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Kevin Eastwood

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For the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, see Kevin Eastman. For the basketball coach, see Kevin Eastman (basketball).
Kevin Eastwood
Born
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Alma materEmily Carr University of Art and Design
Occupation(s)Documentary filmmaker, film and television producer
Years active2001–present
SpouseWynn Deschner (2016-present)
Website[1]

Kevin Eastwood is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and film and television producer. He is best known for directing the Knowledge Network series Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH and British Columbia: An Untold History and the CBC Television documentaries Humboldt: The New Season and After the Sirens. His credits as a producer include the movies Fido, Preggoland and The Delicate Art of Parking, the television series The Romeo Section, and the documentaries Haida Modern, Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World and Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson.

Career

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Eastwood started his film career in 2000 at the feature film production company, Anagram Pictures.[1] While at Anagram, he was associate producer on Andrew Currie's first feature, Mile Zero, and co-produced the comedies The Delicate Art of Parking and Fido and was the supervising producer on the CTV movie Elijah, about the life of Canadian Oji-Cree politician, Elijah Harper. He left Anagram in 2008 to be an independent producer and produced his first documentary, Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson directed by Trish Dolman which was released in theatres across Canada by Entertainment One. This started him on a course of alternating producing documentaries like Do You Really Want to Know? directed by John Zaritsky, and Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World directed by Charles Wilkinson, with dramatic projects like Preggoland directed by Jacob Tierney, and The Romeo Section from TV creator and showrunner Chris Haddock.[2]

In 2013, Eastwood directed Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH, an award-winning documentary series about the public healthcare system.[3] Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH brought record-breaking audiences to the Knowledge Network[4] and won Leo Awards for Best Documentary Series and The People's Choice Award for Favourite TV series.[5]

After Emergency Room, Eastwood directed multiple award-winning broadcast documentaries. These include The Death Debate, for Telus Optik TV, about the landmark Carter v Canada Supreme Court case on physician-assisted dying[6] (Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Direction); After the Sirens, also for CBC, about the epidemic of PTSD among paramedics[7] (nominated in 2019 for Best Documentary Program by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television);[8] and Humboldt: The New Season, a documentary for CBC Television about the survivors of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in which 16 people died (nominated in 2020 for Best Documentary Program by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television).[9]

In 2021, Eastwood was the series director and writer of British Columbia: An Untold History, a critically acclaimed history series for Knowledge Network that retold the history of the Canadian province of British Columbia from a more diverse and inclusive perspective.[10] The series was nominated for five Canadians Screen Awards,[11] and won five Leo Awards including Best Direction and Best Screenwriting awards for Eastwood.[12]

In 2024, Eastwood wrote, directed and produced The Society Page, a short documentary about longtime Vancouver Sun newspaper columnist and former Vancouver Magazine editor, Malcolm Parry.[13] The film was nominated for four Leo Awards including Best Directing and Best Short Documentary.[14]

Eastwood also directed the music video for Post-War Blues by Dan Mangan (an homage to Dr. Strangelove starring Don McKellar);[15] and the Gemini Award-nominated short documentary Douglas Coupland: Pop Artist, as well as multiple documentary projects for the BC Civil Liberties Association, Canada's longest-running civil liberties association.

Personal life

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Eastwood was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. His mother was a painter and his father a commercial artist. He started working in movie theatres and bought his first video camera when he was 15.[16] He studied film at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, making him the third generation in his family to go to art school.[17] He married his wife, Wynn Deschner, in 2016.

Filmography

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Feature films

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Documentary

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Television

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Awards

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Eastwood has won a Gemini Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (Best TV Movie for Elijah),[18] seven Leo Awards (for The Society Page, British Columbia: An Untold History, Haida Modern, Emergency Room and Elijah), the Allan King Award from the Directors Guild of Canada (for Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World), four Golden Sheaf Awards (including the 2020 Ruth Shaw Award for Humboldt: The New Season), and the top prize at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival (for Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World).[19]

He has also been nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (for British Columbia: An Untold History, Humboldt: The New Season, After the Sirens, The Death Debate and Emergency Room), a further eleven Golden Sheaf Awards by the Yorkton Film Festival and a further eleven Leo Awards.

References

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  1. ^ Marke Andrews (2016-04-19). "Profile: Kevin Eastwood, founder, Optic Nerve Films". Business in Vancouver.
  2. ^ Marke Andrews (2016-04-19). "Profile: Kevin Eastwood, founder, Optic Nerve Films". Business in Vancouver.
  3. ^ Marsha Lederman (2014-01-07). "A real-life ER pulls back the curtain on public health care". The Globe and Mail.
  4. ^ Peter Darbyshire (2014-02-13). "Vancouver ER documentary series is the ultimate reality television". Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on 2014-05-07.
  5. ^ "The Filmmakers". Haidagwaii Film. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  6. ^ Sabrina Furminger (2016-03-23). "'The Death Debate' examines Canada's right-to-die movement". Westender.
  7. ^ Adrian Mack (2018-04-07). "After the Sirens reveals hidden epidemic of PTSD among paramedics". The Georgia Straight.
  8. ^ "After The Sirens". Academy.ca. Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  9. ^ "Humboldt The New Season". Academy.ca. Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  10. ^ Jung, Christina. "Two centuries of B.C. history told through a diverse lens in new documentary series". CBC.ca. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  11. ^ Brent Furdyk, "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, ‘Sort Of’ & ‘Scarborough’ Lead The Pack". ET Canada, February 15, 2022.
  12. ^ Leo Awards. "Leo Awards: 2022 Nominees and Winners". Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  13. ^ John Mackie (2024-03-16). "Documentary turns lens on columnist who chronicled the who's who of Vancouver society". The Vancouver Sun.
  14. ^ Leo Awards. "Leo Awards: 2024 Nominees and Winners". Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  15. ^ François Marchand (2012-04-13). "Vancouver fave Dan Mangan releases Dr. Strangelove-themed Post-War Blues video". Vancouver Sun.
  16. ^ Marke Andrews (2016-04-19). "Profile: Kevin Eastwood, founder, Optic Nerve Films". Business in Vancouver.
  17. ^ "About Kevin Eastwood". OpticNerveFilms.ca. Optic Nerve Films. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Kevin Eastwood". Canadian Film Centre. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  19. ^ Cassandra Szklarski (2015-05-01). "'Haida Gwaii' film wins top prize at Hot Docs". CTV news.
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