CineFocus at the R.O.M. (18 July, 2008)

CineFocus Canada Interactive is proud to announce the launch of its From Field to Studio: The Art of Paul Kane (PKI) museum exhibit at The Royal Ontario Museum. Housed in the Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples, PKI provides visitors a hands on opportunity to explore the paintings and legacy of one of Canada’s best known artists.

The user-friendly exhibit is a multi-pronged approach to art and storytelling, peeling away the layers that separate fact from fiction, craft from controversy, and art from the artist. PKI leads the viewer on a journey of discovery, telling the story behind Paul Kane and his pivotal role in recording a key chapter in Canada’s history, and tragic turning point for Aboriginal Peoples.

From Field to Studio: The Art of Paul Kane assembles the fascinating pieces of the Paul Kane story to create an interactive experience for viewers that - for the first time – offers digitally assembled images of Kane's incredible historic and artistic records in one place. PKI visitors will not only view Kane’s numerous sketches and oil paintings painted on his journeys, but his extensive field journals and rich collection of native artifacts as well. Viewers of the exhibit will be able to juxtapose Kane's original field sketches with his later commercial paintings, listen to and read from his travelogues, and take an interactive journey with Kane along his 1845 and 1846 expedition routes through animated historical maps and contemporary video footage. 



From Field to Studio: The Art of Paul Kane is derived from the award winning CineFocus Canada production, Visions From the Wilderness: The Art of Paul Kane. The original documentary was transformed into this ambitious museum exhibit over a three-year period with the support of the Interactive Project Lab at the Canada Film Centre, Telefilm Canada’s New Media Fund, the Department of Canadian Heritage - Canadian Studies Program and the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, the Hudson's Bay Company History Foundation, TFO and Saskatchewan Learning.

Visitors to the ROM are able to take the museum exhibit home with them in the groundbreaking From Field to Studio: The Art of Paul Kane DVD available in both French and English language versions at the museum store or by visiting the CineFocus Canada on-line Store.

Green Heroes Gets Green Light (19 June, 2008)

CineFocus is pleased to announce that the web/TV crossover Green Heroes has been given a significant boost with recent funding approvals from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, and the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund. Development of the series will take place over the summer.

Green Heroes the television series will profile people who had a transformative, single-moment shift in their worldviews, suddenly understanding that something must be done to save the planet. These stories are also told on the GREENHEROES.TV Internet channel designed to motivate people to become active participants in greening the planet. Here users will be encouraged to submit their own story ideas and suggestions of green-inspired heroes they know.

The Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund has a mandate to advance the Canadian broadcasting system, facilitating the creation of excellent Canadian digital media. The Canadian Independent Film & Video Fund is a dynamic private sector funding body supporting non-theatrical film, videos and new media projects created by Canadian independent producers to enable lifelong learning. This support complements broadcaster funding from TVO and Sun TV.

Green Heroes: Saving the world one person at a time!

Two CineFocus docs selected for German film fest (10 June, 2008)

CineFocus Canada is thrilled to announce that its feature documentaries
Museum Maestros and Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life have been invited to participate in the Globians Film Festival in Germany.

Films selected for this festival hail from all corners of the globe and introduce the world to “Globians”: People who no longer live in just one community but have a geographical "life span" that includes several continents and who apply their intriguing understanding of cultures and politics to the betterment of humankind.

The landmark work of the Gail Dexter Lord and Barry Lord (the Museum Maestros) as they re-invent museums for the 21st century and Buffy Sainte-Marie's groundbreaking career as a singer/songwriter, digital artist, and aboriginal activist encapsulate what it takes to be a “Globian”.

It is an honour that others recognize these parties for their efforts across the globe. CineFocus Canada looks forward to the premiere of these two films at the Globians Documentary Festival and the possibilities this opportunity provides.

Buffy Sainte Marie: A Multimedia Life screens at the Globians Film Festival in Potsdam on August 13th. Museum Maestros has its international premiere on August 16th in Potsdam and then travels to Berlin for a run-up screening to the Berlin Film Festival on September 4th.

Museum Maestros Nominated at Yorkton (05 May, 2008)

Museum Maestros, CineFocus Canada’s newest documentary, has been nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award in the Best Documentary Art/Culture category at the 61st annual Yorkton Short film and Video Festival in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

Canada’s longest running film festival, The Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival takes place May 22-25 and will screen dramatic and documentary films with a focus on the Canadian experience. We are extremely excited to have Museum Maestros screen at this illustrious festival.

Museum Maestros is not the first CineFocus Canada production to find a home at Yorkton. The 1997 production, The Story of Turtle from Turtle Island was nominated in the multicultural/race relations category, and Joan Prowse’s breakthrough documentary Beauty and the Beach was nominated for Best Documentary: Social, at the 1998 festival.

TVO Joins SUN TV as Broadcaster & Online Portal For GreenHeroes (24 April, 2008)

We are extremely excited to announce that TVO, Ontario’s public television broadcaster, has joined SUN TV in financially supporting the development of CineFocus Canada Interactive’s newest and most innovative project to date, GreenHeroes.tv.

With the support of TVO and SUN TV, CineFocus will begin developing an interactive GreenHeroes.tv experience that will reach audiences through new distribution methods, pioneering untouched terrain for television’s digital age.

CineFocus would like to compliment, both TVO and SUN TV for having the foresight to invest in an original project that will push boundaries of content delivery in novel and exciting ways. Through GreenHeroes.tv, viewsers will not only be able to access the content of the series from wherever they may be, but will also be able to interact more deeply with the show though interactive tools, including supplementary materials, contests, navigable maps, bonus scenes and user generate content.

