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Innoversity summit overcomes adversity
Organizers of the Innoversity Creative Summit 2003 ‘made it’ through the two-day conference held in Toronto May 22-23 with a better-than-expected turnout given the current situation in Toronto and its nagging SARS scare.
Heritage shaves indie film and video fund by 14%
One day before the Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund was to name its latest round of recipients, the Department of Canadian Heritage announced the fund was being cut by $250,000, a major blow to independent documentary filmmakers who depend on the money to finance and finish their projects.
LFP doc results announced
Sharing in the production funding pain, documentary makers saw the largesse of the Canadian Television Fund’s Licence Fee Program dwindle 25% to $16.5 million in the spring round announced May 27.
Rogers VOD gets MGM flicks
Rogers Cable has signed an agreement with MGM Home Entertainment to add MGM films to its video-on-demand offering, making Rogers the first Canadian cable company to make a VOD deal with a major Hollywood studio.
Buchenwald tops Yorkton honor roll
Audrey Mehler’s The Boys of Buchenwald was named Best of the Festival at the annual Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival, held May 22-25 in Yorkton, SK. The doc also won for best history documentary and garnered three craft awards for direction (Audrey Mehler), editing (Debra Rurak) and original music (Patric Caird).
HAFF attendance climbs
The 6th Hispano-American Film Festival, held in Toronto May 27 to June 1, wrapped with unofficial attendance numbers of over 7,500, up from around 6,000 patrons in 2002. The Montreal and Calgary HAFFs will run simultaneously June 12-15.
Serrano big winner at CNMA Awards
The 4th annual Canadian New Media Awards were presented during a gala ceremony at Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre on June 2. The swanky, well-attended event saw 12 Pixel awards handed out, but one big winner emerged from the evening.
Successful Canadian television drama – tackling an oxymoron
Ted Kelterborn is a partner in the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch LLP and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw Group. This article was prepared with the assistance of Julie Beeton.
Correction
Brett Sullivan directed the sequel to Ginger Snaps, not Grant Harvey as reported in the May 26 Prairie Scene column. Harvey directed the Ginger Snaps prequel. It should also be noted that the prequel is being posted at Tattersall Casablanca and Medallion-PFA in Toronto, not at Calgary’s Joe Media Group.
Want to build audiences? Market the product
While it’s been popular sport to bash Trina McQueen’s report Dramatic Choices since its release at the end of May, kudos to her for highlighting the need for a more concerted effort in the area of ‘audience building.’
90th Parallel on the case of the missing apes
In 1997 civil war broke out in Zaire and, fearing for his life, a young primatologist was forced to abandon his research station deep in the Lomako Forest. Jef Dupain had been in the troubled west African country for several years, studying the endangered bonobo ape – one of the most human-like and least understood of the great apes. As the nation, now called the Congo, tore itself to pieces, the fate of the apes remained a mystery until last November when Dupain and director Kenton Vaughan (The Devil You Know) made the long trip up the river, into the rainforest.
The resulting one-hour doc, Ghosts of Lomako, airs this fall on CBC’s The Nature of Things, via 90th Parallel Film and Television Productions.
Toronto fests persevere through SARS scare
The 11th annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival, held May 3-11, wrapped with a 20% increase in attendance and a 15% jump in box-office revenue, says the festival’s managing director Ellie Skrow.
Gill and Duguay recreate Hitler’s evil rise
Director of photography Pierre Gill admits to feeling uncomfortable at times while filming the two-part miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil, directed by Christian Duguay for Alliance Atlantis Communications and U.S. broadcaster CBS.
24th Banff fest opens amid biz uncertainty
Not long ago, Pat Ferns, president and CEO of the Banff Television Foundation, looked into his crystal ball and saw a lot of long, worried faces.
Fest fetes Mercer’s comedic talents
Rick Mercer will wear almost as many hats at Banff as he does in the TV biz as a quadruple-threat writer, performer, producer and director. The funnyman will grace the Rocky Mountain town to participate in a master class, co-host the awards show and, most notably, receive a special award himself.
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