Toronto-based producer Michael Burns has teamed with Canada's largest private broadcaster CTV in the development of My Canada, a series of director-narrated documentary features after the fashion of Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg.

Burns, who envisioned the series and commissioned Maddin, has enlisted top Canadian directors to create their own personal 'odes' to their hometowns.

Filmmakers confirmed to date include Atom Egoyan (Victoria), Julia Kwan (Vancouver), Gary Burns (Calgary), Charles Biname (Montreal), Don McKellar (Toronto), Patricia Rozema (Sarnia), and Thom Fitzgerald (Halifax). More titles are pending.

CTV's participation was finessed by Arts and Communications, a Toronto-based arts sponsorship development firm and Toronto arts doyenne Nuria Bronfman along with Manifest Communications.

The series is expected to premiere live during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, to which CTV holds broadcast rights. The financing comes through CTV's public benefits package, a condition of its acquisition of broadcaster CHUM.

For Burns, who was commissioning editor at The Documentary Channel when he hatched the concept but was let go when the CBC took over the specialty channel, the project is a vindication. Said Burns, 'We are thrilled that CTV has recognized the importance and cultural value of this project and joined us as the only founding partner.

Said Maddin, who has presented his inaugural film with live narration at Toronto, Berlin, Tribeca and Sydney, 'We Canadians can now begin the long-overdue process of thoroughly documenting, mythologizing and honouring our great living cities and the lives lived within them.'

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