Tough Choices: Beyond Disaster
Rahul Singh is a Toronto paramedic and founder of GlobalMedic, a disaster relief organization. Last year he made TIME magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Together with Gord Martineau, Rahul will help examine Canadian foreign aid at work. In the aftermath of a disaster, is Canadian aid as effective as it could be?
Directed by: Karen Pinker, with Gord Martineau. Edited by Geoff Matheson for Citytv.
AIRDATE: December 18 at 10pm on Citytv






Tough Choices: Labour's Pain
Public Unions have become a lightening rod in these economic times. Their critics think they are leading us to bankruptcy. Their defenders say the middle class is under attack. We look at how the story is playing out in embattled Europe and a town in California that can't pay the bills. And how this may impact Canada.
Directed by Karen Pinker. Edited by Bruce Lapointe for Citytv.
AIRDATE: January 8th at 10pm on Citytv



Tough Choices: Change of Life
This is a film about second chances. We often hear of a midlife crisis involving a new Porsche or a new partner, but there are people out there whose stories are more, well, inspirational. These people instead see midlife as an opportunity to reinvent themselves and become a different person. The person they were meant to be. Think about it: if you have a choice, who do you really want to be?
Directed by Andrew Gregg, with Gord Martineau, for Citytv

Tough Choices: Gridlock
One in four Canadians spends more than 90 minutes commuting to and from work every weekday - over a year, that's 32 days sitting in traffic. What can we do to make the traffic flow more efficiently? Are tolls the answer? Early bird transit incentives? Giving entire streets over to transit infrastructure? What can we do to stop cities of the future from suffering the same health issues we have now? This film attempts to answer the ultimate question: Is there an end to gridlock?
Directed by Peter Findlay for Citytv

William Still and The Underground Railroad
A one hour documentary on one of the most significant figures in the abolition of slavery. William Still's passion for the cause of freedom was so great that when he died in 1902, The New York Times called him "The Father of the Underground Railroad." But this isn't just an American story nor a story about one man. Canada was Freedom's Land - and the Underground Railroad was a complex network of abolitionists, sympathizers, and safe houses that stretched from Philadephia to what is now Southern Ontario. Without Canada, the Underground Railroad would have been a road to nowhere.
Directed by: Laine Drewery and edited by Geoff Matheson
for PBS and Rogers Television.
Airdate February 6th at 10pm on PBS.

Japan 3/11
On the anniversary of 3/11, the devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami, David Suzuki travels to the areas most affected by the disaster to learn how the catastrophe is helping to change the mind-set of a people, and how new science, and the re-assessment of conventional thinking, can turn a cataclysm into a blueprint for the future. For David, it is both a personal journey and a global quest, about the dynamic relationship of science and nature, about hubris, about the need for a re-appraisal of how we can sustain our planet.
Directed by Michael Allder for CBC's The Nature of Things.


First Contact: Baffin Island
Archeologist Patricia Sutherland believes that over a thousand years ago Scandinavian Norse traded and lived with the Paleo-Eskimo Dorset people. In this film we witness her attempt to unearth the oldest European dwellings in North America and prove her theory that Vikings not only visited - but stayed.
Directed by Andrew Gregg. Edited by Geoff Matheson.
For CBC's The Nature of Things.






Wind
Wind has been proven to generate immense amounts of energy-enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. And yet what should be the greenest of all energy sources is having severe growing pains: it's expensive, it has been seen to make people physically ill and there are a great many activists who claim there is, in fact, nothing green about turbine energy. "Wind" looks at both sides of the contentious issue that has environmentalists and communities pitted against one another.
Directed by Andrew Gregg. Edited by Geoff Matheson.
For CBC's The Nature of Things.



Bipolarized (The Ross McKenzie Story)
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Ross McKenzie's psychiatrist told him that he would have to take lithium to control his symptoms for the rest of his life. To Ross, taking the drug daily felt like a chemical lobotomy, leaving him in a foggy, drug-induced haze. Ross ultimately decided to resolve his symptoms outside of conventional medicine. What ensued was a fifteen-year exploration into alternative treatments. This film takes us through Ross McKenzie's journey and will also tell a larger story about medication.
Co-directed by Gordon Henderson and Rita Kotzia. Edited by Bruce Lapointe.
For ShawMedia.

Opportunity
This is the story of African-American quarterbacks getting an opportunity to play in Canada when NFL teams would not recognize their talents. At the centre is Chuck Ealey - the only US College quarterback in history to go undefeated - who had to come to Canada to play. But we intersect stories featuring other incredibly gifted black athletes - all who followed a compass pointing true north, where they made a permanent imprint on the CFL and Canada.
Directed by Charles Officer.
For CTV/TSN.

Argooooooos 1971
The 1971 Argos was arguably the most colourful team to ever play in the CFL. They reflected the rebelliousness of the era-a squad of free-loving, longhaired characters. "We were rejects," says former QB Joe Theismann, "because the NFL chose not to have us. But the CFL did."
We will re-visit those times with the players themselves and others including the family of Leon McQuay. McQuay famously fumbled the ball in the dying minutes of the 1971 Grey Cup game. "It was a sensational time," says Coach Leo Cahill. "Up until that Grey Cup."


ALSO IN THE WORKS:

Winter with Adam Gopnik and the NFB
Railroad That Built the Nation for WNED/PBS
and a film about Suchitoto, El Salvador with the Stratford Festival.