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13th March 2012

TVO documentary Selected In TVO Doc Studio Contest

TVOAfter compiling more than 3,400 votes, TVO is proud to announce that the winner of its first-ever Doc Studio Contest is Coty Forth’s Emmaline (Lighthouse), which is the story about Emmaline Madigan, the last lighthouse keeper of Point Au Baril in Ontario. At 17, Emmaline married the lighthouse keeper, and moved into the lighthouse, where they would raise their six kids. After her husband’s death, she took over his duties and became the new keeper. Evicted in 1993, as new technology made her job obsolete, her desire to maintain her life in the lighthouse remained and so did her fighting spirit.

Coty’s love for film began in a Parry Sound high school class. After a short career in the army, and with the input and thought from friends and family, Coty started to see film as an art form that could help change the lives of people. This new outlook on filmmaking lead him to Sheridan College’s Media Arts 3-year program in which Coty is currently in his second year.

“The TVO voting public has spoken,” says TVO’s commissioning editor, Jane Jankovic. “From a short list of five talented and creative individuals, we are proud to announce that Coty Forth’s Emmaline (Lighthouse) was selected as the winner of our first Doc Studio Contest. All our finalists featured characters that helped open viewers to other worlds, which is exactly what we hoped for. TVO is proud to celebrate filmmakers like Coty, and all our contest entrants, who felt compelled to share their stories with Canadians. There’s a lot of talent and heart out there.”

Emmaline will be aired on TVO in the spring and Forth will receive a mentoring session with Alan Zweig as well as an industry pass to the 2012 International Hot Docs Festival.

As part of the contest, TVO received more than 80 five-minute films from accomplished, aspiring and amateur filmmakers across Canada. Taking inspiration from Zweig, (Vinyl, I Curmudgeon, Lovable, A Hard Name), TVO’s Doc Studio Contest required participants to reveal their vision of “Life in 5” – a memorable moment, a shift in perception, a secret no one else could uncover – through an interview-based, five-minute film.

Five finalists were chosen for distinguishing themselves for their cinematic skills and ability to convey an issue or reveal something about the selected subject in five minutes or less. Highly compelling and relatable, audiences then had the opportunity to view these films and vote for their favourite online.

TVO created Doc Studio to provide a platform for Canadian documentary filmmaking talent, in-development projects, exclusive interviews and online mentoring. The Doc Studio Contest was developed to support and encourage emerging film talent in Ontario.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 at 10:17 am and is filed under Contests, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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