Manufactured Landscapes, a feature documentary about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky, was a co-production between Mercury Films, Foundry Films and the National Film Board. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2006 and won Best Canadian Feature Film, and has since received a number of other awards, notably a Genie for Best Documentary, Al Gore’s Reel Current Award and the 2006 Toronto Film Critics’ Award for Best Canadian Feature and Best Documentary 2006. It played theatrically in over 15 territories worldwide, after a prolonged and successful run in Canada.
Act of God, a feature documentary on the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning and another collaboration between Mercury and Foundry, opened the Hot Docs Film Festival in April 2009 and was released in Canada afterwards by Mongrel Media. It has since played at a number of international festivals, and was released by Zeitgeist Films in the U.S. and Against Gravity in Poland. The film features Paul Auster, Dannion Brinkley and Fred Frith. It was commissioned by The Documentary Channel in Canada, Arte in France and Channel 4 in the U.K.
Baichwal is currently in production on Margaret Atwood’s Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth with the National Film Board of Canada and Ravida Din (Executive Producer, Quebec Production Centre). She lives in Toronto with her husband, Nick de Pencier, and their two children.
NICHOLAS de PENCIER (Co-Director / Producer)
Nicholas de Pencier is a director, producer, and director of photography working in documentary, performing arts, and dramatic film. He is President of Mercury Films Inc., the Toronto based production company he shares with his partner, Jennifer Baichwal.
De Pencier was a producer resident in the Canadian Film Centre's 1997 Producers’ Lab, and produced one of four Short Dramatic Films, Co/d Feet, which was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, among others. He then produced Jim Allodi's feature film The Uncles, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2000, was picked up for distribution in Canada by Odeon Films, and named one of year's top ten Canadian films by the Toronto International Film Festival Group.
As a cinematographer, de Pencier regularly shoots factual TV series, modern dance, rock videos (Gord Downie, Skydiggers, Bob Wiseman), and documentaries. He has also directed, produced and photographed eight modern dance performance films which have received national and international broadcasts and won awards at Canadian and international festivals. His performance film Streetcar, was nominated in 2004 for a Performing Arts Best Direction Gemini; the film's choreographer and lead, Peter Chin, won for Best Performance in a Performing Arts Program or Documentary. It was also nominated for a Banff Rockie Award.
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