PMA Productions Inc.
was founded by Kenneth Hirsch in 2003 with the objective of working with Canada’s most talented creators in the production of first quality film, television, and digital media programming. While the company’s primary focus is high-impact documentaries and documentary series, the company also develops and produces select animated projects, shorts and feature films. Located in Montreal, PMA Productions works closely with its writers and directors to produce entertaining and provocative programming for audiences in Canada and abroad. It has gained a nation-wide reputation for the consistently high quality and prestigious nature of its productions.
PMA is currently in production on The Upside of Superstition, a film that delves into the puzzling and fascinating world of superstition, travelling the globe to explore myriad superstitions, learning about their origins, and above all, discovering what they tell us about ourselves. It will go to broadcast this Fall on CBC Doc Zone.
2011 saw the airing of Extraordinary Canadians, an innovative twelve-part biography series pairing Canada’s eminent writers with great Canadians who have shaped our thinking. Adapted from the book series published by Penguin Canada, each programme presents a personal take on the life of a distinguished Canadian from the perspective of a celebrated contemporary writer. The series launched in five languages on City TV, the Biography Channel, and Omni Television, and features such luminaries as Adrienne Clarkson on Norman Bethune, Nino Ricci on Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and Mark Kingwell on Glenn Gould. It was nominated for
In 2010, PMA released the feature documentary Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague by award-winning filmmaker Jefferson Lewis to critical acclaim and tremendous press coverage. A PMA/NFB/Radio-Canada/Discovery Television co-production, and adapted from Plague: A Story of Smallpox in Montreal, the national bestseller by Michael Bliss, Outbreak juxtaposes a 21st century scenario against the cautionary history of Montreal’s 1885 smallpox epidemic to evoke a modern city under siege from a deadly virus.
Other PMA releases include the animated shorts Moose of La Mancha and The Three Wishes by celebrated Canadian filmmaker Sheldon Cohen, Vengeance by Lanan Adcock, and The Day Before Yesterday directed by Patricia Chica. Currently in development are The Science of Risk, Lolita Diaries, The Juice, Dinner Club and Only Human, as well as Extraordinary Canadians: Season 2.