DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS JOIN WORLD CONGRESS OF HISTORY PRODUCERS LINEUP
|
| 2006-08-03 - Toronto, Ontario (Canada) |
The World Congress of History Producers has announced its initial slate of speakers and presenters for the celebrated event this fall. Organizers have confirmed the participation of four leading producers in the history and documentary genre, including Sir Jeremy Isaacs (“The World at War”), Peter Snow (“Battlefield Britain”), Alexandre Trudeau (“Embedded in Baghdad”) and Richard Gizbert (Al Jazeera). Each will offer distinctive insight and expertise through a series of Q&As and panel discussions at the November 16-19 event.
“We are incredibly honoured to include such a distinguished and talented group of producers and creators in this year’s lineup,” said WCHP Executive Producer, Craig Thompson. “The History Congress has always been about the unique perspectives of history, and this lineup of guests will be sure to offer insightful and inspiring views.”
Sir Jeremy Isaacs, the British arts and media veteran and winner of many BAFTA and International Emmys, will be participating in the exclusive and popular “In Conversation With” series. In these special one-hour forums, speakers are interviewed one-on-one in front of the audience. The informal conversations draw unique insights from participants and are among the most popular with delegates. In addition, renowned broadcaster Peter Snow (along with his television presenter son, Dan Snow) will lead “The Great Debate: Producers vs Academics.” Accomplished filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau and journalist Richard Gizbert will discuss their experiences as war zone filmmakers in the session “The Dangers of Covering History in the Making,” at the London, England event.
Full biographies on these participants follows this release.
Highlights of this year's History Congress include: Broadcaster Briefings, where international broadcasters will lay out the specifics of what they are looking for in television content, exclusive face-to-face meetings and informal pitching sessions with Commissioning Editors from around the world, and a wealth of deal-making, co-production and financing business opportunities for producers, creators and broadcasters.
The Congress, taking place this year in London, England, is the pre-eminent international event for broadcasters, content creators, producers and other industry stakeholders in history and biography television and an annual opportunity for key players in the industry to come together to share ideas, debate the issues and explore the trends and best practices of this particular genre of television programming.
The World Congress of History Producers is produced annually by Achilles Media Ltd., with the support of top international players in history and biography programming. Its Board of Directors is international in scope and represents the crème de la crème of producers and broadcasters in the genre.
For complete details and to register go to www.history2006.com.
About Achilles Media Ltd.
Achilles Media Ltd. is a management organization for some of the world's leading television and new media industry events including the Banff World Television Festival (June 10-13, 2007), the World Congress of History Producers (November 16-19, 2006) and nextMEDIA—The Future of Digital Content (June 8-10, 2007).
#####
Speaker Biographies
Sir Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Isaacs has spent more than 45 years in television, and has witnessed, and in some cases instigated, the major changes which made it the cultural force that it is today.
He joined Granada Television as a producer in 1958 and worked on programs such as What The Papers Say and, for the BBC, Panorama. Isaacs has produced some of the most significant historical documentaries made for British television, such as The World At War (1975), made in 26 episodes, Ireland: A Television History (1981) and the Cold War (1998).
He continued to make ground-breaking programs, until 1979 when Channel 4 assigned him as its first chief executive. After a period as General Director of the Royal Opera House, Isaacs later made some award-winning documentary series’ with Ted Turner. Isaacs is currently heading Artworld for Sky.
Peter Snow
Peter Snow has had a distinguished career in broadcasting, first as a script writer and reporter, and later as a newscaster and presenter.
Well known for his election and political programming, Snow joined the BBC in 1979, where he was one of the first presenters of “Newsnight” when it began in January 1980, and went on to cover elections and other live political events for the BBC until 2005. He left “Newsnight” to present “Tomorrow’s World” in 1997 and was later involved in a range of BBC programs including the America’s Cup program for BBC sport, “The Abyss” for BBC Natural History, “What the World thinks of America.”
In 2002, he made a program for BBC 2 with his son, Dan, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Alamein, “Battleplan.” This led to them both presenting two further series – “Battlefield Britain,” which aired in 2004, and “20th century Battles,” planned for transmission in 2006/7.
Peter currently presents “Masterteam” on Radio 4, and “Random Edition” – a review of the newspapers from a random day in history. At the Royal Television Society in 1998, he won the Judges’ Award for services to broadcasting. He was awarded the CBE for services to broadcasting and journalism in 2006.
Richard Gizbert
Richard Gizbert currently presents the world media review "Listening Post" for Al Jazeera International out of London, England.
Prior to that, Gizbert joined ABCNews in July 1993 as a correspondent in the London Bureau, reporting abroad on many of the major international stories such as the conflicts in Iraq, and the continuing unrest in the Middle East.
Since 1990, Gizbert has been a correspondent-producer for CJOH-TV in Ottawa, where he produced in-depth features for Sunday Edition, the national current affairs program. Prior to that, Gizbert was CJOH’s parliamentary correspondent for five years, responsible for national political coverage. From 1983 to 1985, Gizbert was a correspondent and political editor for CFTO-TV in Toronto, covering federal politics and co-anchoring special events coverage.
For his reporting of a bus hostage situation on Parliament Hill, Gizbert received the National Award for Breaking News Coverage.
Gizbert is a graduate of Algonquin College in Ontario.
Alexandre Trudeau
Since 1998, Alexandre Trudeau has produced and directed television documentaries for his Montreal-based company, JuJu Films. In his work, he has focused on such issues as the Liberian civil war (“Liberia. The Secret War”), Canadian Aboriginal issues (“The Drum Songs,” “Mohawk Language,” “Inuit Family Life for Culture Shock”), youth and democracy in Yugoslavia (“Belgrade: One Year After”), middle-class Baghdad during the war on Iraq (“Embedded in Baghdad”), the newly-erected security barrier between Israel and the Palestinian territories (“So Close, So Far”/“The Fence”) and, most recently, the detention without charge of Canadian terror suspects (“Secure Freedom”). Alexandre produced a series of radio documentaries for the CBC on the troubled legacy of Canadian peacekeeping (“The Third Chance”). Alexandre writes for “Macleans” magazine and “The Toronto Star.” He is a director on the board of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and of Canada World Youth.
|
|
| For Information: |
Eleanor Berglund
Director, Marketing
+1-416-921-3171 ext. 230
eberglund@achillesmedia.com
|
|
|
|
