Mark Achbar
Encyclopedia
Mark Achbar is a Canadian
filmmaker, best known for directing The Corporation and Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
.
's Fine Arts Film Program. Achbar interned in Hollywood on the children's TV programme Bill Daily's Hocus Pocus Gang, followed by a three year stint in Toronto
with Sunrise Films on their documentary series Spread your Wings and the CBC
/Disney series Danger Bay
. He then teamed up with director Robert Boyd
, and received a Gemini
nomination for Best Writer on The Canadian Conspiracy
, a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments which chronicled Canada’s secret takeover of the USA. It won a Gemini for Best Entertainment Special and was nominated for an International Emmy.
Achbar moved into independent media, working in many capacities on films, videos and books on issues ranging from nuclear lunacy, poverty, and East Timor, to the media, U.S. hegemony and corporate power.
With Peter Wintonick
, Achbar co-directed and co-produced Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
, which was, until the release of The Corporation Canada's all-time, top-grossing feature documentary. Achbar’s companion book to the film hit the national best-seller list in Canada.
Achbar collaborated with editor Jennifer Abbott
to create Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage, a low-budget video diary by the couple known as Canada's first legally married lesbians. This true story of “boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy becomes girl” received festival invitations from around the globe and was broadcast in Canada on Pridevision and the Knowledge Network.
In 1997, Achbar initiated a project titled The Corporation with author and University of British Columbia
law professor Joel Bakan
. Bakan wrote the film and book, while Achbar directed, produced and executive-produced the film. Jennifer Abbott joined the team as editor and co-director in 2000. The documentary compares globalized corporate psychology and practice to formal definitions of psychopathic behaviour, touching on environmental and social issues, as well as historical origins of corporate behaviour.
As associate producer:
As Executive Producer:
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
filmmaker, best known for directing The Corporation and Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media is a documentary film that explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, a linguist, intellectual, and political activist...
.
Biography
Achbar is a graduate of Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
's Fine Arts Film Program. Achbar interned in Hollywood on the children's TV programme Bill Daily's Hocus Pocus Gang, followed by a three year stint in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
with Sunrise Films on their documentary series Spread your Wings and the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
/Disney series Danger Bay
Danger Bay
Danger Bay is a Canadian television series, produced in Vancouver, with first-run episodes broadcast on CBC Television starting October 18, 1984 and the Disney Channel starting October 7, 1985...
. He then teamed up with director Robert Boyd
Robert Boyd
-Noblemen:* Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd , Scottish statesman* Robert Boyd, 4th Lord Boyd , Scottish nobleman, grandson of the 1st Lord Boyd* Robert Boyd, 5th Lord Boyd , Scottish nobleman* Robert Boyd, 7th Lord Boyd...
, and received a Gemini
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
nomination for Best Writer on The Canadian Conspiracy
The Canadian Conspiracy
The Canadian Conspiracy is a 1985 HBO/CBC mockumentary, co-written and directed by Robert Boyd, about the way the Canadian government is subverting the United States by taking over its entertainment industry...
, a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments which chronicled Canada’s secret takeover of the USA. It won a Gemini for Best Entertainment Special and was nominated for an International Emmy.
Achbar moved into independent media, working in many capacities on films, videos and books on issues ranging from nuclear lunacy, poverty, and East Timor, to the media, U.S. hegemony and corporate power.
With Peter Wintonick
Peter Wintonick
Peter Wintonick is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Montreal. A winner of the 2006 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, former Thinker in Residence for the Premier of South Australia, prolific award winning filmmaker, he is one of Canada's best known international...
, Achbar co-directed and co-produced Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media is a documentary film that explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, a linguist, intellectual, and political activist...
, which was, until the release of The Corporation Canada's all-time, top-grossing feature documentary. Achbar’s companion book to the film hit the national best-seller list in Canada.
Achbar collaborated with editor Jennifer Abbott
Jennifer Abbott
Jennifer Abbott is a Canadian director, cinematographer and editor, best known as a documentary maker. Her first feature documentary, A Cow at My Table , explores contemporary Western attitudes to livestock and meat production...
to create Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage, a low-budget video diary by the couple known as Canada's first legally married lesbians. This true story of “boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy becomes girl” received festival invitations from around the globe and was broadcast in Canada on Pridevision and the Knowledge Network.
In 1997, Achbar initiated a project titled The Corporation with author and University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
law professor Joel Bakan
Joel Bakan
Joel Conrad Bakan is a Canadian writer and Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law.Born in Lansing, Michigan and raised for most of his childhood in East Lansing, Michigan where his parents, Paul and Rita Bakan, were both long-time professors in psychology at...
. Bakan wrote the film and book, while Achbar directed, produced and executive-produced the film. Jennifer Abbott joined the team as editor and co-director in 2000. The documentary compares globalized corporate psychology and practice to formal definitions of psychopathic behaviour, touching on environmental and social issues, as well as historical origins of corporate behaviour.
Selected films
As director and producer:- Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the MediaManufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the MediaManufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media is a documentary film that explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, a linguist, intellectual, and political activist...
