L
a u g h i n g
M
o u n t a i n
Communications
Inc.
"meaningful film and television"
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L
a u g h i n g |
"meaningful film and television" |
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Recent Projects |
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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. Copies of STAND-UP SAMURAIS are available exclusively from Laughing Mountain Inc. 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. Copies
of SUPERKIDS are available
from Kinetic Video.
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. Copies of DARK PINES are available from Moving Images Distribution. www.movingimages.bc.ca - mailbox@movingimages.ca CODE
GREEN CANADA 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 Copies
of CODE GREEN CANADA are
available
exclusively MIXED
BLESSINGS 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 Contact info@laughingmountain.ca for more information.
Current Projects Photo OP Photo OP is a one-hour documentary examining the emergence, development and rise to international art stardom of the ‘Vancouver School’ of photo-conceptual artists, chief among them Roy Arden, Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham, Ken Lum, Jeff Wall and Ian Wallace. They represent the biggest art ‘story’ to ever come out of Canada—bigger than the Group of Seven, more international than the Quebec Abstract Expressionists Riopelle and Borduas. And yet their story remains opaque to many people in Canada, with the key players unknown and the forces that conspired to produce such a phenomenon both hotly contested and not well understood. Photo OP proposes to rectify this stark deficiency, answering questions about how, when, where and why, while at the same time helping to draw back the curtain on this extraordinary set of artists who have done so much to bring Canada’s artistic genius to the international stage. STREET SISTERS Street Sisters is a remarkable documentary project, to be released as both a series and a feature, following the lives of nine marginalized Aboriginal women from Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside as they struggle to change their lives. Shooting will continue for a full calendar year, and is founded upon twice-weekly meetings of the women in a support group facilitated by the likes of Dr. Gabor Mate, renowned author and addictions specialist. The shooting will follow the women in all aspects of their lives outside the group as well, and the filmmakers will bring whatever resources they can to the group by way of aiding them make the profound changes in their lives that they hope to. Part docu-soap, part grand social experiment, Street Sisters will offer an unprecedented look into the lives of characters rarely seen on television, and provide a fascinating answer to the question of whether these women, with the resources before them, can meet the incredible challenge of righting their highly dislocated lives.
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