Mark Starowicz – Writer, Director, Producer, Executive Producer

 

Documentary filmmaker, producer and journalist Mark Starowicz created some of Canada’s most influential current affairs and documentary programs, as well several international documentary series. He has worked with filmmakers as a director, as a writer and as an executive producer. He was Executive Director of Documentary Programming for CBC Television, from 2005 to 2015, overseeing strands like The Nature of Things and Doc Zone, but continued to direct and write his own films.

 

His television credits include founding the nightly public affairs program The Journal , which was the country’s premier national daily public affairs program, and which became internationally known for its topical documentaries. He  created Canada: A People’s History, produced in both French and English, which was the most viewed documentary series in Canada’s history. He  produced China Rises with the New York Times, and also with the Times co-produced Battle for Baghdad , India Reborn, and Arctic Rush; He directed The Third Angel, about a scientist who lived all her adult life defending the orangutans in the rainforests of Borneo; Red Capitalism, shot in China, which he directed and wrote for CBC and BBC, The Brockville Incident, about a town accused falsely of racism; The Year of the Hunter, the story of Robert Flaherty making the first documentary, filmed in the Canadian Arctic; he also wrote and produced the Dawn of the Eye, a major series chronicling the birth of the news, co-produced with the BBC and the History Channel. He was co-creator of the landmark muti-platform aboriginal series Eighth Fire. He wrote and directed the 2014 documentary The Mystery of the Bell, about the legendary Bell of Batoche.

 

Mark Starowicz was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Awards and honours include Governor General's Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement; Canadian Journalism Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award; nine Gemini Awards. In 2015, he founded the independent documentary production company Grand Passage Media.