Deborah Parks
As a dedicated Documentary Film Producer, Deborah Parks has spent thirty years working in the
television and film industry. She began her career as an Independent Producer/Cinematographer in 1988, when she and Director/Writer,Shelley Saywell set off for the Sahara Desert to document the elusive nomadic Bishari Tribes of Egypt. Winning several awards and leading to the founding of Bishari Films,their first film was nominated for two Gemini Awards and Parks went on to win the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award for 'Best Photography in a Documentary'. She was the first woman in Canada to do so. Since then, Saywell and Parks have collaborated on more than 18 films over the last 23 years on topics borne from conflict and social injustice. Many of the films have won Canadian and International recognition including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for “Crimes of Honour” in 1999, and "A Childs Century of War" was chosen to be among the top 10 finalists for an Academy Award in 2001.
Deborah spent the beginning of her career working as a camera assistant
for some of Canada’s renowned cinematographers and travelled the world before making the transition to Cinematographer. She then shot the award winning documentary “Talk Sixteen” which was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 1991 and was also released in theatres
Most recently, the film “Lowdown Tracks” was screened at Hot Docs 2015, in Toronto and won the “Top 10 Audience Favourite Award”. The film will have its North American Broadcast Premiere on TV Ontario, on November 14, 2015.
Deborah has also earned numerous Producer credits with some of Canada’s top Documentary Directors.
With four time Emmy Award Winning, Writer/Director, John Kastner,
Deborah has worked on nine long-format documentary films as a co-producing partner. In 2014 “Out of Mind, Out of Sight” won Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs and “Not Criminally Responsible” was selected to screen at Hot Docs 2013. In 2011 “Life with Murder” won an International Emmy Award for Best Documentary as well as Canada’s Donald Britain Gemini for best Documentary. All three films were Co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada and were screened at major International film festivals including: Sheffield, Chicago,
San Francisco, ZagrebDox, Cork and Los Angeles.
Deborah has also collaborated with many other Canadian and international producers/directors in various producer roles including: Funding, Budgeting, Finance Planning, Tax Credits, Co-Producing, Contracts and Reporting on project status.
From 1991 to 1997 she spent six years at Telefilm Canada as an investment analyst first working with the combined TV/Feature Film Unit and subsequently as a member of the specialized Feature Film Team. Her production responsibilities included as many as forty features / animation / TV programs or series per year.
Deborah continues to give back to the industry conducting
Filmmaking Workshops at Local Colleges, participating in industry panels and mentoring young prospective filmmakers. She also has extensive experience producing and managing film locations
around the world.
Deborah Parks resides in Toronto with her husband and two daughters.
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