(1992) - Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (1999)
- The Corporation (2003)
As associate producer:
- Bitter Paradise: The Sell-out of East Timor (1996)
As Executive Producer:
- Denis DelestracDenis DelestracDenis Delestrac is an award-winning documentary filmmaker.-Biography:A law and journalism graduate, Delestrac made his debut in non-fiction filmmaking in 2001 and signed a number of hits including IMAX blockbuster "Mystery of the Nile" and “Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space”, his first...
's PAX AMERICANA and the Weaponization of SpacePax Americana and the Weaponization of SpacePax Americana and the Weaponization of Space is a documentary film by Denis Delestrac with a music score by Amon Tobin. The film deals with the issue of space weapons and their politics, featuring interviews with several key United States military personal, academics such as Noam Chomsky and... - Sam BozzoSam BozzoSam Bozzo is an American film director and author.Bozzo wrote, directed, and edited three short films. For Which It Stands was screened in the Sundance Film Festival. The Shadowed Cry was created as a Top 10 Director assignment for Project Greenlight, run by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck...
s BLUE GOLD: World Water WarsBlue Gold: World Water WarsBlue Gold: World Water Wars is an award-winning 2008 documentary by Sam Bozzo, based on the book Blue Gold: The Right to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke.... - Velcrow Ripper’s FIERCE LIGHT (when spirit meets action)
- Kevin McMahon’s WATERLIFE (The Great Lakes reveal humanity’s thirst for self-destruction)
- Mathieu Roy’s and Harold Crook's SURVIVING PROGRESS (the escalating costs of progress)
- Katherine Dodd's THE FEMBOT MYSTIQUE (a sassy fembot’s take on future robotics)
- Oliver Hockenhull’s A PERFECT PILL: From Neurons to Nirvana (utopian pharmacology)
- Barbara Mainguy’s MODERN MADNESS (defining modern madness)
- Jill Sharpe’s SEX, BREATH AND DEATH (quest for transcendence)
- Fredrik Gertten’s POISON IN A BANANA REPUBLIC (workers sue toxic transnationals)
Awards
- Gemini AwardGemini AwardThe Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
nomination, Best Writer, The Canadian ConspiracyThe Canadian ConspiracyThe Canadian Conspiracy is a 1985 HBO/CBC mockumentary, co-written and directed by Robert Boyd, about the way the Canadian government is subverting the United States by taking over its entertainment industry...
— "a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments."
Awards for The Corporation
- Audience Award, World Cinema, Documentary Sundance Film Festival
- Audience Award Philadelphia International Film Festival
- Audience Award Vancouver International Film Festival
- Audience Award Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
- Audience Award FIC Brasilia International Film Festival
- Audience Award (1st runner-up) Calgary International Film Festival
- Audience Award (1st runner-up) Toronto International Film Festival
- Insight Award for Excellence National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists, USA
- Best Documentary The Genie Awards, 2005
- Genesis Award for Outstanding Documentary Film United States Humane Society
- Audience Award for Best Feature Length Film Ecocinema International Film Festival, Rhodes
- Best Feature Documentary Environmental Media Association Awards
- Reel Room Audience Award for Best Documentary Sydney Film Festival
- Joris Ivens Special Jury Award International Documentary Festival, Amsterdam
- NFB Best Documentary Award Calgary International Film Festival
- Best Feature Length Documentary Ecocinema International Film Festival, Rhodes
- Top Ten Films of the Year Toronto International Film Festival Group
- Best Documentary Program or Series - History/Biography/Social/Political Leo Award
- Best Direction in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
- Best Screenwriting in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
- Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
- Best Overall Sound in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
- Best Sound Editing in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
- Best Documentary (1st runner-up) Seattle International Film Festival
- Special Jury Mention Montreal New Film And Video Festival
Awards for Manufacturing Consent
- Golden Sesterce (Grand Prize) 1992 Visions du RéelVisions du réelVisions du Réel is an international documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current name in 1995....
documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland - Special Mention, FIPRESCI International Press Jury 1992 Visions du RéelVisions du réelVisions du Réel is an international documentary film festival held in April each year in Nyon, Switzerland. Established in 1969 as the Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, the event adopted its current name in 1995....
documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland - Special Mention, Public Jury 1992 Nyon International Documentary Film Festival
- Federal Express Award for Most Popular Canadian Film 1992 Vancouver International Film Festival
- Gold Hugo (Best Social/Political Documentary) 1992 Chicago International Film Festival
- Special Mention, Unanimous Jury Award 1992 Toronto International Festival of Festivals
- Jury Prize for Excellence 1992 Atlantic Film Festival
- Public's "Most Loved" Documentary 1992 Sydney International Film Festival
- Gold Apple 1993 National Educational Film and Video Festival
- Honourable Mention 1993 American Film and Video Festival
- Director's Choice Award 1993 Charlotte Film and Video Festival
- Voted "Best of the Festival" by Public 1993 Edmonton Global Visions Film Festival
- Gold Conch (Grand Prize ex-aqueo) 1994 Bombay International Documentary Film Festival
- Grand Prize- Best Political Documentary 1994 Canadian Documentary Film Festival
Nominations or semi-finalist
- Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
- International Documentary Association Awards
- Blois International Film Festival
- Quinzaine du cinéma québécois
- The Orwell Award
- Best Documentary of the Year - New Internationalist Magazine