PRESS
The Team
The History
Production Bios
MARY DARLING (executive producer)
Mary Darling joined WestWind Pictures in 1999. She has helped WestWind evolve from a minor to a major player in Canada's film and television industry. Co-owner of WestWind Pictures, Mary conceived of the hit design show, Designer Guys, and its subsequent relaunch with new hosts. As well as providing WestWind Pictures overall management, creative and executive producer services on all if its series, Mary heads up WestWind Releasing which develops and distributes most of WestWind's diverse properties. Mary is the recipient of WIFT International's 2007 award for International Achievement - Excellence in Innovation (Television) an award she claims to share with her extremely talented husband, Clark, even though it sits on her desk.CLARK DONNELLY (executive producer)
Clark Donnelly co-founded WestWind Pictures in 1989, leaving a post as vice-president of Regina's CKCK Television where he had worked for fifteen years. The company began by producing high-end, 16mm and 35mm commercial work, but quickly moved into series and documentary production. Clark has been intimately involved in the creative and overall development and production of most of their subsequent work.Clark has many television credits to his name. This includes What on Earth for the CBC network, Family and Friends for the LIFE Network, This Small Space and Love by Design which both play on HGTV in the U.S. and Canada and Designer Guys which has sold to over thirty countries. Clark's company has also produced English Teachers for the LIFE Network, Wild Lives and Time & Place for Discovery Canada, @ Wood River Hall for Vision TV, Shot in the Face for Movie Central and TMN and the award-winning variety special Youkali Hotel for the CBC. In addition, Clark has written, produced or executive-produced a string of documentaries on topics ranging from art and religion to children and divorce. He and Mary are currently working to expand the company further into series and long-form drama production the first of which is Little Mosque on the Prairie.
PAUL MATHER (co-executive producer, writer)
Paul Mather is a writer and comedian. He served as story editor on season one of Corner Gas, before stepping in as supervising producer for seasons two through four. For his work on Corner Gas, he won two Gemini awards for Best Comedy Series. He is also a writer and supervising producer on The Rick Mercer Report and was a staff writer for two seasons of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Paul is currently showrunning the second season of Little Mosque on the Prairie.ZARQA NAWAZ (creator/consulting producer/writer)
Zarqa Nawaz was born in Liverpool and raised in Toronto, she had a Bachelor of Science degree from U of T when she switched career plans and received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism from Ryerson in 1992.Nawaz worked as a freelance writer/broadcaster with CBC radio, and in various capacities with CBC Newsworld, CTV's Canada AM, and CBC's The National. She was an associate producer with a number of CBC radio programs including Morningside and her radio documentary The Changing Rituals of Death won first prize in the Radio Long Documentary category and the Chairman's Award in Radio Production at the Ontario Telefest Awards.
Bored with journalism, Nawaz took a summer film workshop at the Ontario College for Art and made BBQ Muslims, a short film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1996. Her next short film, Death Threat also premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1998. Other short film credits include Fred's Burqa and Random Check. In 2005, Nawaz's documentary entitled Me and the Mosque, a co-production with the National Film Board and the CBC, was broadcast on CBC's Rough Cuts. She has recently finished a featurelength screenplay entitled Real Terrorists Don't Belly.
MICHAEL SNOOK (producer)
Michael Snook is an executive producer, producer and writer, with nearly four decades of experience in film and television, radio, print and the music industry. For the past fourteen years, he has focused on film and television, and has extensive credits in non-fiction production such as What On Earth, Family And Friends, This Small Space and Wild Lives, to name a few. His performance and dramatic productions include Shot In The Face, Velvet Devil, Youkali Hotel and @ Wood River Hall.Before pursuing a career in independent film and television, Snook worked as an independent music producer, studio musician, arranger, and freelance music consultant for CBC Radio. Snook is an active member of the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association. He is currently an executive producer and producer with WestWind Pictures, based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
COLIN BRUNTON (producer)
After writing and directing the Genie Award-winning short film The Mysterious Moon Men of Canada and A Trip Around Lake Ontario, Brunton produced the feature films Roadkill and Highway 61. As the Executive Director of the Canadian Film Centre's Feature Film Project, he exec-produced five features, including Rude, Blood & Donuts, and Cube. Brunton has line-produced a number of feature films, including Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Foolproof, and How She Move, and TV series including An American in Canada and Puppets Who Kill. In 2007, he directed the feature concert DVD Duality of Self, featuring eccentric musician Jandek, and in his spare time compiles footage for his feature documentary The Last Pogo Jumps Again, Cha Cha Cha, a sequel to his infamous 1978 punk rock doc, The Last Pogo.Director Bios
MICHAEL KENNEDY (director)
Michael Kennedy is the award-winning, genre-jumping director of 14 feature films and/or TV movies and 125 television episodes, including the entire first season of "Little Mosque...". Besides the pilot for "Little Mosque..." he also directed the first episodes of "North South", "Mental Block", "Listen Missie", "Screech Owls", "P.R.", "Taking The Falls", "My Life and a Movie", and "Jets". His feature credits include Robin of Locksley, One Man Out, Caribe, and Joe's Wedding, an award-winning romantic-comedy. His writing credits include three of the theatrical feature films he directed. He won Best Director at the Canadian Music Video Awards for one of the many short films he directed for "Kids In The Hall". Other honors include: 3 wins from 9 nominations for Best Director, Canadian Comedy Awards; 2 wins from 5 nominations for Directors Guild of Canada Awards; a nomination for a Directors Guild of America Award; and 2 Best Director Gemini nominations, including one for "Little Mosque...".PAUL FOX (director)
Paul Fox is an accomplished film and television director with an impressive array of award-winning feature films, music videos, short films, and television productions to his credit. Paul's first feature film, the taut psychological thriller The Dark Hours, received much acclaim and numerous awards at festivals around the world. His most recent feature, Everything's Gone Green, is a wry coming-of-age comedy written by acclaimed novelist Douglas Coupland ('Generation X') which was released in 2007 to excellent reviews in Canada and the U.S. Paul is also a noted television director, having directed multiple episodes of such high-profile series as Cold Squad, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Show Me Yours, Life With Derek, Billable Hours and now Little Mosque On The Prairie.JEFF BEESLEY (director)
Jeff Beesley is one of Canada's most exciting young filmmakers. With his unique cinematic vision, Jeff has achieved International acclaim for his body of work. His productions have screened at some of the world's most prestigious festivals and have won numerous awards.After directing award-winning shorts and documentaries, Jeff directed his feature film debut, Sparkle. Since then Jeff has gone on to direct Borderline Normal, Everybody's Doing It for MTV, and the highly original supernatural thriller The Risen. In January 2004, Jeff completed directing his fifth long form movie. Try to Remember is the latest installment in the highly successful Mary Higgins Clark franchise of MOW's, and is broadcast on stations worldwide.
In the summer of 2004, Jeff joined the directing team of Canada's #1 hit comedy, Corner Gas.