Two-Shot: A New Profile Film Industry Series Launches in Manitoba
Merit Motion Pictures has produced an impressive slate of award-winning documentary programs and series. Jensen Carr is currently producing Great Lakes Untamed, a 3 x 1hr natural history series for TVO, Smithsonian US, Terra Mater Factual Studios and ARTE; Everest Dark, a theatrical and 2x1hr documentary for CBC’s documentary Channel and Terra Mater Factual Studios; and Cub Camp, a 6 x 1hr natural history series for Love Nature and Blue Ant Studios. In 2021, MMP produced two US-France co-productions that aired in the US on Earth Day 2021: the Canadian Screen Award-nominated Kingdom of the Polar Bears, a 90 min/2 x 1hr special for National Geographic Channels, Disney+, CBC, France 3, and Terra Mater Factual Studios; Reef Rescue, (winner of the 2020 Jackson Media Awards for Best Conservation Feature) for PBS NOVA, Vulcan, CBC and ARTE. Season 4 of Dr. Keri: Prairie Vet debuted January 21, 2022.
Other career highlights include the feature documentary Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees, which screened to sold-out audiences in cinemas across North America and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Science and Nature Film. Beyond the Spectrum: A Family’s Year Confronting Autism screened in cinemas across Canada on international Autism Awareness Day and was selected for the Audience Favourite award at the Festival Inclus in Barcelona. TuTuMUCH screened in 60 Cineplex theatres across Canada, in Australia, and at film festivals around the world. 40 Years of One Night Stands: The Story of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered at Lincoln Center in New York.
Merit is honoured to have received the inaugural Hot Docs Don Haig Award for producing and the Manitoba Women’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Merit has served on numerous industry boards throughout her career including the Canadian Media Producers Association, the Documentary Organization of Canada and On Screen Manitoba. She is best known for co-chairing the federally appointed Non-Theatrical Task Force with former NFB and Telefilm head, François Macerola.