ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

JERRY CICCORITTI (Director) -- One of Canada’s most provocative and in-demand directors, Jerry Ciccoritti has directed feature films, television movies, and mini-series, and garnered accolades in all mediums over the course of his career. His features have consistently been invited to film festivals throughout the world and, for television, he has been awarded a Gemini for Best Film, seven Gemini Awards for Best Director, two Directors Guild of Canada Awards and a Genie nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

A second-generation Italian-Canadian, Ciccoritti has always made telling Canadian stories, particularly stories that reflect issues of the immigrant experience in Canada, a career priority. He has directed biographies of some of our most influential and inspiring citizens, including the critically acclaimed Trudeau mini-series: with Trudeau, Ciccoritti made exciting and dynamic television about a Canadian for Canadians, and changed the face of home-grown television in the process. In the recent past he directed the adaptation of the beloved novel Lives of the Saints, recounting the personal story of an Italian family that immigrated to Canada; the harrowing true story of a woman’s fight for justice in The Many Trials of One Jane Doe; a true account of the murder of Nancy Eaton; and, most recently for CBC, the emotional bio-pic Shania Twain: A Life in Eight Albums.

Ciccoritti first began working in film in his 20’s, writing and directing low-budget indie horror films including Psycho Girls and Graveyard Shift I and II establishing himself as a genre cult figure.

Ciccoritti turned his hand to television in the early 90’s, where he quickly earned critical acclaim and awards working on projects including The Hitchhiker, La Femme Nikita, CatWalk, Due South, and the groundbreaking mini-series Straight Up I and II. It was his work on television movies, however, that brought him the greatest degree of recognition. Ciccoritti was awarded Gemini Awards for Best Direction for Net Worth (1997), Chasing Cain I: Vows (2001), and for both Trudeau (2002) and The Many Trials of One Jane Doe (2003).

While honing his distinctive style in television, Ciccoritti continued making feature films such as the controversial, Paris, France (1993), a box-office hit and included in the collection “The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time.” His 1999 feature The Life Before This was selected for the Toronto and Berlin film festivals and earned Catherine O’Hara a Genie Award as Best Supporting Actress. Boy Meets Girl (1998), which also premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, was named Best Film at the Cologne Film Festival.

In 2004 Ciccoritti brought a very personal film, Blood, adapted from the stage play of the same name, to the Toronto International Film Festival. A highly experimental work that challenges notions of singular perception and truth, Blood became a festival favourite, won him a Genie nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and, most recently won him a Director’s Guild of Canada award nomination for Best Achievement in Direction for a feature film.

Alongside his nomination for Blood, Ciccoritti has also been nominated by the Directors Guild for Best Achievement in Direction in the TV movie/mini-series category, for Lives of the Saints. It is the first time Ciccoritti has been nominated for television and feature film simultaneously; a very fitting acknowledgement for a man who has worked so fluidly in both mediums.

His most recent TV movies include CBC’s Shania: a Life in Eight Chapters, and CTV’s Murder in the Hamptons, which broadcast to record numbers in the US last July.




IAN WEIR (Writer, Executive Producer) is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright and novelist. Prior to Dragon Boys, he was creator and executive producer of the long-running CBC teen drama Edgemont. Other TV credits include more than 100 episodes for nearly two dozen series, ranging from Nothing Too Good For a Cowboy, Cold Squad and Odyssey to ReBoot, Beachcombers and One Life to Live.
Weir's stage plays, which include St. George, Bloody Business and The Idler, have been produced across Canada, as well as in the U.S. and England. Other credits include nine radio plays (three produced by the BBC, and six by the CBC) and three young adult novels. Current screen projects include Troll, a raucous comic mini-series about Death and a never-quite-made-it rock ‘n’ roller, and Reflections of Eden, the Birute Galdikas story. Ian Weir lives in Langley, British Columbia, with his wife Jude and their daughter Amy.




MICHAEL CHECHIK (Executive Producer) has been an independent producer of documentaries, television series and dramatic productions since 1975. Chechik started his career by making environmental films including the award winning Greenpeace - Voyages To Save The Whales. He then executive produced the children's fantasy/adventure television series The Odyssey for CBC. This series has aired in over 60 countries, was nominated for an International Emmy Award and has won numerous awards, including a Gemini for Best Youth Program. Chechik’s work has included several factual television series including Quiet Places, Ancient Clues, and two full commissions for Animal Planet U.S., Spidermania and The Man Who Would Be Moose. He was executive producer and creator of Champions of the Wild for Discovery Canada, a 65-part natural history series filmed world-wide featuring experts in animal research and protection.

More recently, Chechik was the executive producer of 70 episodes of the popular teen drama Edgemont for the CBC, as well as the first season of the hit adult comedy series for CTV, Robson Arms. Other recent productions include the 26-episode high-definition yoga series Namaste and Cantata for the King, an innovative performing arts special for CBC.

Chechik is president of Omni Film Productions, a versatile, growing Vancouver company with a reputation for quality and integrity.