As Toronto’s documentary festival gets into gear, so do this year’s four producers with the Ontario Film Development Corporation’s Hot Docs Mentorship ’99.

The mentorship program, created three years ago as part of the Skills Development and Marketing Initiative, annually picks four promising new documentary producers, and matches each one with a senior producer. With their mentors as well as a series of mini-workshops hosted by leading players in the industry, the producers are prepped for Canada’s main documentary festival and market.

This year’s advisees with the mentorship are Joel Awerbuck, Cindy Bisaillon, Vanessa Dylyn, and Christa Schadt. Each of them is bringing one-hour projects to the festival.

Taking the neophyte producers under their respective wings this year are Toronto mentors Tom Perlmutter, head of development at CineNova Productions, Barbara Barde of Upfront Entertainment, Michael McMahon of Primitive Features and David York, head of documentaries at Barna-Alper.

Joel Awerbuck comes to Hot Docs with a fistful of projects looking for development and production monies. Among the selection on his slate is a project called Finding Madrid. Despite sold-out performances, a huge fan club, and invitations to front well-known bands stateside, Toronto band Madrid has yet to be signed to a record label. After knocking (repeatedly) on the doors of record producers, they’ve been ignored. This documentary follows the band on its quest to break through – a Roger and Me of the Canadian music industry.

Other projects include Killing in Disguise, the story of an Israeli assassin; and The Last Resort, a process doc following the emotional turmoil faced by two terminally ill patients and their families as they undergo clinical research trials with untested, dangerous, yet potentially life-saving drugs.

Cindy Bisaillon, after 25 years in radio documentary production, is translating her abilities as a storyteller into the visual medium. Black Madonna: Penetrating the Dark is a quest to uncover the power and passion behind the mystical figure of the Black Madonna, told through six personal voyages of discovery.

From a quest to revelations – Mary Magdalen: Beyond the Holy Whore breaks through the erotic enigma of Mary Magdalen to uncover her true relationship with Christ – the holy whore or the first disciple?

Bisaillon came to the mentorship solo, but now has mentor Barde on board for Black Madonna. They’re looking for development monies and will be targeting Vision tv, wtn, History Channel and possibly pbs.

Vanessa Dylyn draws upon her background in theatre production for her project Hollywood Goes to the Opera. With development interest from Bravo!, and in association with Barbara Willis Sweete at Rhombus, Dylyn is looking for further interest from both domestic and international broadcasters.

The documentary examines the crossover between celluloid and the grand stage: film directors such as Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford and Atom Egoyan are trying their hand at McTeague, Tosca and Salome.

‘Can you imagine Cronenberg directing The Barber of Seville?’ asks Vanessa.

In Hollywood Goes to the Opera, Dylyn examines not only the trend of cinema moving to opera but also the phenomenon of opera focusing on the stars of the screen.

A third element to the documentary addresses nexus of the two genres.

Dylyn’s other project up for grabs is Berlin: City of the Century, a personal view on the rebuilding of Germany’s (and Europe’s) new capital and culture. With development interest from tfo, Dylyn is looking for production monies.

Christa Schadt is a well-known name in documentary circles as both an editor for many years with Toronto’s Associated Producers and as director of the Gemini-nominated The Dancing Game.

Schadt is branching out into the business of production with a hefty slate of projects. Playing with guns as a child is a game, but using them for real is a different matter – a subject that Soldier Boys explores with the story of Jeffrey Oboma, a 14-year-old soldier in the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda.

With exclusive access to the camps that rehabilitate the soldier boys and to the leader of the army, Soldier Boys uncovers the ugly truth when children become more than just pawns of war.

With a third of the financing already secured from cida, Schadt is looking for broadcast interest, targeting ctv in particular.

Other projects include Wild Man in Borneo, a spiritual quest by an urban primitive body modification specialist to find the true primitive in his counterpart in Borneo. On a lighter note, Talk to the Animals is a quirky and funny doc about modern-day Dr. Doolittles – from scientists to animal psychics.

Helping the emerging producers to shape their stories and pitches, and address the realities of production and the market have been Maureen Judge, Ric Bienstock, Mitch Azaria, David Ostriker and Muriel Rosillo.

One of last year’s mentorship program advisees, Cornelia Principe, is now in development and preproduction on her project Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience with monies from tvontario and the National Film Board.