Donna Davies

Nightmare Factory

Donna Davies

Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger

The story of how one Pittsburgh boy’s fascination with monsters drove him to the very top of the Hollywood food chain. In 1989, Greg Nicotero, much to his parents’ chagrin, quit medical school and headed for Hollywood to pursue a dream of making monsters. Together with gore masters Howard Berger and Robert Kurtzman, Nicotero went on to create KNB EFX Group, one of the most prolific makeup effects studios in the world. After twenty years as the “go to guy” for the world’s most successful horror/sci-fi films, Greg Nicotero is the first one directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez call.

Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror

Donna Davies

Beth Hathaway, Tanya Huff

Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror is a television documentary film that premiered on the Canadian cable network Space on February 25, 2009. The hour-long documentary examines the experiences, motivations and impact of the increasing number of women engaged in horror fiction, with producers Donna Davies and Kimberlee McTaggart of Canada's Sorcery Films interviewing actresses, film directors, writers, critics and academics. The documentary was filmed in Toronto, Canada; and in Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York in the US.

Fanarchy

Donna Davies

Chris Bouchard, Denise Crosby

Fanarchy explores the rise of fan culture and ways in which fans are threatening the Hollywood system by becoming a creative force in their own right. With affordable technology at their fingertips, fans are producing more new content per month than studios or networks combined. Whether it's an original idea or a personal spin on a favorite film or TV show, fans are taking the reins and blurring the line between amateur and professional. Written and directed by Halifax’s own Donna Davies, Fanarchy exposes the burgeoning media landscape and the issues that complicate it – copyright, intellectual property and the concept of originality in a remix culture.

Zombiemania

Donna Davies

George A. Romero, Thomas Savini

The evolution of the zombie from its roots in Haitian voodoo to its coveted role as the world's most popular monster: from being a clumsy corpse to becoming a cannibal killer and the main agent of every infectious pandemic, the zombie has come a long way in seventy years. A look at the rising tide of zombie culture examining why something so dead has so much life in viewers' nightmares and at the box office.

A Sigh and a Wish: Helen Creighton's Maritimes

Donna Davies

Odile Boyd, Clary Croft

A Sigh and a Wish tells the story of pioneer folklorist Helen Creighton and of the enduring appeal of her remarkable collections of song and story. Creighton helped define Maritime culture as we know it. Thanks to her, folk songs moved out of the kitchens and the fishing boats and into the mainstream. Top contemporary Maritime musicians - talents like Mary Jane Lamond and Lennie Gallant - describe how deeply they have been influenced by Creighton. For 60 years, Creighton sought out ghost stories, superstitions and tales of buried treasure, as well as songs handed down from generation to generation: fishing songs, work songs, love songs. Timeless songs. A Sigh and a Wish is a moving tribute to the genius of a self-taught folklorist and to the continuing strength of the deep oral traditions she helped preserve. But it also raises important questions. Does Creighton's collection truly reflect Maritime culture, or is it tinged by her own upper-middle-class assumptions?

High Hopes: The Business of Marijuana

Donna Davies

High Hopes: The Business of Marijuana delves into the constantly evolving world of medical marijuana. With legalization just around the corner, demand continues to escalate, with medical marijuana being used to treat a growing number of illnesses and conditions, and the results are promising. Like with most new growth industries, everyone is trying to get in on the action. Director Donna Davies follows the stories of consumers and entrepreneurs determined to carve out a place for themselves in the marijuana marketplace.

The Kitchen Goddess: the reemergence of the village psychic

Donna Davies

In this program, devotees of Wicca and practitioners of tarot, astrology, palmistry, and other arcane arts explain their gifts of divination and healing while reflecting on their efforts to reconcile their unorthodox callings with Biblical injunctions and sometimes hostile skepticism. Wiccan initiation rites and psychic counseling sessions shed light on obscure practices that are very much alive today and in demand by a diverse constituency that even includes police