One of the Last - Creative Team Bios
Ed Kucerak – Director/Producer
Ed Kucerak is an Ottawa based director/producer who has been actively involved in the video and television industry for the past 21 years.
He started his career in the industry as Executive Producer with the Government of Canada. Over a 10-year period, he was the Executive Producer of numerous award-winning television programs. Highlights include the Gemini winners: Diary of A Teenage Smoker (documentary about teenage girls and smoking), Ici Ados Canada (documentary on issues of concern to youth), Talkin' About Aids (documentary about youth and aids) and Coming of Age (MOW about issues concerning seniors).
In 1995 he founded Kublacom Pictures to continue to pursue his goal of producing quality documentaries, television programs and corporate videos in both English and French.
His recent production credits include: producer/director of Four Get Me Not and It only Hurts When I Laugh - two comedy shorts for the Digi60 Video Festival; executive producer/producer of The Secret Lives of Butterflies/La vie secrète des papillons - a one-hour documentary for The Discovery Channel, TVOntario, Knowledge Network, Canadian Learning Television, SCN, TV5 and TFO; and producer/director of four seasons of Get a Life/Grouille Toi - a television documentary series for TVOntario, Canadian Learning Television, SCN and TFO.
Ed is passionate about using the documentary medium to tell and explore fascinating stories about his community. He is the producer/director of One of the Last, a one-hour documentary about a well known family owned bakery business in Ottawa for OMNI Television (Rogers Broadcasting).
The Rideau Bakery has for a long time been part of Ed’s experience of living in Ottawa. He fondly remembers his university days when he first came to Ottawa and of buying rye bread and chocolate donuts at the bakery. Much like one of the customers in the film, he can relate to the disappointment of not being able to bite into one of those donuts because they were sold out.
Along with his colleague writer/producer Jane Gurr, Ed has long thought that the story of the Rideau Bakery would make a captivating and compelling film, a story that covers over 100 years and four generations of the Kardish Family. A bakery that started in a kitchen in Eastern Russia in the early 1900s and today is the pre-eminent bakery in Ottawa and yet still holds on to the traditional way of making bread.
Jane Gurr – Producer/Writer
Jane is an independent documentary producer/writer based in Ottawa. In 2001, following a 15-year career in international development as a specialist in gender equality issues and Southern Africa, Jane decided to follow her passion for documentary film. For the past five years she has gained skills as a producer and a deeper understanding of the creative process of documentary filmmaking. Her first commissioned film One of the Last, co-produced with Kublacom Pictures, will be broadcast by OMNI Television during 2007.
As is often the case with new filmmakers who find access to funding to be a challenge, Jane has taken on a number of independently financed projects. This is a valuable strategy for skill development, networking and establishing a track record. A short film, And the Journey Begins, was broadcast on the local Ottawa Rogers station in 2002. Bridge to Uluru is a one-hour documentary about a group of airplane enthusiasts who flew across the Australian Outback in vintage WWII open cockpit planes to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctors Service. Written, co-directed and shot by Jane, Bridge to Uluru is in post-production with completion expected in mid-2007.
Jane is also contributing to the local filmmaking community. She is a founding member of Documentary Works, a group of independent filmmakers in Ottawa area and is on the Executive of Ottawa-Gatineau DOC, a chapter of the Documentary Organisation of Canada.
Jane was awarded a CTV Fellowship to attend the 2003 Banff Television Festival and, again with Ed Kucerak, was the recipient of a prize for the best pitch to OMNI Television at Hot Docs’ Rendezvous in 2004.
Barry Lank – Director of Photography
Barry has produced, directed and shot well over fifty hours of documentary, commercial and informational programming for television. Most recent credits include directing and shooting Innocence Under Siege, Women on Patrol, Volunteers in the Global Village and Mission to Kosovo: The Canadian Police Experience for Global and Prime Television National. These documentaries were shot on location in Russia, East Timor, Vietnam, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Kosovo.
Barry directed and shot a one-hour documentary for CBC’s Passionate Eye entitled She’s Having Our Baby on the subject of surrogate motherhood. He is also working in partnership with Merit Motion Pictures on a documentary television series entitled Recreating Eden an international documentary series for Vision Television.
Barry completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Winnipeg and received his education degree from the University of Manitoba. He later studied at the London School of Film in the U.K. before returning to Canada and forming Lank/Beach Productions, a Winnipeg-based production company. Barry is a member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.
Barry has received numerous creative awards in the past including two Gold Medals at the Houston International Film Festival, a World Medal at the New York Festival, two Silver Medals at the U.S. International Film and Video Festival in Chicago, a Cleo Award of Excellence, a Gold Quill Award at IABC in New Orleans as well as many other awards in Europe, Australia, Canada and the U.S.A.
Kent Newson – Editor
Kent’s career in the entertainment industry spans a 20-year period and includes programming for radio, producing/directing/editing documentaries, music videos and corporate advertising for television, and producing large-scale musical events.
In the past several years Kent has edited several documentaries, corporate videos and short dramatic films. In early 2007 Kent will edit a documentary entitled Bridge to Uluru, the story of an epic journey across the Outback in vintage WWII biplanes. He also wrote, directed and edited A Fistful of Pasta, a Spaghetti Western parody and Unearthed, a short mystery drama. Kent’s editing experience also includes corporate videos for Citizen Advocacy and The Children’s Aid Society. Kent’s creative skills also include music composition. Kent believes choosing a variety of projects fuels his creative spark.
Andrew Huggett – Music Composer
Andrew Huggett is currently Creative Director and Music Composer for GAPC, the largest post production facility of its kind in Eastern Ontario. Andrew's professional music career began over three decades ago. He received formal training at Trinity College of Music and the Guild Hall School of Music in London England where he majored in early music performance and music composition. At the age of 17 he signed a 3-year recording contract with Beatles producer George Martin who produced three record albums that featured songs written and performed by Andrew. At this time he also started scoring short films in renaissance style for the National Film Board of Canada. For 13 years, as a performer in the early music group The Huggett Family, Andrew toured throughout Canada, Europe and the Northeastern United States. In 1984 he formed his own music production company and joined the ranks of GAPC in 1994.
One of Andrews's great strengths as a composer is his remarkable versatility. From his renaissance beginnings he has gone on to compose critically acclaimed music in almost every imaginable genre. From commissioned orchestral works to rock and roll and rap, Andrew has written it all!
His credits include well over 100 animated cartoons and children's shows including the Teddy Ruxpin series, Lynn Johnson's For Better or For Worse, The Toy Castle and Disney distributed Toad Patrol. He has scored numerous television documentaries including the Life and Times of Christopher Plummer (CBC), Keeping The Groove Alive with Oscar Peterson (CBC), The RCMP Great March West (History TV) and 20th Century Gals with Cathy Jones (CBC). His other TV credits further demonstrate his versatility and include ethnic music for an Asian cooking series, themes for the CBC Ottawa evening news and a host of shows for the specialty networks. His jingle clients include Bell Canada, Bell Mobility, Johnson and Johnson US and Molson's Breweries. He has written more jingles for more local businesses in his hometown of Ottawa than any other composer. Andrew has provided music for CD-ROMs and wrote the award winning underscore for the critically acclaimed feature film River Rats.
Andrew has won numerous awards at international film festivals including the Gold Award at the New York Film Festival for his music for In Concert. Here in Canada he is a three time Gemini nominee and 2003 winner. He composed all the music for the Three Amigos, an AIDS awareness campaign that just won the prestigious Golden Reel Award.
Language: English and Hebrew
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