channel and will go into production next summer.

ctv has taken a second window, followed by Vision tv, on the Minds Eye/Anaid Productions’ series in which two 15-year-olds use a high-tech computer to transport historical figures from the past to the present. The first 13 episodes were licensed to vtv and Vision.

Margaret Mardirossian of Edmonton’s Anaid has also wrapped production of 13 episodes of comedic travel show The Tourist, which she coproduces with the show’s host Rick Bronson and dop Mike Ouellette under the banner of Big Schtick Productions. The series airs on Travel u.s. (a division of Discovery Channel), where it has been named the station’s number one travel program, and on Life Network.

Travel u.k. has also picked up The Tourist and the producers are currently negotiating with different Canadian broadcast partners for an additional season. Travel u.s. is in for another cycle, says Mardirossian.

Alberta hits $200 million in offshore production

alberta has doubled its 1996 record of $100 million in offshore production this year. As of November, the province has landed $200 million worth of foreign production, including the latest project, Kingdom Come, which shoots February to May in Calgary. The feature film is produced by London, Eng.-based Revolution Films. It is directed by Michael Winterbottom (Wonderland, Welcome to Sarajevo) and stars Robert Mullin, Nastassia Kinski, Sarah Polley and Wes Bentley.

Although a confirmed tally is not yet available, the new $5-million-a-year Alberta Production Fund is said to have generated close to $45 million in indigenous production in its first year.

*Ryan’s Babe

Media Group of Saskatoon and Jr Productions of La Ronge, Sask., are collaborating on Ryan’s Babe, an action-suspense film about a bumbling 22-year-old, played by Bill LeVasseur (West Wing), who falls innocently into one scrape after another and ends up on the run from a jealous girlfriend (who stages a fake abortion-suicide) and the wrath of her father. Along the way he helps out a seemingly innocent elderly couple who just happen to be peddling counterfeit money, and is taken hostage by the daughter of a u.s. senator. Saskatoon native Alex Hitchings and Toronto’s Catherine Rossini also star.

Jr Productions’ Ray Ramayya is the writer and director of the project. His previous film was Seetha & Carole.

Principal photography began late September in Saskatoon and will wrap early December.

*NFB docs in development

Joe MacDonald, producer at the National Film Board’s Documentary Program West office (Manitoba and Saskatchewan), is developing a new project with John Paskievich, director of The Gypsies of Svinia.

Titled My Mother’s Village, Paskievich is researching the experiences of adult children of Ukrainian refugees and their struggles to carve out an identity in Canada while maintaining a connection to their ancestral roots. Paskievich will draw on his own personal experiences visiting his mother’s village in the Ukraine for the one-hour documentary.

At the other end of the spectrum, MacDonald is working with Jeff McKay on a documentary exploring sewage systems. While most kids remember fishing trips with their dads, McKay’s father was an engineer who would take his son to visit sewage plants throughout southern Manitoba, thus sparking the idea to do a documentary on the subject.

MacDonald says McKay will take ‘an eclectic approach’ to the film and is researching the historical and contemporary ways communities deal with sewage and what it says about our culture.

‘It will be a fresh approach to a topic people turn their noses up at,’ adds MacDonald.

McKay recently wrapped another nfb doc, And So To Bed, a film about the history of the bed.

Production begins in February on Sister Kay, a coproduction between the nfb and Regina’s Four Square Productions. Noga Communications of Tel Aviv, Israel, is also partnering on the $325,000 one-hour project about a highly influential nun who spoke out against the Catholic Church’s treatment of and doctrine towards Jews. The film has been licensed to ctv, Vision tv, tfo (for a French-language version) and scn. Shooting will take place in Saskatoon, Toronto, Montreal and Jerusalem.

Currently in post is the nfb/Buffalo Gal Pictures documentary on Winnipeg artist Wanda Koop, scheduled for completion in January for airing on Vision, Bravo!, cbc (Manitoba) and scn.

*Ontario/Manitoba copro set to start

quebec actress Genevieve Desilets and Toronto’s Yani Gellman will star in Children of My Heart, a joint venture between Tapestry Films of Toronto and Buffalo Gal Pictures of Winnipeg .

The tv movie goes to camera Nov. 25 for a 20-day shoot at the recently opened Prairie Production Centre. Two days of shooting in early November are slated for Ontario.

Children of My Heart is based on a Gabrielle Roy novel about a French Canadian teacher who moves to a small prairie village and stirs up serious controversy when she falls in love with one of her Metis students. Keith Ross Leckie directs. The project is licensed to the A-Channel Drama Fund.

