Mark Achbar

Mark Achbar
Born	Canada
Occupation	Director, Producer

Mark Achbar is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for directing The Corporation and Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media.

Biography

Achbar is a graduate of Syracuse University's Fine Arts Film Program. Achbar interned in Hollywood on the children's TV programme Bill Daily's Hocus Pocus Gang, followed by a three year stint in Toronto with Sunrise Films on their documentary series Spread your Wings and the CBC/Disney series Danger Bay. He then teamed up with director Robert Boyd, and received a Gemini nomination for Best Writer on The Canadian Conspiracy, a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments which chronicled Canada’s secret takeover of the USA. It won a Gemini for Best Entertainment Special and was nominated for an International Emmy.

Achbar moved into independent media, working in many capacities on films, videos and books on issues ranging from nuclear lunacy, poverty, and East Timor, to the media, U.S. hegemony and corporate power.

With Peter Wintonick, Achbar co-directed and co-produced Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, which was, until the release of The Corporation Canada's all-time, top-grossing feature documentary. Achbar’s companion book to the film hit the national best-seller list in Canada.

Achbar collaborated with editor Jennifer Abbott to create Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage, a low-budget video diary by the couple known as Canada's first legally married lesbians. This true story of “boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy becomes girl” received festival invitations from around the globe and was broadcast in Canada on Pridevision and the Knowledge Network.

In 1997, Achbar initiated a project titled The Corporation with author and University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan. Bakan wrote the film and book, while Achbar directed, produced and executive-produced the film. Jennifer Abbott joined the team as editor and co-director in 2000. The documentary compares globalized corporate psychology and practice to formal definitions of psychopathic behaviour, touching on environmental and social issues, as well as historical origins of corporate behaviour.

Selected films

As director and producer:

• Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
• Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (1999)
• The Corporation (2003)

As associate producer:

• Bitter Paradise: The Sell-out of East Timor (1996)

As Executive Producer:

• Denis Delestrac's PAX AMERICANA and the Weaponization of Space
• Sam Bozzo's BLUE GOLD: World Water Wars
• Velcrow Ripper’s FIERCE LIGHT (when spirit meets action)
• Kevin McMahon’s WATERLIFE (The Great Lakes reveal humanity’s thirst for self-destruction)
• Mathieu Roy’s and Harold Crook's SURVIVING PROGRESS (the escalating costs of progress)
• Katherine Dodd's THE FEMBOT MYSTIQUE (a sassy fembot’s take on future robotics)
• Oliver Hockenhull’s A PERFECT PILL: From Neurons to Nirvana (utopian pharmacology)
• Barbara Mainguy’s MODERN MADNESS (defining modern madness)
• Jill Sharpe’s SEX, BREATH AND DEATH (quest for transcendence)
• Fredrik Gertten’s POISON IN A BANANA REPUBLIC (workers sue toxic transnationals)

Awards

• Gemini Award nomination, Best Writer, The Canadian Conspiracy — "a cultural/political satire for CBC and HBO's Comedy Experiments."

Awards for The Corporation

• Audience Award, World Cinema, Documentary Sundance Film Festival
• Audience Award Philadelphia International Film Festival
• Audience Award Vancouver International Film Festival
• Audience Award Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
• Audience Award FIC Brasilia International Film Festival
• Audience Award (1st runner-up) Calgary International Film Festival
• Audience Award (1st runner-up) Toronto International Film Festival
• Insight Award for Excellence National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists, USA
• Best Documentary The Genie Awards, 2005
• Genesis Award for Outstanding Documentary Film United States Humane Society
• Audience Award for Best Feature Length Film Ecocinema International Film Festival, Rhodes
• Best Feature Documentary Environmental Media Association Awards
• Reel Room Audience Award for Best Documentary Sydney Film Festival
• Joris Ivens Special Jury Award International Documentary Festival, Amsterdam
• NFB Best Documentary Award Calgary International Film Festival
• Best Feature Length Documentary Ecocinema International Film Festival, Rhodes
• Top Ten Films of the Year Toronto International Film Festival Group
• Best Documentary Program or Series - History/Biography/Social/Political Leo Award
• Best Direction in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Screenwriting in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Overall Sound in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Sound Editing in a Documentary Program or Series Leo Award
• Best Documentary (1st runner-up) Seattle International Film Festival
• Special Jury Mention Montreal New Film And Video Festival

Awards for Manufacturing Consent

• Golden Sesterce (Grand Prize) 1992 Visions du Réel documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland
• Special Mention, FIPRESCI International Press Jury 1992 Visions du Réel documentary film festival, Nyon, Switzerland
• Special Mention, Public Jury 1992 Nyon International Documentary Film Festival
• Federal Express Award for Most Popular Canadian Film 1992 Vancouver International Film Festival
• Gold Hugo (Best Social/Political Documentary) 1992 Chicago International Film Festival
• Special Mention, Unanimous Jury Award 1992 Toronto International Festival of Festivals
• Jury Prize for Excellence 1992 Atlantic Film Festival
• Public's "Most Loved" Documentary 1992 Sydney International Film Festival
• Gold Apple 1993 National Educational Film and Video Festival
• Honourable Mention 1993 American Film and Video Festival
• 'Director's Choice Award 1993 Charlotte Film and Video Festival
• Voted "Best of the Festival" by Public 1993 Edmonton Global Visions Film Festival
• Gold Conch (Grand Prize ex-aqueo) 1994 Bombay International Documentary Film Festival
• Grand Prize- Best Political Documentary 1994 Canadian Documentary Film Festival

Nominations or semi-finalist

• Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
• International Documentary Association Awards
• Blois International Film Festival
• Quinzaine du cinéma québécois
• The Orwell Award
• Best Documentary of the Year - New Internationalist Magazine

External links

• the Evil Twin Booking Agency on Mark Achbar
• NFB interview — Rebel with a Cause: Mark Achbar
• Mark Achbar at the Internet Movie Database

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Name	Achbar, Mark
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