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Television Production

  Goldi Productions Ltd.

"KEEPING CANADIANS IN TOUCH WITH CANADA"

                            
 

"We've heard from New York, Houston, Flagstaff, San Francisco, Chicago ...."
In 1999, Joan Goldi established an astonishing record of winning 88 major international awards for her television work (including an amazing 29 international Gold and Silver medals - plus 31 Bronze), during an eighteen month period, at major American film and television festivals - all with "hard core" all Canadian productions. It is an achievement which will probably never be surpassed.

To date Goldi Productions has won 128 international film and television awards for its Canada specific productions.
"And from Ottawa ...."
" ..... warmest congratulations on the success of your Canadian television series. The episodes won the hearts of Canadians from coast-to-coast, and the numerous prestigious awards that you received were deserving of two such innovative and talented Canadians. Your dedication to ensuring that the people of Canada have access to their stories and talent is to be commended, and the Department of Canadian Heritage is proud to have participated in funding an initiative that will continue to be accessible to Canadians through schools, libraries, and public institutions.

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

(from the Honourable Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage)

"Now we'd love to hear from you ..."

GOLDI PRODUCTIONS LTD.

Proud Producers of
Multi-International Award-Winning
Canadian Television Series
Paardeberg: Canadian historian John Goldi explains the disaster that occurred at this remote South African field during the Boer War, in the shadow of Paardeberg Hill in the background. Here, on "Bloody Sunday," Feb. 18, 1900, 21 Canadians died in a wild charge on the Boer trenches. It was Canada's worst military disaster in almost a hundred years.

Proud Producers of
"The Great Anglo-Boer War: The Canadian Experience"
for Alliance-Atlantis

 
In 2002 we released "The Great Anglo-Boer War: The Canadian Experience," a four-hour series on Canada's first ever military participation in an overseas war, during the Boer War of 1899-1902. It is the first time this story had ever been shown on television.

The television series was accompanied by "The Canadian Anglo-Boer War Museum," the most extensive and lavish website ever created to accompany a documentary program anywhere in the world. (See Museum)

Canada Millennium Project: Our initiative was one of the rare television projects selected by the Government of Canada as a Millennium Partnership Program.
(See: The Project)

Innovation: We created an innovative television program that departed in numerous ways from the way that conventional history documentaries have generally been made.
(See Innovations)

Special Jury Gold for Creative Excellence: (left). We are pleased that the jury at Worldfest Houston, the world's largest competitive television festival, recognized our innovative approach by awarding our program two rare "Festival "Super Awards," the "Gold Special Jury Award for Creative Excellence" one for "Best Television Documentary Series" and one for "Best History & Archaeology Program."

Wrote Worldfest Houston President J. Hunter Todd:

"Congratulations! We are delighted to report that "The Great Anglo-Boer War" in it's various incantations, was awarded the coveted GOLD SPECIAL JURY REMI AWARD for "Creative Excellence," TWICE, in the "Best Television Series" category, and in the "Best History & Archaeology Program" category. This is the highest award our festival offers. (left)

"You also got GOLD REMIS in the "Best News & Documentary Writing" category and in the "Best On-Camera Talent" for John Goldi. Outrageous! 4 GOLD REMIS!!!.... Very well done. The Jury really loved your Boer War programs."
Made In Canada: Joan Goldi and John Goldi csc, are most gratified that a series, for which they did all the research and writing, were the entire shooting crew (locations and archivals), and did all the off and online picture, sound, music, and FX editing, has been repeatedly honoured at top American international television festival competitions.

"KEEPING CANADIANS IN TOUCH WITH CANADA"
We are most pleased that "The Great Anglo-Boer War: The Canadian Experience" was the "most honoured" program at Houston Worldfest, winning more awards than any other of the 4,500 entries submitted by some 1,200 producers, from over 40 countries.

We are pleased that Joan Goldi has the distinction of winning more awards for Canada specific documentary productions than any of the 1200 other producers who submitted programs to Worldfest.

We are proud to have created History Television's most honoured program at Worldfest and to have - as Canadians - set such an "outrageous" benchmark for excellence in international competition: Four Golds - best series, best program, and two Gold craft awards - all for the same show. And to have done it all with programs that feature the people, places, & events of Canadian history, part of our life-long passion of

"KEEPING CANADIANS IN TOUCH WITH CANADA"

Proud Producers of "Outdoor Adventure Canada"
for Alliance-Atlantis

This series of non-tabloid, hard-core Canadian documentaries, won universal acclaim, for its great action photography - featuring Canadians exploring their heritage - and for the captivating skill with which it was interlaced with many high energy interview clips of enthusiasts caught in the throes of their passions for Canada and its heritage. 