The interactive features of GreenHeroes.tv are currently being developed by CineFocus and a team of industry pioneers and interactive specialists. The gracious support from TVO and SUN TV will help bring this content to life in the development stage of the production.

Check back frequently to keep up to date on the future of interactive media, GreenHeroes.tv.

Arbor Alma Blooms for Bravo!FACT (20 March, 2008)

CineFocus Canada Interactive has wrapped post-production on Arbor Alma (The Giving Tree), a new short produced with the assistance of Bravo!FACT. The four minute arts documentary challenges viewers to take notice of the “invisible” forest around them by pondering the role trees play in the formation of identity and urban consciousness in Canada. Containing paintings from Canada’s greatest visual artists, including Tom Thomson and the Group of 7, the short juxtaposes their art works with contemporary video, photos, and historical film of tree destruction, still images of lush urban greenery, and soundscapes reminiscent of the auditory experience of the forest.

Director/Writer John Bessai creates a vision of the city that is no longer about concrete, steel, and congestion, but about greenery, growth and space. Arbor Alma, propels viewers inside themselves as they are persuaded to reflect upon their own relationship to the natural world, the city, art and most importantly trees.

Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life Selected for Film Festival (14 March, 2008)

CineFocus Canada’s production “Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life” continues to garner acclaim with two international film festivals selecting it for screening. There will be screenings at both the Toronto based ReelWorld Film Festival from April 6th to 11th, and the New Zealand based Wairoa Maori Film Festival from May 29th to June 2nd.

With a strong mandate celebrating diversity and community, the ReelWorld Film Festival is going into its eighth year. Over 78 screenings of World Premieres and films from over 140 countries, makes it an important forum for the diverse global community of filmmakers and artists. The Wairoa Maori Film Festival celebrates Maori and Indigenous cultures with the goal of building an international Indigenous Peoples network.

Joan is excited by the opportunity to participate in these two renowned festivals and cannot wait to share the story of Buffy Sainte-Marie with such a diverse audience.

The ReelWorld screening is on Sunday April 6th at 11a.m at the Cumberland Theatre.


The Wairoa Festival screening is at 11a.m on Saturday May 31st at Taihoe Marae.

Joan Prowse, Guest Speaker: Augsburg Native American Film Series (10 March, 2008)

Guest Speaker: Joan Prowse

CineFocus Canada director Joan Prowse will be heading to Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota on March 12 & 13 to participate as a special guest speaker at the Augsburg Native American Film Series. The series focuses on current and historical issues in Indian country. Special guest speakers or filmmakers host each event, offering viewers the chance to meet and engage with a variety of people and discussions.

The film series will showcase the CineFocus Canada production Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life and will provide students in the Augsburg College American Indian Studies, Film Studies and Women’s Studies programs, as well as members of the general public an opportunity to meet with Joan Prowse to discuss this important film on the extraordinary life of Aboriginal artist and activist, Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Joan is delighted to have been asked to participate in this important film series and is looking forward to sharing her insights with the Minneapolis community. If you are in the Minneapolis area, please take the opportunity to meet Joan with and be inspired by her captivating documentary Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life.

World Premiere of Museum Maestros on Bravo! (31 January, 2008)

CineFocus Canada’s newest television documentary, Museum Maestros, premieres Wednesday, March 5th at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo!

Museum Maestros chronicles the life and work of Gail and Barry Lord, a husband and wife team of international museum experts. This documentary follows director John Bessai as the Lords take him through their process of creating the world’s most innovative and dynamic museums, including the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the World Trade Center Memorial, the Island of Culture in Abu Dhabi, the American Revolution Center in Philadelphia and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Along the way John learns the importance of culture and identity in a post-modern world, through Lord’s unique approach to transforming museums from repositories of historic objects to sites of ideas and stories, for the future.

The one-hour documentary is part of a special week of documentaries airing from March 3rd – 7th on Bravo! Canada’s national arts channel. This is the fourth program CineFocus Canada has produced for Bravo! and we are extremely excited that Museum Maestros will be sharing the screen with Canada’s top documentaries during this illustrious week of programming.

Tune in to see Gail and Barry in action, as they plan and prepare museums for the 21st century.

NAFTA Documentary Now Available on DVD (03 January, 2008)

In the lead up to the United States Presidential election there has been a rejuvenated debate over free trade agreements, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement. In response, CineFocus Canada is re-issuing its ground-breaking documentary NAFTA: Playing with a Volatile Substance for the first time on DVD.

Hosted by Eric Peterson (Corner Gas, Street Legal), this investigative documentary examines the debate surrounding the signing of the agreement which came into effect on January 1st, 1994. The documentary interviews impassioned workers from Mexico, the United States and Canada and features commentary from international economists, politicians, union leaders and cultural critics, including former Mexican opposition leader Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, Council of Canadians’ Maude Barlow, and Business Council on National Issues' Tomas D'Aquino.

The documentary raises questions, concern and points of pause that are as relevant to the North American economy today as they were in 1993, when NAFTA was a key election issue in Canada. At the time, workers in all three countries were fearful of the implications of such an agreement for their job security, wages, workplace safety and their governments’ abilities to regulate environmental protection, food security, social programs and economic equity. These concerns have not diminished and have become a flashpoint in a new debate around jobs and the economy in the 21st century.

Available though CineFocus’ online store, this documentary provides a critical examination of NAFTA that remains relevant to this day.