Buoyed by US$10,000 in development funding from nhk, Japan’s national public broadcaster, Montreal doc-maker John Curtin is moving ahead with his hdtv project Ten Seconds of Eternity.

The one-hour documentary, budgeted at $1 million, will chronicle the lives of four top sprinters leading up to the 100-metre event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Development money was awarded based on a proposal Curtin submitted during this year’s Banff Television Festival. The production, Curtin says, will be the first documentary in Canada shot in hdtv, a medium which produces exceptionally clear video images in a wide-screen format.

‘I thought that this would be a fabulous thing to do either in high definition or imax because in the sprint there’s quite a wide sweep to cover the whole track,’ Curtin says. ‘High definition in particular is made for sports.’

Ten Seconds of Eternity will follow sprinters Donovan Bailey of Canada, Maurice Greene of the u.s., Trinidadian Ato Boldon and Namibian Frankie Fredericks over the year leading up to the Sept. 23, 2000 Olympic gold-medal race. Curtin previously produced several documentaries including Olympic Warrior: Donovan Bailey’s Story.

Curtin says once he has completed the treatment, he hopes to get an additional US$150,000 in production funding from nhk. CBC Sports, tsn and their French affiliates have also expressed interest in the project, he says.