‘It doesn’t matter how expensive your pencil is, if you don’t know how to draw,’ says Steve Dovas, professor and animation co-ordinator at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He is quoting veteran animator Chuck Jones (Bugs Bunny, The Grinch), whose comments are particularly apt today – a time when basic drawing skills are back in vogue, taking priority over the high-tech computer expertise that peppered the animation industry throughout the ’90s, says Dovas.

Award-winning, Montreal-based cinematographer Guy Dufaux (a Genie winner for his memorable images in Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal and Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Un Zoo La Nuit) is again in competition, this time for a Gemini. He is nominated in the category of best photography in a dramatic program or series for his stunning visuals in Alliance Atlantis’ four-hour, US$15-million miniseries Haven, which introduces TV viewers to U.S. journalist Ruth Gruber and her heroic struggle to bring nearly 1,000 WWII Jewish refugees to America in 1944.

For Gemini-nominated cinematographer Alain Dostie (best photography in a dramatic program or series for Alliance Atlantis’ four-hour miniseries Nuremberg), the most satisfying aspect of the filmmaking process is collaboration. ‘I don’t think I could ever do something alone. I need to work in a team,’ he says. ‘When a set goes well it’s wonderful. You forget everything.’

Guest columnist Kathy Barthel fills in this issue while Samantha Yaffe is away on her honeymoon.
Filming is underway in Toronto on the Alliance Atlantis Communications TV movie The Jenifer Estess Project (working title), a two-hour, event movie for CBS. The US$5-million film tells the true story of a young New York theatre producer Jenifer Estess (Laura San Giocomo – Just Shoot Me), who contracts Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and with the help of her sisters Valerie (Jane Kaczmarek – Malcolm in the Middle) and Meredith (Annabella Sciorra – The Sopranos), begins a foundation to speed research for a cure.
But it’s not a typical ‘disease-of-the-week movie, ‘ according to Ed Gernon, executive vice-president, movies and miniseries, Alliance Atlantis Television Production. ‘The film takes the disease-of-the-week formula and flips it on its ear,’ he says. ‘This is a lady with a ribald sense of humor and [it’s also] a strange kind of love story. This movie is about a woman who discovers love in the twilight of her life.’

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