Fully funded by the OMNI Independent Producers Initiative, this innovative series of biographies with a point-of-view pairs Canada’s most distinguished contemporary writers with great Canadians who have shaped our thinking. Released in tandem with Penguin Canada’s collection of books of the same name, Extraordinary Canadians captures the relationship between writer and subject that lies at the heart of the biography process, and probes the distinctive link between the two. As each writer chronicles the life of a Canadian from whom they have drawn inspiration, we will be treated to insights into the lives of both biographer and subject. Pairings compiled and introduced by John Ralston Saul.
Episodes:
Mark Kingwell on Glenn Gould, directed by Adrian Wills
Adrienne Clarkson on Norman Bethune, directed by Karen Cho
Lewis DeSoto on Emily Carr, directed by Joshua Dorsey
Rudy Wiebe on Big Bear, directed by Kenneth Hirsch & Adrian Wills
Margaret McMillan on Stephen Leacock, directed by Tom Puchniak
David Adams Richards on Lord Beaverbrook, directed by Joshua Dorsey
Charlotte Gray on Nellie McClung, directed by Karen Cho
Andrew Cohen on Lester B. Pearson, directed by Karen Cho
Jane Urquhart on Lucy Maud Montgomery, directed by Helene Klodawsky
M.G. Vassanji on Mordecai Richler, directed by Lewis Cohen
Nino Ricci on Pierre Elliott Trudeau, directed by Helene Klodawsky
John Ralston Saul on Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine & Robert Baldwin, directed by Kenneth Hirsch
12 x 24 min documentary for TV – Rogers Biography, Citytv and Omni (English/French/Italian/Chinese/Hindi)
Learn more at extraordinarycanadians.tv