What is most surprising about Trudeau is that, given it covers a subject of great reverence to many Canadians, cinematographer Norayr Kasper and director Jerry Ciccoritti were able to shoot it in such idiosyncratic fashion. The $7.65-million Big Motion Pictures two-part miniseries that aired on CBC is ripe with stylistic flourishes. Kasper dismisses any criticism of whatever artistic licence he and his director took to tell the story.

Montreal: Film and TV producer Cite-Amerique is in financing on an ambitious new round of international drama for 2002/03, including renewals of the tres noir miniseries thriller Dice and the delightful animatronics/puppet series Wumpa’s World. Among new titles, the house is in financing on Blue Dragon, a claymation series based on the books of American children’s author Dav Pilkey, and an English-track feature film coproduction adaptation of the landmark Michel Tremblay stageplay Les Belles-Soeurs.
Dice II, a six-hour coproduction with Box TV of the U.K., is budgeted at close to $6 million and is slated to film on location in Quebec as early as June or July.

Vancouver: Local producer Ogden Gavanski is the Canadian partner in the Spanish coproduction My Life Without Me, a project with legendary director Pedro Almodovar as executive producer (El Deseo Productions of Madrid, Spain).
The English-language, independent production wrapped April 26 and has a budget valued at less than $2 million. It stars Sarah Polley as a young woman who hides her terminal cancer to live her life with a passion she never had before. She makes a list of things to do, including finding her husband a new wife.

If you thought that headline was a mouthful, try swallowing a damages award of $950,000 and a costs award over $800,000 as the CBC had to in the libel lawsuit brought by Dr. Frans Leenan.
After winning his case in Ontario’s Superior Court, Dr. Leenen said, ‘Four years ago we proposed to settle this law suit for $10,000 and an on-air apology. It was refused…The Fifth Estate persisted and took me through 10 weeks of trial.’
The trial judge awarded very high damages for libel against The Fifth Estate and the CBC as well as individual reporters and producers. The CBC appealed.

A new feature film from Thom Fitzgerald, The Event, wrapped production in Halifax in mid-April. The film was shot over five weeks; three spent in Halifax and two in New York, where the story is based.
Producer Bryan Hofbauer says late winter/early spring ‘was a great time of year to film in both cities. Things were quiet.’
Hofbauer produced with Fitzgerald through Fitzgerald’s Halifax-based Emotion Pictures. In addition to his producing and directing duties, Fitzgerald cowrote the script with Tim Marback and Steven Hillyer.

Winnipeg’s Summit Films is currently in production on a six-part lifestyle series for Life Network titled Magnificent Obsessions, profiling people whose offbeat obsessions or hobbies play an integral role in their lives. Production began at the end of March.
According to producer Lorne MacPherson, stories include a group that has been chasing Bigfoot on the West Coast for 25 years; a professor obsessed with Count Dracula; and a meteorologist in Oklahoma determined to get inside a tornado.

In response to tremendous growth in the number of broadcast windows and the further globalization of the TV market, documentary producers, distributors and broadcasters are becoming increasingly involved in the series format and high-end programming. Canadian doc makers are also looking more than ever for projects that will attract international coproducers and multiple broadcasters.

Two years ago, director Barry Stevens presented the pitch for his film Offspring at the Toronto Documentary Forum, Hot Docs’ flagship market event. Not only did this exercise provide Stevens with a creative boost, it helped the CBC-backed production secure international cofinancing.

John Haslett Cuff is a former film and TV actor, film critic and journalist. As the TV critic for The Globe and Mail (1986-1997), he won two National Newspaper Awards. He joined Aysha Productions as partner and VP in 1998, and with his partner Sun-Kyung Yi, has produced and written award-winning documentaries on subjects ranging from divorce to international sex slavery.

The 9th annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has grown from seven to 10 days and expanded its program to 100 documentaries. Films will be screened at Toronto’s Bloor, Royal and Uptown Theatres April 26 to May 5.

Gerry Flahive is a documentary producer at the National Film Board of Canada in Toronto. His projects include Shinny: The Hockey in All of Us, the forthcoming Offstage, Onstage: Inside the Stratford Festival, and the coproduction McLuhan’s Wake.

As recently as four months ago, Toronto was being criticized as a barren wasteland in terms of mega-studio space – a place to eschew if you’re making $50-million-plus Hollywood productions and looking for a clear-span, state-of-the-art soundstage.
But at the current rate of new plan unveilings, the lament may soon be a distant memory.
Still, questions linger about the viability of two recently proposed mega-studios, not the least of which is whether they will get off the ground at all.
On April 4, the government of Ontario announced it will lease 350,000 square feet of the former R.L. Hearn Power House on Toronto’s portlands to a new studio consortium.