Gold Medal Hosting: We are pleased that the jury at Worldfest Houston, awarded Canadian historian John Goldi the Gold Medal in "Individual On-camera Talent" for his 27 Boer War battlefield "performances" during "The Great Anglo-Boer War: The Canadian Experience." He came out from behind the camera for the first time in his career to help bring the story to life for viewers. His Gold Medal was won in a competition featuring professional celebrity hosts, including Mary Hart, long-time anchor of Entertainment Tonight. It was one of four Gold Medals he and his wife won for this production.

Innovations: Experts as hosts, on location .....

Boer War director John Goldi set out to improve how experts are usually used in history documentaries:

1) He included an unprecedented number of contributions from "experts on location" in a history documentary: 15 expert/hosts giving 104 presentations at 83 different actual historic locations.

2) All his experts give "performances," not interviews.

3) All deliver straight to the camera - the audience.

4) This results in a gripping "multi-host" technique as a succession of men and women experts guide the viewer through real historic events at the places they actually happened.

Above, historian John Goldi explains - by the blocks where the British guns stood at Colenso - how amidst a fire storm of lead that swept this place, brave British soldiers won 7 Victoria Crosses.

Left, at a remote ruin, historian Pieter de Jaeger points to a sad relic of war from a century ago, as he passionately describes the scene that took place here, as British soldiers evicted weeping Boer women and children, before blowing up and burning their family home and its possessions.

To get experts on the locations he wanted, John Goldi drove some hundreds of kilometers. Below left Susan Botha shows and explains the various relics of war found at her farm, John Snyman explains, on the spot, how British General Woodgate was shot during the disaster on top of remote Spion Kop, and historian Pam MacFadden explains how General Penn Symons fell - by the memorial cairn, from shots fired from the top of Talana Hill behind her - during the opening battle of the Boer War.

All experts rose magnificently to the cajoling of director/cameraman John Goldi, and "performed" enthusiastically, straight to the lens - the audience.

 

 

 

Our Photographer, Cinematographer John Goldi csc

Cover Photo (left): by John Goldi csc**. A red-throated loon on an arctic tundra pond (King William Island, NWT, Canada) in June, at 11 pm, shot from 10 feet away by approaching in chest waders, after working with the bird from a blind for three days. 
At work where the Klondike enters the Yukon at Dawson, YT
Cape St. Mary's lighthouse, NF.

John Goldi csc, has successfully combined highly developed skills rarely found in the same photographer: high quality nature photography (ex. right, the nerd bird), and outstanding people photography.

He has been the director and cameraman of all our programs over the last 23 years, the sound and picture editor of most of them, and the supervising editor on the rest. He has won 128 international career awards and honours for his work in film and television production.

He has been a juror judging excellence in cinematography for the Canadian Society of Cinematography's annual "CSC Awards," and for the "Genie Awards" which reward excellence in Canada's feature film industry.

**The CSC News is the professional journal of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, the professional organization of the film and television cameramen of Canada.
(The 'csc' designation is the top honour bestowed by the Canadian Society of Cinematography, "for outstanding achievement as a cinematographer".)

The Nerd bird, the only 12-string kite in the world.
Semi-palmated Plover on eggs. (King William Island, NWT).
Caught watching unbelievable kites at Montreal's Kite Festival.
In the company of Mr. & Mrs. Sabine Gull.
(Victoria Island, NWT).
RARE: Probably the only picture in the world of a Northern Flicker, with its eggs on the ground. Like all woodpeckers, it usually nests in holes in trees.
(Great Slave Lake, NWT).

JOHN GOLDI csc, Awarded SILVER PLAQUE
at the Chicago International Television Festival
for
"Special Achievement in Cinematography"

Fellow Cinematography Medal Winners in this prestigious category were "The Dragons of Galapagos" by ABC Television's Natural History Unit (of "America's Edens" fame) and "A Footprint on Everest". 

John Goldi shot his images at Kortright, Ontario, and Verdun, Quebec. He won Silver for his work in "Go Fly A Kite", showcasing people of all ages as they explore the world of kiting in Canada.

(A few months earlier he had been awarded a "Special Jury Award of Merit for Videography", at the North American Outdoor Writers of America Film & Television Festival, in State College, PA. where programs he had directed, shot, and edited, also won both the Gold and the Silver Awards.)

Historian: John Goldi is also a trained historian. In the "The Great Anglo-Boer War: The Canadian Experience," his latest television series, he decided, for the first time in his career, to go in front of the camera to help "bring alive" the story for television audiences.

Right, he explains the battle at the train wreck site where Winston Churchill rallied the British whose troop train was blown up by the Boers, before finally being overcome and taken off to jail. Churchill's subsequent escape made him world famous.


NEWS
FLASH
1999

 

Goldi Productions wins  4 Medals at
Houston Worldfest International Television Festival*

Gold Star Plaque for "The Field Behind the Plow"
Gold Star Plaque for "A Whale of a Tail"
Silver Star Plaque for "Sailing into the Past"
Bronze Plaque for "The Magic of Winter"
Fourth Place/Finalist for "Ho for the Klondike!"
& "The Saskatchewan Will Never Die"

J. Hunter Todd, President, Worldfest: "You people sure do fine work, very fine work. In a tough field of 53 entries two of your shows won medals. Congratulations!"

*With a repeat of last year's 4 Medals, we are again, the top Canadian documentary medal winner at Houston (out of 51 Canadian producers & broadcasters who participated).

