Mark Achbar

Mark Achbar (born in Ottawa in 1955^[1]) 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. He 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 hosted by Martin Mull, and featuring Canadian-born stars: Eugene Levy, Lorne Greene, Leslie Nelson, William Shatner, Morley Safer, Howie Mandel, Peter Jennings, John Candy, Dave Thomas, Margot Kidder, and Anne Murray. The fake documentary chronicled Canada’s secret takeover of the USA. The program 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. 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 Jennifer Abbott to create Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage, a low-budget video diary by the couple who became known as Canada's first legally married same-sex couple. This true story of "boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy becomes girl" received festival invitations from around the world 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, with Jennifer Abbott joining the team as editor and co-director in 2000. The film was released theatrically in 2004.

Selected films

As Director and Producer:

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

As Executive Producer:

• Blue Gold: World Water Wars, directed by Sam Bozzo (2008)
• Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action, directed by Velcrow Ripper (2008)
• Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space, directed by Denis Delestrac (2009)
• Waterlife, directed by Kevin McMahon (2009)
• Bananas: Poison in a Banana Republic, directed by Fredrik Gertten (2009)
• Surviving Progress, directed by Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks (2011)
• Neurons To Nirvana, directed by Oliver Hockenhull (2013)
• Marmato, directed by Mark Grieco (2014)
• Fractured Land, directed by Fiona Rayher and Damien Gillis (2015)

Awards

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

References

External links

• Mark Achbar on IMDb
• "The Beast with No Name: Mark Achbar and Joel Bakan with Williams Cole" The Brooklyn Rail (Summer 2004)