“Water,” “White Knight” receive Shaw Media-Hot Docs funding

July 25, 2012 by Kevin Ritchie

Nine projects have received CDN$168,000 (US$164,600) in funding from the Shaw Media-Hot Docs Completion and Development Funds, including director Jennifer Baichwal and photographer Edward Burtynsky’s Water; director Paul Saltzman’s The Last White Knight; and director Thomas Burstyn’s Some Kind of Love.

The grants and no-interest loans are part of the Canadian media company and the documentary film festival’s $4 million fund that provides support to Canadian docmakers. Since 2008, the fund has awarded a total of $2.17 million to 93 projects. Applications for the second round of disbursements this year will open in September via hotdocs.ca/shawmedia.

“The selection committees were impressed with the range of topics, from urban decay and ageing to gay rights and Inuit history,” said Hot Docs Forum and market director Elizabeth Radshaw in a statement. “The compelling content of these projects, each vital to Canadian and international audiences alike, illustrate the importance of supporting Canadian documentary filmmaking.”

Shaw Media-Hot Docs Completion Fund

Four completion grants totalling $113,000 were awarded to the following projects (descriptions via Hot Docs, edited by realscreen):

High Five
Director: Julia Ivanova
Producers: Boris Ivanov, Charlotte Dewolff
Production Company: Interfilm Productions

A North American suburban couple fights to adopt five siblings from a remote Ukrainian orphanage. But when they succeed, the eldest child’s struggle to find her place in a new family and culture becomes an ultimate test of her adoptive parent’s unconditional love.

The Last White Knight
Director: Paul Saltzman
Producers: Patricia Aquino, Paul Saltzman
Production Company: 1296 Productions

In 1965, Paul Saltzman drove to Mississippi and, after joining the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee as a civil rights worker, he was assaulted by a young KKK member. In 2007, Saltzman returned to find the Klansman who attacked him and a five-year dialogue ensued.

Some Kind of Love
Director: Thomas Burstyn
Producer: Trish Dolman
Co-Producer: Haydn Wazelle
Executive Producers: Sumner Burstyn, Christine Haebler
Production Company: Screen Siren Pictures

Some Kind of Love illustrates the consequences of obsession, the burden of obligation and the great divide between science and art through the personal and intense story of an aging scientist brother and artist sister who live together in a dilapidated mansion.

Water
Director: Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky
Producer: Nick de Pencier
Executive Producer: Daniel Iron
Production Company: Sixth Wave Productions

We interact with water every day; we wash with it, cook with it, drink it, swim in it, and fish in it, but we don’t really know it. Experience and witness water politically, culturally, ecologically.

Shaw Media-Hot Docs Development Fund

Five no-interest loans totalling $55,000 were awarded to the following projects:

Beauty and Ruin
Director: Marc de Guerre
Producer: Sally Blake
Production Company: Subject Films

Does art matter? The Detroit Institute of Art’s defenders are trying to persuade cash-strapped Detroiters to pay a $20 art tax to keep the museum alive. Fighting them every step of the way are those who view the museum and art it contains irrelevant in a time of deep economic crisis.

Fruit Machine
Directors and Producers: Justine Pimlott, Maya Gallus
Production Company: Red Queen Productions

Following the decriminalization of homosexual acts between two consenting adults, Canada’s first gay liberation newspaper, The Body Politic, was born. One of the most influential and controversial gay newspapers, it dramatically shaped gay and lesbian history, both in Canada and around the world.

Harry
Director: Felix Lajeunesse
Producer: Katarina Soukup
Writer: Laura Rietveld
Production Company: Catbird Productions

As Harry Sam Willy Okpik, a 57-year-old dog musher more commonly known as One Legged Harry, goes about his daily routine he recounts the momentous events that led to the loss of his childhood and the loss of his leg. Despite his struggles he refuses to feel sorry for himself, and annually competes in the Ivakkak, a gruelling, long-distance dog-sled race across Nunavik.

Long Way Home
Director: Jari Osborne
Producers: Dawna Treibicz, Jari Osborne
Production Company: Dam Builder Productions

Faced with increasing numbers of elderly, on one hand, and evaporating dollars on the other, western countries worldwide are seeking ways to decrease the institutionalization of the elderly. Should “the right to live at home” be protected under the Canada Health Care Act?

This is Congo
Director: Daniel McCabe
Producers: Geoff McLean, Horeb Bulambo
Production Company: Shortcut Films in association with S2BN Entertainment

Exploring the ongoing fight for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s vast mineral wealth and natural resources, this film will look into the human costs of an unregulated international market for Congo’s valuable resources.

Tags: Beauty and Ruin, Fruit Machine, Harry, High Five, Long Way Home, Shaw Media - Hot Docs Documentary Fund, Shaw Media-Hot Docs Documentary Funds, Some Kind of Love, The Last White Knight, This is Congo, Water