Gerry Dee hosts Canada’s Smartest Person

From a media release:

COMEDIAN GERRY DEE TO HOST CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON SUNDAY, MARCH 18 AT 8 P.M. ON CBC-TV

  • CFL player, scientist, poet and teacher vie for title; viewers can play along in real time with CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON app

Gerry Dee, the award-winning comedian and star of CBC Television’s MR. D, will host CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON, the groundbreaking two-hour television special that will reveal that there is more to intelligence than having a high IQ score or being a whiz at math or trivia. CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON airs on CBC Television on Sunday, March 18 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT).

In 2011, Canadians had the opportunity to nominate themselves, or someone they know, as CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON. Drawing on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, show producers used interviews and tests to narrow the field to four participants with well-rounded intelligence profiles.

Airing on Sunday, March 18 at 8 p.m., CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON will feature Hamilton Tiger Cats offensive linesman, Peter Dyskowski; high school science teacher, Dr. Marshall Carroll; 23-year-old student and gamer, Laura Suen; and spoken word poet, Greg Frankson participating in a series of fun and spectacular challenges aimed at testing six areas of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The person who proves that they have the most versatile smarts will earn the title of CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON.

CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON will also feature a lineup of special guest appearances by Arlene Dickinson (DRAGONS’ DEN), comedians Naomi Sniekus, Matt Baram and Sean Cullen.

Play along during the broadcast

On the night of the broadcast, CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON viewers can put their own wits to the test and play along simultaneously with the challenges online at cbc.ca/smartestperson or with an innovative app (for Apple iOS) created for the show. Available in early March, the play along app will help audiences discover more about their own intelligence and see how they compare to the four TV participants.

Participant info

  • Vancouver-born Peter Dyskowski is a 27-year-old offensive linesman for the Hamilton Tiger Cats. The first Canadian-born athlete to sign a scholarship with Louisiana State University, Dykowski balances his athleticism with his Mensa qualified intelligence.
  • At just 23 years old, Laura Suen from Mississauga already has a double major Honours BSc in physics and cellular and molecular biology as well as a minor in mathematics. In her free time, Suen plays video games competitively and has won over $30,000 in gaming competitions.
  • Dr. Marshall Carroll is a high school science teacher from Winnipeg who is educated as a theoretical quantum chemist. Also a singer-songwriter and a stand-up comedian, Carroll has been inspiring students for over 20 years.
  • With an ability to create poetry at the drop of a noun, Toronto’s Greg Frankson is a spoken word artist. Following a career in education in Montreal, Frankson moved to Ottawa where he became a policy analyst for the Federal Government before pursuing a full-time career as a performance artist, emcee, mental health advocate and arts educator.
Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

TV, eh? talks on Canadian television in the Netflix era

From Seevibes:

  • An Expert View — Diane Wild: How will Canada survive the Netflix era?
    Our guest for this edition of “An expert view” is Diane Wild, editor of the site TV eh? – the best site for information about the Canadian television industry. Not affiliated with any television network, Diane Wild (@deekayw) gives an objective view of the evolution of television production in Canada, its relationship with social media and the major challenges facing it in the coming years. Read more.
Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

APTN developing Mohawk Girls

From a media release: 

APTN greenlights development of comedy series Mohawk Girls 

Rezolution Pictures, the 2011 Peabody Award-winning company that brought Reel Injun to worldwide audiences, is pleased to annouce that APTN has greenlit the development of the first season of Mohawk Girls.

Mohawk Girls is a half hour dramatic comedy about four sexy twenty-somethings trying to figure out what it means to be a modern day Mohawk woman. But with their parents, friends, community, and even the garbage man having an opinion, it’s an impossible task.Created and directed by Gemini Award winner Tracey Deer, Mohawk Girls will be executive produced by Tracey Deer and Cynthia Knight, the series showrunner.