Joan Goldi was honoured with more awards than any other producer at the festival
(out of 1100 entrants who submitted 4000 programs.)

NEWS
FLASH
1999

"TWO NEMN SILVER APPLES"
in Oakland, California
for
"Wilderness Playground" & "Ho for the Klondike"
With "double" Apples in three successive years, Joan Goldi is, for the third time, the top Canadian documentary award winner, at the world's largest and most prestigious educational film & television festival
(the National Educational Media Network Apple Awards).

NEWS
FLASH
1999

Missoula, Montana, International Wild Life Festival
Honours Goldi Productions with "Special Award of Merit"
for Publicizing Watchable Wild Life
for "Spring Fever"

"An awesome educational film ..... I wish more films were as educational as this one." Festival Juror, Missoula, MT


A Phenomenal Achievement !!!


Certainly We're Proud of Joan Goldi,
International Award-Winning Producer for Goldi Productions
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During 1997-1999 Joan Goldi won
an unheard-of 88 international film & television awards, 
(including 29 Gold & Silver Plaques** in just over a year)
for her
"hard core" Canadian documentary
cable television programs,
 and was the 
Top Festival Award Winner 
(the most awards won by a producer) 
at 8 major American international film & TV festivals
and the 
Top Canadian Award Winner  
at 6 others,
in competition with the best mega-budget programs
from leading producers and broadcasters around the world. 


**Not to mention 31 Bronze Awards.

"Kurtis - Good at Crime, Burns is History, Suzuki, a Naturist ..., Joan Goldi is ..."


We're especially pleased that hundreds of expert American jurors - picked by festivals to reflect expertise across the entire field of television communication - recognized that Joan Goldi had an unusual ability, to depart from the normal convention of specializing in only one type of documentary, and to create outstanding programs in subject areas requiring competence in a wide range of disciplines.

Bringing the Past Alive with Yukon Quest: To show the world that history shows don't have to be dull, uninspired, and boring, but can be shot on location with verve and zest, Joan Goldi created "Ho for the Klondike" in 1997, and showcased a new approach in the making of history programs.

She documented an enthusiastic group of men and women re-enacting the "Trail of 98", the historic route taken by the gold-seekers in 1898, 1,000 miles from Skagway Alaska, across the Chilkoot Trail, and down the Yukon River to the gold strike at Dawson, Yukon.

"Ho for the Klondike" won 6 international medals: 3 Gold, 1 Silver & 2 Bronze.


Festival jurors across the United States applauded her ability by repeatedly selecting her programs for their top honours in competition categories as widely diverse as:

documentary - nature & wildlife - ethnic & cultural - oceanography
science, research & technology - geography & transportation
television sports - travel documentary - underwater & marine sciences
leisure & recreation - safety - conservation & energy
Suzuki had One, CBC Witness had One, discovery had One: At the world's largest science documentary festival, hosted by the French Service of the CBC, in Montreal, PQ, Joan Goldi was the only English-language producer (out of 27 from around the world) to have TWO programs "Selected for Show."
Safety First: Safety films that Joan Goldi created, have been credited with saving countless lives all over North America. Thousands of copies are in daily use by schools, industry, the RCMP, and the Canadian Armed Forces. The Canadian Coast Guard reports that there is not a school child in Canada's Maritime Provinces who has not seen her internationally acclaimed film "Cold Water: the Silent Killer."

Joan Goldi's expertise at crafting superior informational programs has been repeatedly sought out by Parks Canada, Justice Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Department of National Defence, and Mines, Energy, & Resources.


Educational Producer: Joan Goldi is the only Canadian producer to have won "double Apples" three years in a row at the world's most prestigious educational film & television festival in Oakland, CA.
Rare Honour: In 1998 Joan Goldi was awarded the second highest number of points of excellence by a committee judging submissions from the top 65 Ontario film and television production companies applying to be among 6 finalists selected to make programs for Canadian Government departments.


And flouting the usual custom in the industry, of sending a sure award-winner to all the festivals, she sent in many of her shows to competitions, in the end 
winning major awards for 17 different programs and for 66% of the shows in her cable television series.
Double Whammy !!!


At the Outdoor Writers of America Association
Film & Video Festival, (State College, PA) where Canadian participants included the NFB, Great Canadian Parks, KEG Productions, and
the CBC (which sent 7 shows),

Joan Goldi won both  

the Gold (Four Star) and 

the Silver (Three Star) Medals.


It's the first time, astonished organizers reported,
that the same producer
has won both top prizes
in the 40 years the festival has run ......

And she did it again.... and again.....
At three different American international television festivals,
three of her Silver Medals lost out to three of her Golds, competing against one another
- and an international line-up of documentaries - in the same category. 

And she did it all with 100% hard-core Canadian, non-tabloid type programs.

It is a phenomenal achievement for
a Canadian documentary producer
which will probably never be equalled.

And far from only being the usual "administrative" producer - who sends out crews to do the location work - she was one-half of the "hands-on," two-person shooting crew that travelled the length and breadth of Canada, and shot the entire 26 award-winning episodes.

"You are a source of pride to your country and your accomplishments will serve as inspiration to your peers and all Canadians."

-letter from the Rt. Hon. Sheila Copps,
Canadian Minister of Heritage 
Joan Goldi hard at work, to make sure the cameraman is doing his job:

"KEEPING CANADIANS IN TOUCH WITH CANADA"
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