From Steve Buist of the Hamilton Spectator:
CHCH-TV owner to address CRTC
The timing is both impeccable and highly ironic.
Channel Zero Inc., owner of Hamilton’s CHCH-TV, will be making a presentation Monday on the opening day of hearings being held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The topic of discussion? A policy review of local and community television programming in Canada. Continue reading.
From Jim Bawden:
Hold Your Fire Is Finally on CBC-TV’s Firsthand
It’s a coincidence, of course, but CBC-TV’s new and compelling documentary on alcoholism Thursday night at 8 gets  followed by an equally compelling new documentary on Toronto police procedures titled Hold Your Fire (at 9 p.m.). Because both hours are from Bountiful Films.
In the case of Hold Your Fire the wait has been well worth it.
Hold Your Fire was originally scheduled for October 22 at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV’s Firsthand. The stark and uncompromising look at the police shooting of Sammy Yatim is must-see TV. But the trial of a Toronto police office was still ongoing in October and ever cautious CBC chose to pull it and indeed several subsequent time periods were also abandoned. Continue reading.
From Jim Bawden:
Wasted: A Must-See NOT Documentary
Wasted is a top Nature Of Things documentary that puts a face on the compelling subject of alcohol addiction. You can catch it Thursday night at 8 on CBC-TV. Got that?
The hour begins with film maker Maureen Palmer’s profile of her partner Mike Pond who was a psychotherapist helping people with addiction in Penticton, British Columbia. And then he succumbed to alcoholism himself –living smack dab in wine country didn’t help needless to say. Continue reading.
From a media release:
OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (Canada) announced today that celebrated interior designer Debbie Travis will be joining the OWN (Canada) family with the new documentary series La Dolce Debbie (6X30). The series follows Debbie as she searches for, buys and completely overhauls a 13th century Tuscan property, transforming it into her ultimate dream women’s retreat. La Dolce Debbie premieres Tuesday, February 16 at 8:30 p.m. ET.
La Dolce Debbie takes viewers on design icon Debbie Travis’ most personal journey yet: risking her life’s savings to buy and transform a 13th century medieval watchtower and farmhouse into a luxurious 14 bedroom women’s retreat in Tuscany, Italy. Inspiring, touching, and heart-warming – the series explores the highs and lows of buying and renovating a large property in a foreign country.
In her area of Tuscany, which is deemed an international heritage site, Debbie is forced to conform to rigid historical protection laws and red-tape committees. Working with some of the best architects, designers and tradesmen in Italy, she struggles to grasp the language and assimilate to a new culture, and also has to wrap her head around what it takes to run a 100-acre farm with 800 olive trees and vineyard. While the property slowly transforms, so does Debbie. At the heart of the series is her personal journey to find a new happiness through her desire to create a one-of-a-kind retreat that captures the transformative spirit of Tuscany and the experience of La Dolce Vita – The Sweet Life.
In the first episode, which premieres Tuesday, February 16 at 8:30 p.m. ET, Debbie is on the hunt for an Italian property to transform into the permanent home for her women’s retreats. For more than two years she and her husband Hans scour the country – and when they finally fall in love with the idyllic region of Tuscany, they struggle to find the perfect place.
La Dolce Debbie is produced by Montréal-based WAM (Whalley-Abbey Media).
The Canadian Screen Awards (aka CSAs aka Screenies aka#CdnScreen16 aka give the damn things an official nickname, would you?) were announced yesterday.
In one of the worst-designed websites you’ll find this side of GeoCities, the Academy helpfully tells us which awards we should care most about by selecting them for an easier to navigate “Selected Awards” television page. They think I’m more interested in Best Local News Anchor than any of the screenwriting awards? Don’t they know me at all? After combing through a 55-page PDF of the complete television nominees I’ve found some gems and head-scratchers.
Favourite head-to-head match-up
Dan Levy versus dad Eugene Levy, both of Schitt’s Creek, as best actor in a comedy? Bring on the battle of the eyebrows. Eugene has the Canadian comedic royalty history but Dan’s portrayal of selfish, oblivious, vulnerable David won my heart and my funny bone. Both could be winners as producers, since Schitt’s Creek is up for best comedy, and Dan has one of two writing nominations for the series, which garnered a whopping 14 TV nominations (and one for digital).
Helen Shaver should direct everything
She has two of the five nominations for best direction in a drama, for two different series: Vikings and Orphan Black. Which also seem to me two of the most complicated series to direct, what with the multiple clones played by one person and the swashbuckling Vikings.
There’s a fine line
Still Standing, with comedian Jonny Harris touring the country doing standup and finding laughs and poignancy in small town Canada is most reminiscent of the Rick Mercer Report to me, yet they are in different categories: best factual program for Still Standing, best variety or sketch for Mercer. It both makes sense — Still Standing skews towards learning about the places he visits, Mercer skews more toward sketch, and yet illustrates the difficulty of categorization, especially for awards that have 55 PDF pages of categories to choose from.
I do not think that word means what you think it means
Bitten received two nominations, one for music and another for “best achievement in casting.” Yet none of the cast, including guest roles, was nominated. I wouldn’t take anything away from Bitten but one of the few nominations Schitt’s Creek did not get was casting, though nearly its entire cast was nominated.
Moment of panic
No This Life or Romeo Section? The Canadian Screen Award eligibility period for television is from September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015, so they won’t be able to enter until next year. That five month gap between the period’s end and the nomination announcement — which expands to seven months until the awards are handed out — primes the Screenies to regularly honour already cancelled shows long after they last aired.
Speaking of cancelled series …
Strange Empire‘s Aaron Poole is deservedly up for best dramatic actor, and Woody Jeffreys for supporting in the same series. Blackstone has one last shot as best drama, an award its been nominated for before but has never taken home.
That said … holy 19-2
The Bravo series will be hard to beat, with 12 nominations including best drama series. Orphan Black has 13 nods but best drama series isn’t one of them (two of them are best writing for a drama series, though).
Canadian rules
Best international drama was added to the Gemini Awards — the TV awards that merged with the Genies to create the Canadian Screen Awards — in 2012. The perception was that international coproductions such as The Tudors and The Borgias had an unfair advantage over purely homegrown productions and naming them best Canadian drama was an embarrassment. Lately it’s the international drama category itself that’s an embarrassment, with only Vikings and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell earning nominations this year. With two contenders, why bother? I’d put my money on 19-2 over those two any day. And yet, this category made the Academy’s “Selected Awards” cut.
Tune in March 13 on CBC to see Norm Macdonald preside over the televised portion of the ceremony.