*Framed in Edmonton

Framed, a feature film starring Daniel Baldwin, Leslie Hope and Lisa Jakub, begins shooting mid-month in Edmonton. The quirky action-thriller is produced by Bruce Harvey of Calgary’s Illusions Entertainment. David Shultz penned the script, based on a story by Harvey.

Framed marks the feature film directorial debut of Toronto’s Stefan Scaini, whose tv credits include the Sullivan Entertainment mows Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story and Happy Christmas Miss King.

The film has been licensed to A-Channel, TMN-The Movie Network, Superchannel and Super Ecran, and will be distributed in Europe by Italian company Eagle Pictures.

Production wraps Dec. 10.

*Balmur, Bradshaw team up for music special

Branching out from dramatic television, Randy Bradshaw of Calgary-based Bradshaw MacLeod & Associates is directing his first variety show – a one-hour George Fox Christmas Special, coproduced with Toronto-based Balmur Entertainment.

Musical guests on the show include The Moffats, Rebecca Jenkins and a seven-year-old piano prodigy from Calgary named Wesley Chu. The special will be shot in Calgary, Cochrane and Canmore, Alta. and will air on cbc Dec. 19.

New tenants at CFB Studio Centre

camera, lighting and equipment supplier William F. White has relocated its Calgary offices to the Calgary Forces Base Studio Centre and transferred Scott Brooke from the Halifax office to head up the expanded Calgary location.

*NSI call for submissions

The National Screen Institute-Canada is calling on local filmmakers to submit their projects to upcoming festivals.

Local Heroes Edmonton Festival is seeking new feature films to screen at the March 31 to April 8 festival. Programming streams include On The Edge, a showcase for unconventional works with an indie flair from first- and second-time filmmakers, and Global Heroes, featuring films from around the world that reflect the communities in which they were made.

Up to 50 films will unspool, and the festival plans to highlight works which may have been overlooked by the mainstream entertainment industry. Submission forms are available at www.nsi-canada.ca/localheroes. Deadline is Dec. 15.

Canadian short filmmakers and distributors have until Nov. 26 to submit short films for the Local Heroes Festival Showcase of Canadian Short Films (previously known as the Declarations of Independents). Up to 40 Canadian shorts will screen at Local Heroes Winnipeg (Feb. 27 to March 4, 2000) and another 20 will be showcased at the Edmonton festival. Filmmakers whose shorts are accepted will receive a 50% travel and accommodation bursary and full delegate accreditation at one of the two festivals.

Submission forms are available on the website at www.nsi-canada.ca/localheroes.

For the first time, Local Heroes will be offering a $1,000 Audience Choice Award for best Canadian short film at the Winnipeg festival. The Winnipeg program will consist entirely of Canadian features and short films as well as workshops and training opportunities.

Short film proposals for the Drama Prize 2000 are due Nov. 19. The program offers six teams from across Canada up to $30,000 in training experience, $6,000 in cash and $6,000 in services to make a short film. Full details are available at www.nsi-canada.ca/ dramaprize.

The nsi has also made several new appointments. Bill Evans joins the organization as Local Heroes Edmonton Festival director and Jim Sellers has been named training programmer. Both are based in NSI-Canada’s Edmonton office.

Evans, an experienced filmmaker and festival programmer, will organize the 2000 Local Heroes Edmonton Festival. Evans has served as the executive director and programmer of the Metro Cinema Society, associate editor of the Vancouver International Film Festival program guide, and programmed Edmonton’s Global Visions Festival in 1999.

As nsi’s Alberta-based training programmer, Sellers will develop and coordinate a number of programs across the province, including the workshop component of the Local Heroes Edmonton Festival. Sellers is an Avid-certified editor and trainer, an experienced television writer, producer and director, and a former bank manager.

Gone surfin’

mediagopher.com, a new Internet information resource geared to the Alberta film and tv industry is set for a December launch.

Produced by Devon and Kirsten Bolton of Calgary’s Double Vision Productions, the website provides directories of production and service companies, lists of directors, talent and crew, resource banks, bulletin boards, job postings and industry announcements. Companies outside of Alberta, whose services could be utilized by the local industry, are also being encouraged to add their names to the lists. The site also features e-cinema, chat rooms, news briefs on the industry and in-production lists.

Companies pay for membership privileges to the site, which includes access to the bulletin postings, a digital theatre where they can promote film and tv projects, posting privileges to market their businesses, an e-mail newsletter, and special discounts on services.

The site is designed for all aspects of the industry, from writers and producers to lawyers, casting companies, equipment houses, festivals, and any other companies which deal in the entertainment industry.

Bolton describes the site as ‘a big digital watercooler where the art, business, technology and services of this industry can come together.’

Double Vision plans to roll out similar websites for other provinces.