During 1996-98 Goldi Productions produced "Outdoor Adventure Canada" for Atlantis Broadcasting, a cable television series of 26 entirely Canadian documentary programs celebrating the people and historical heritage of Canada.
(See: Programs)

The series:
- won enviable cable channel television ratings, (many over 150,000 and seven over 200,000). In its second showing - its first repeat cycle - "A Whale of a Tail" won 237,000 viewers - an enormous ratings coup for a cable channel - and was Atlantis Broadcasting's highest rated show.

- received outstanding viewer mail,

- introduced a new style of documentary editing, which has since been widely imitated, &

- won an astonishing and unprecedented number of international Gold, Silver, & Bronze medals (60 in all during an 18 month period), at American Television Festivals in New York, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, Flagstaff, and Columbus, in competition with the best programs from leading producers and television broadcasters from around the world.
"How wonderful to finally see on my T.V. screen something so worth while watching. I myself am not a big T.V. fan but your shows had me seated and kept me seated. Such a refreshing change to be able to watch shows not only interesting but educational and with ordinary everyday folk instead of some 'Hollywood type' show full of actors and fake scenery."
Carolann Williams, Hope, BC

Proud Producers of
"Bruce/Fathom Five" for The Discovery Channel
In 1995 we produced one of the five pilot programs which The Discovery Channel commissioned for "Great Canadian Parks."

The show was a challenge for us in several ways - in fact the toughest assignment of our career - and a supreme test of our ability to innovate:

- 1 - Our one-hour pilot was the last to be commissioned - only a few months before delivery.

- 2 - We set out to do the research for our program while all the other pilots had already all been shot, during the optimum season for their parks, and were in the advanced stages of editing.

- 3 - We set out to compete against programs shot in the spectacular Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Rim, with a one-hour film shot, on a flatland Ontario park where we had never shot before, and had no backup footage to use.

We had to shoot all the footage fresh, including that for an underwater park (Fathom 5) where it was still far too cold for anyone to go diving.
- 4 - We set out to shoot a major program, to the most urgent of deadlines, in the dead of winter and early spring, when there is nobody in the Park to film at all, and when there are no flowers , the birds haven't come back, and the animals are hibernating.
Epilogue: We persevered against all obstacles. We were forced to sleuth out and literally "bring in" all our people from Toronto, including hikers, divers, and experts, so we had somebody to shoot.

We were most pleased, that though coming from behind - and with a broadcast date on the long weekend in July, when everyone is at the cottage to get as far away from televisions as possible - our ratings were only exceeded by the two programs shot in Canada's spectacular Rocky Mountains, and were significantly higher than those of the other pilots.


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

 

 

Now it's 29 Gold & Silver Medals for
"Outdoor Adventure Canada"

Enthused an Atlantis Executive: "Congratulations! That's far more Gold & Silver than from all our 100 plus other series combined!"

"My Land is My Life"

The Film: This one-hour film was made to counter the European anti-fur trade lobby which was trying to demonize the traditional lifestyle of Canada's First Nations peoples.

The Execution: We designed "My Land is My Life" as a low-key look into the ordinary life of the Dene people. During all four seasons, we travelled to different Dene camps in remote areas all over the North West Territories, for a week at a time, recording how the family life of most people still depended heavily on the land.

The film is narrated by Canada's finest and most sensitive narrative voice, Linden Macintyre (right), of the CBC's Fifth Estate.
Passionate advocates for their people - like current Premier of the Northwest Territories Stephen Kakfwi below left - speaking directly to the camera, punctuated a film of beautiful scenic photography. (Below right) Outside, the 35 below zero deep freeze of a remote sub-arctic Dene tent camp; inside the warmth of a Dene family lighting the lamp as the darkness falls at 2:30 pm.
Awards: "My Land" won the Golden Sheaf at the Yorkton International Film and Video Festival, Canada's oldest. Said one Quebecoise, a judge at Yorkton, "You certainly put a lot of love into this film." It also won a Bronze Medal in "Ethnic & Cultural" at the Houston International Film & Television Festival (behind a National Geographic Silver, and a PBS Hawaii Gold).

It was premiered on Parliament Hill and before the European Parliament.

The Secretary of State made it into Canada's first CD Rom Interactive and the center piece of its "Bravo Canada" travelling trailer display, and installed it in the British Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
("Wow! You should see it! It's spectacular!" reported a Secretary of State Executive.)

Honours: The Department of External Affairs - which rarely acquires films from the private sector - placed film copies in Canadian Embassies around the world.

During a week of viewing, at Banff, AB, "My Land" was voted "Third Best" of the "Top Hundred Most Highly Recommended Videos" selected by 400 media professionals from Western Canada, from among thousands of new programs showcased by 32 international film and video distributors.

Epilogue: "My Land" has been broadcast across Canada and in Europe and can be found in libraries and schools all over Canada and the US, informing audiences around the globe about the close ties that link Canada's First Nations people to the land.