Filmmaker Panels

Panel - Do We Care?

Friday, October 23rd 3:30-5:00pm
Bata Shoe Museum

Limited seating. Pre-registration is recommended.
Cost $5.00

At the end of the day do audiences care about the environmental stories and programs currently being broadcast and produced? What does audience response tell us about our programming? Case studies on what works and what doesn’t from leading providers of environmental content will be examined. Do we care?

Moderator: Paul Lewis, President and General Manager of Discovery Channel Canada.

Participants: Michael Allder, Executive Producer, CBC The Nature of Things; Bob Culbert; Mark Terry, Polar Cap Productions; and Rob Stewart.

Biographies

Paul Lewis, as President and General Manager of Discovery Channel Canada, oversees all of the network’s day-to-day operations including programming, production and marketing. In addition, he oversees Discovery Civilization, Animal Planet, Travel + Escape, Discovery HD, Exploration Production Inc. and Exploration Distribution Inc.

Lewis joined Discovery Channel in 1994 as Executive Producer of in-house programming and helped to create the world's first daily science magazine show, @discovery.ca, which was re-introduced in Fall 2002 as Daily Planet.

In addition to his Discovery responsibilities, Lewis has been involved in numerous industry organizations, including Director of the World Congress of Science Producers, an organization dedicated to the sharing of programming ideas and productions with international broadcasters, independent producers and distributors as well as The Canadian Association of Broadcasters. He is a graduate of the journalism program at Ryerson University and has completed the Alliance Atlantis Banff Television Executive Program. Paul Lewis is a member of the Board of Planet in Focus.

Michael Allder is the Executive Producer of CBC’s Science & Natural History Unit. Its popular flagship programme, the multi-award-winning The Nature of Things, is an award-winning series broadcast across Canada and many countries around the world. Allder has had extensive experience as a Producer and Director of both television and cinematic productions in both the public and private sectors. He previously worked with the National Film Board of Canada, where he directed and produced the feature length documentary The Lucky Ones, as well as the feature drama City of Dark, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He also produced the feature documentaries Drowning in Dreams and the cult hit Project Grizzly, both of which played at the Toronto Intl Film Festival . Since joining The Nature of Things, the series has garnered numerous prestigious awards in national and international competitions. Over the past five years, The Nature of Things has been nominated four times for the Gemini as Canada's Best Documentary Series, an award that it received most recently in 2004. Mr. Allder was also Series and Executive Producer for the epic “Geologic Journey”, a five-part HD series about the geologic history of North America.

Bob Culbert has almost 40 years experience in broadcast journalism and documentary filmmaking. He is currently head of Culbert Productions and Consulting in Toronto. For nine years, until February 2009, he was Vice President of Documentaries of CTV and was responsible for all network documentaries on the network. Previously, Culbert had a distinguished at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. From 1994 to 1999, he was Executive Director of News and Current Affairs. In this role, he was responsible for all network news and current affairs programming, and Newsworld, CBC’s 24-hour news channel.

From 1991 to 1994, he held the position of Area Head of Network TV Current Affairs, responsible for all network current affairs programming, all documentary specials and documentary series. From 1981 to 1991, Culbert worked at the CBC’s daily current affairs program The Journal, becoming Senior Producer. He was Area Head of all television news and current affairs programming for CBC Nova Scotia from 1979 to 1981. He joined CBC Winnipeg in 1970, working in both television news and current affairs. In addition to his television journalism experience, he also worked in print media in Northern Ireland and the Winnipeg Free Press (1968-1970), after immigrating to Canada in 1968. Culbert is a member of the Board of Directors of Hot Docs, North America's largest documentary festival. He is also on the steering committee for Innoversity. For 18 years, Culbert taught a course in documentary programming at Ryerson University in Toronto, and currently is a part-time lecturer in documentary production at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont. Culbert was also the recipient of the Academy Achievement Award at the 2006 Gemini Awards.

Mark Terry has been making documentary films since 1986. His first film, Clive Barker: The Art of Horror, was made with the National Film Board of Canada and released by Paramount Pictures. Mark’s first “adventure” in the field was with the Royal Canadian Regiment as he served with soldiers in Kosovo to make his documentary We Stand On Guard. The film, starring Gordon Pinsent, chronicled the first 100 years of the Canadian military. Mark produced, wrote and directed the film that played each Remembrance Day on Global Television for five consecutive years. The film also won the Platinum Award for Best Documentary Feature and Best Director honors at the Houston International Film Festival in 2001.

While working for a publicly traded production company in Toronto called EnBlast, Mark started developing documentary projects for Enblast president and former Paragon Entertainment studio head Richard Borchiver. Mark created, wrote and executive produced the documentary specials Earth’s Natural Wonders and Mysteries of Sacred Sites and sold them to the Discovery Channel (US). Still working with EnBlast, Mark created the popular documentary series Shop With Me for Global Television. The series profiled eclectic shops and businesses in Canada.

He also produced a series of documentary and dramatic films for the prestigious Museum of History in Hong Kong. As a member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Explorers Club, the Canadian Council for Geographic Education and the Canadian Circumpolar Institute Mark learned a lot about the environmental issues affecting these fragile eco-systems and, by extension, the world. As a result, he decided to create Antarctica Challenge profiling how these issues are impacting on Antarctica.

Rob Stewart started his journey to becoming an award-winning filmmaker at the age of 13 when he began photographing the underwater world. By the age of 18 he became a scuba instructor trainer and then moved on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Before making Sharkwater, Stewart spent four years traveling the world as chief photographer for the Canadian Wildlife Federation's magazines and as an award-winning freelance photojournalist. Leading expeditions to the most remote areas of the world, Stewart has logged thousands of hours underwater, using the latest in rebreather and camera technologies.

Stewart's award-winning library of underwater motion and still images has been sought out by some of the most popular and well-respected media companies around the globe, from BBC Wildlife, Discovery Channel, ABC, Asian Diver, Entertainment Tonight and various GEO magazines. While on assignment to photograph sharks in the Galapagos Islands, Stewart discovered illegal long lining, indiscriminately killing sharks within the marine reserve. He tried promoting awareness through print campaigns, but when the public didn't respond, Stewart decided to make a film to bring people closer to sharks. At the age of 22, he left his photography career behind and embarked on a remarkable journey over four years and through 15 different countries, resulting in the epic: Sharkwater.

When Stewart boarded Sea Shepherd's ship, Sharkwater took a turn from a beautiful underwater film into an incredible human drama filled with corruption, espionage, attempted murder charges and mafia rings, forcing Stewart and his crew to become part of the story. During filming, Stewart encountered every obstacle imaginable, including life-threatening diseases such as West Nile, Tuberculosis, Dengue Fever and flesh-eating Disease.

Stewart's hardcover book, Sharkwater: An Odyssey to Save the Planet was released in October 2007 by Key Porter Books. Stewart is currently working on his next film and is Toronto based.