Executive producers and producers for Rezolution Pictures are Catherine Bainbridge, Christina Fon, Linda Ludwick and Ernest Webb.“From the creator to the cast, this series represents a new wave in Aboriginal talent,” says Bainbridge, who is confident that the series has universal appeal: “The series is about dealing with cultural obligations, social pressures, and deciding who you want to be as an adult. Those issues resonate with people from every ethnicity and background.”

The Mohawk Girls cast features Kaniehtiio Horn (18 to Life, The Trotsky), Kyle Nobess (Todd And The Book Of Pure Evil, Cashing In), Rachelle White Wind (Moccasin Flats, Elijah). Also featured are veteran actor Glen Gould (Cashing In, Da Vinci’s City Hall), Ashley Michaels (Tornado Valley, North of 60), and newcomers Brittany LeBorgne, Heather White and Maika Harper.

 The pilot for Mohawk Girls, shot in 2010, was selected during the 2010 Cannes Film Festival to be a finalist in the first-ever International Pilots Competition at the Banff World Television Festival. It is the second acclaimed comedy from Rezolution Pictures, which won the 2008 CFTPA Indie Award for Best Comedy Series for Moose TV, starring Adam Beach, Nathaniel Arcand, Jennifer Podemski, and directed by Tim Southam.

Mohawk Girls was inspired by Tracey Deer’s 2005 feature-length documentary of the same name, about the trials and tribulations of three teenage girls growing up on the Mohawk reserve of Kahnawake. This Rezolution Pictures/NFB co-produced film received the Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Honours for Tracey Deer also include the Gemini Award for best writing and the Canada Award for her 2008 Rezolution Pictures/NFB documentary Club Native.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

New tonight: Republic of Doyle, Gastown Gamble, Blackstone

Republic of Doyle, CBC – “High School Confidential”
Jake Doyle is forced to help his high school nemesis track down missing money and win back the heart of his estranged wife; Des must decide between Chandra and Tinny once and for all; Rose and Kathleen take a step forward in their friendship. Guest Stars: Luke Kirby, Natalie Brown, Kevin Jubinville, and Ron Lea.

Gastown Gamble, OWN Canada – “Strip clubs, Mini-burgers, and Dishwashers, oh my!”
Mark and the gang scavenge an old strip club to find a new kitchen. The boys balk when Nico decides to give away 200 mini-burgers, and the diner’s new bar service leads to drama in the dish pit.

Blackstone, APTN
No episode description available.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Sext up Kids airs Thursday on CBC’s Doc Zone

From a media release:

Sext up KIDS

The powder keg that is porn culture has exploded in the lives of North American children. The often-devastating consequences are explored in the new film Sext up KIDS, premiering Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 9 pm on CBC’s main network documentary showcase, “Doc Zone”. Directed by award winning documentary filmmaker, Maureen Palmer (Leaving Bountiful, How to Divorce & Not Wreck the Kids), Sext up KIDS is produced by Rick LeGuerrier and Timothy M. Hogan of Dream Street Pictures (Canada Russia ’72, Sticks and Stones).

From tiny tots strutting bikini-clad bodies in beauty pageants to companies marketing itty-bitty thongs and padded bras to 9-year olds, images of ever-younger sexualized girls have become commonplace. Add to that: ever-younger boys with 24-7 access to hard-core internet porn. It saturates their lives – from skate parks to the school bus – by the time they turn eighteen, 80 percent of boys have watched on-line porn. Toss social media into the mix and kids can not only consume X-rated images, but can also now produce them. ‘Sexting’ has become a Grade 7 right of passage.

Sext up KIDS exposes how growing up in a hyper-sexualized culture hurts our kids. Teens and pre-teens show, and tell what they are doing and why they are doing it. Experts reveal startling new research, tracking how the pressure to be sexy is changing teen and sexual behavior in alarming ways, as “anal becomes the new oral.” Parents and educators struggle to help kids navigate puberty in a world where the line between pop culture and porn culture is increasingly blurred. For every parent who thinks, “that’s not my son or daughter,” Sext up KIDS is your wake up call.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail