DOXA program | sun may 26

HOT FROM HOT DOCS
Curated by Cari Green & Diana Wilson of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, Vancouver chapter

DOXA's closing night film opened the Canadian Spectrum program at Hot Docs 2002 - North America's premiere documentary festival. This stunning film is both epic in scope and intimate in it's approach, creating what Margaret Atwood would call "a geography of the mind". From Canada's answer to the Coen Brothers, curators Cari Green and Diana Wilson are pleased to present the Western Canadian premiere of McLuhan's Wake, by Kevin and Michael McMahon.

Community Sponsor: Canadian Independent Film Caucus (CIFC)

McLuhan's Wake
Director: Kevin McMahon (Canada, 2002, 90 minutes, video)

Visually dazzling and structurally innovative, McLuhan's Wake creates an intimate portrait of Marshall McLuhan, one of the most enigmatic and provocative thinkers of the information revolution. McLuhan rose from obscure Canadian professor to 1970's media darling, yet remained largely misunderstood by the mass media he explored. When he died in 1980 - the same year CNN began and IBM created the first personal computer - he had largely lost his audience. McLuhanÕs Wake revives McLuhan's ideas and applies them to the world of the 21st Century, to see if they can indeed help us surf the technological chaos that threatens to drown us.

The McManon Brothers, whom the Toronto Star heralded as having "produced some of the best films of the past decade", have won numerous awards for their innovative documentaries including: Intelligence, The Falls and In the Reign of Twilight. The Brothers McMahon believe we're all still living in Marshall McLuhan's wake.

This evening is sponsored by the Vancouver chapter of the Canadian Independent Film Caucus (CIFC), the voice of documentary in British Columbia, and is curated by CIFC board members Cari Green and Diana Wilson. The CIFC is an active lobby group for independent documentary filmmakers and in five years has grown to over 150 members. Hot Docs, now in its 9th successful year, was created by the Canadian Independent Film Caucus (CIFC) to foster and celebrate independent documentary filmmaking.

Cari Green is a Vancouver-based producer with over twenty years experience. Her producing career began with work on a CBC television series, Family Pictures, and a feature film, The Vacant Lot for an independent production company. Cari has more than twenty television specials to her credit.

In 1991, Cari produced Songololo: Voices of Change, the critically acclaimed feature documentary about post-apartheid culture in South Africa,which garnered a Genie nomination. She produced The Learning Path, as part of the groundbreaking Native series, As Long As the Rivers Flow, and The Washing of Tears, with acclaimed film director and author, Hugh Brody (Mapsand Dreams).

Since 1994, she and Native filmmaker, Barb Cranmer have produced several award-winning films through their company, Nimpkish Wind Productions, for Canadian television and international distribution.

Cari has recently formed a new company, Producers On Davie, with veteran producers, Aerlyn Weissman and Harry Sutherland. The Company has a slate of feature documentaries, television hours and feature films in development. Scheduled for a spring release is the feature documentary, Little SisterÕs vs. Big Brother, which Cari is producing with director, Aerlyn Weissman.

Diana Wilson is a documentary producer/director who honed her producing skills through a Professional Fellowship grant from BC Film, associate producing Jill Sharpe's hip and witty hour-long documentary Culturejam: Hijacking Commercial Culture, which premiered to sold-out audiences at the 2001 Vancouver International Film Festival. Diana is currently production managing Genie award-winning filmmaker (Bones of the Forest) Velcrow Ripper's feature documentary Scared Sacred, which has been shooting around the globe for the past two years, and is also associate producing Jill Sharpe's new documentary in development, Sex, Breath and Death. Diana is also currently developing several documentary projects of her own, and was selected for a BC Film Hot Docs Producer Mentorship to attend the upcoming HotDocs festival in Toronto.

Diana received her formal education in film studies and philosophy at McMaster University, then spent much of the next eight years getting an on-the-job education working in the local film industry - in the sound department, art department, locations department, and in editing. Diana continued her education at the Independent Media Producers Program at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School in 1999. In October of 2001 Diana was invited back to the school to instruct the documentary component of the same program she'd attended two years earlier, and continues part time at GIFTS as a documentary instructor. Diana had also made several other short films and one 45-minute educational documentary, Blood on the Snow, which was screened across Europe and North America in 1994/1995. Diana is a board member of both Women in Film and Video Vancouver and the Canadian Independent Film and Video Caucus.

Graphic Design by Jacqueline Verkley. Web Design + Graphics Adaptation by Terra Poirier › lineargirl media