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L a u g h i n g
M o u n t a i n
Communications Inc
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"meaningful film and television"


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Recent Projects
 
 


STAND-UP SAMURAIS
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“Howling blizzards, drunken hecklers, bad food, seedy hotel rooms. Stand-up comedians working the small town gigs of western Canada can expect it all.”

STAND-UP SAMURAIS is an hour-long documentary about the grueling working life of stand-up comedians on a mid-winter tour through the small town venues of western Canada. Featured comics are Richard Lett, Tim Koslo, Nelson Giles, and Big Daddy Tazz; the venues played include the only bar in Gold River, BC, and the men-only Deer Head Night in Virden, Manitoba. Like the comedians themselves, viewers can truly expect to see it all.
Directed by Harry Killas * Produced by Ric Beairsto * Director of Photography Rolf Cutts * Editor Michael Bateman * Original Music Roy Forbes.

A brief excerpt from Stand-Up Samurais

 

Copies of STAND-UP SAMURAIS are available exclusively from Laughing Mountain Inc.

info@laughingmountain.ca

SUPERKIDS

"Just because you're smarter doesn't mean it's easier."

SUPERKIDS is a one-hour documentary about the rarefied, hectic, and surprisingly competitive world of gifted children. A personal framework for the program is provided by writer/producer Ric Beairsto, whose son Jiten was identified as gifted at age 9, then at age 12 accepted into a radically accelerated high school program located within the University of British Columbia. At 14, Jiten will graduate high school and enter university proper. SUPERKIDS follows three other gifted children, ages 11 to 13, as they graduate from an elementary gifted education class and undergo the arduous process of competing for admittance into the UBC program. Additionally, the show offers insight into the assessment and identification of gifted children, and highlights the difficult balance that so many parents are struggling with today—the balance between unsupervised play, and the structured, goal-oriented extra-curricular activities that will allow their children to better contend with an increasingly competitive global arena.
Directed by Harry Killas * Written & Produced by Ric Beairsto *
Co-Producer Daniel Leipnik * Director of Photography Jonathan Benny *
Editor Rafi Spivak * Original Music Bill Runge * Sound Design Jonathan Ritchie.

A brief excerpt from Superkids

 

Copies of SUPERKIDS are available from Kinetic Video.
www.kineticvideo.com - info@kineticvideo.com

DARK PINES: A Documentary Investigation Into The Death Of Tom Thomson.

"Tom Thomson… Artist. Woodsman. Lover. Murder victim?"

DARK PINES is a docu-dramatic, hour-long exploration into the mysterious death of Tom Thomson, Canada’s most famed landscape painter. His demise was originally reported as nothing more than “accidental death by drowning,” but the program employs a unique ‘investigative’ style to present evidence that, at the time, a proper investigation was suppressed, and that his death was in fact anything but accidental. The show includes biographical information on Thomson’s remarkable character and career, but largely focuses on the events surrounding his death, and presents a series of three possible explanations—the original ‘official’ one; a second investigation taking place in 1956 which uncovered the foul play involved in Thomson’s death, but pointed the finger of guilt at the wrong man; and a final explanation which is supported by credible evidence that did not emerge until recent years.
Director David Vaisbord * Writer/Producer Ric Beairsto * Director of Photography Jonathan Benny * Editor Rafi Spivak * Composer John Korsrud *Sound Design Jonathan Ritchie * Graphics Furio Sorrentino * Narrator David Hoole
Cast: David Abbott, Pamela Perry, Mathew Walker, William B. Davis, David Bloom, Mary Black, Judith Berlin, Tim Webber.

A brief excerpt from Dark Pines

 

Copies of DARK PINES are available from Moving Images Distribution. www.movingimages.ca - mailbox@movingimages.ca

CODE GREEN CANADA


"12 homes. 6 weeks. $15,000 each. 1 grand prize."

CODE GREEN CANADA is a unique and entertaining 6-part television series which offers homeowners everywhere invaluable information on how to reduce energy and water consumption in their own home. Greatly reduced utility bills are the inevitable result. In the series, 12 sets of homeowners from across Canada are each given $15,000, and then asked to employ those funds in a
6-week, mid-winter competition to gain the greatest reduction in energy and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Contestant strategies include everything from new light bulbs to double-flush toilets to solar hot water heating.
Credits: Host Gillian Deacon * Executive Producers Ric Beairsto * Daniel Leipnik Producers Doug Main * Edward Peill * Paul Scherzer * Ron E. Scott* Written By Ric Beairsto * Directors Ric Beairsto * Noura Kevorkian * Doug Main * Edward Peill * Ron E. Scott * Series Director of Photography A. Jonathon Benny * Directors of Photography Rick Bremness * Gurjeet Mann * Marc Pike * Editors Rafi Spivak * Jamie Rokovetsky * Lindsay Hamilton * Original Music Mike Shields * Supervising Producer Tracy Major.

Copies of CODE GREEN CANADA are available exclusively
from Laughing Mountain Inc.

info@laughingmountain.ca

MIXED BLESSINGS


"Ukrainian plumber meets Cree waitress… Both widowed… Both with kids… Both fall madly, inadvertently, awkwardly in love… Perogies meet moose meat in a blended family to end all blended families."

MIXED BLESSINGS is a half-hour comedy-drama series set in Fort McMurray, the ultimate Alberta boomtown, about the ultimate blended family. The story sees Hank Kowalchuk, 38, Ukrainian plumber, fall in love with and marry Josie Fraser 33, Cree waitress. Thing is, both are widowed, both have kids. As Hank and Josie battle to grow their lives together, the kids, the relatives and the town fight to pull them apart. MIXED BLESSINGS is a co-production with Prairie Dog Film and Television of Edmonton, AB. The series features Gary Basaraba (Charlotte’s Web, CSI, NYPD Blue) as Hank.

Season One of MIXED BLESSINGS premiered in Canada on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network on November 6, 2007; Season Three will go into
production during the summer of 2009.

A brief excerpt from Mixed Blessings

 

Contact info@laughingmountain.ca for more information.

 
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