Pete McCormack | |
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 McCormack performing in June 2010 | |
| Born | January 27, 1965 |
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Pete McCormack (born January 27, 1965) is a Canadian author, filmmaker, screenwriter and musician. He is best known for directing the Academy Award short-listed documentary Facing Ali and the Leacock Award-nominated novel Understanding Ken. He is the creator of the HBO Canada documentary television series Sports on Fire . [1]
In 2003, McCormack directed and wrote his first feature film, the award-winning See Grace Fly , starring Paul McGillion and Gina Chiarelli. Chiarelli won multiple awards and was nominated for a Genie Award for her role as Grace McKinley, a woman suffering from schizophrenia. [2]
In 2006, McCormack wrote and co-directed (with Jesse James Miller) the award-winning documentary Uganda Rising, about the plight of the people of Northern Uganda. The film was narrated by Academy Award-winner Kevin Spacey. [3] [4] For UNICEF in 2007, McCormack wrote and co-directed (with Tim Hardy) the 25-minute Pierce Brosnan-narrated short film Hope in the Time of AIDS about the HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and the potential of antiretroviral drugs.
In 2009, McCormack directed the documentary Facing Ali . The film was short-listed in the 2010 Academy Awards’ category for best full-length documentary. [5] In October 2009, the film won the Audience Choice award for Best Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival. [6]
In 2011, McCormack directed I Am Bruce Lee , a biographical documentary of Bruce Lee. [7] Its debut on Spike TV was the highest rated documentary in the station's history, reaching 1.4 million viewers. Spike's previous record-holder was McCormack's 2009 documentary, Facing Ali. [8]
In 2015, McCormack created, directed and executive produced the HBO Canada documentary television series Sports On Fire. [9] [10] In 2016, his film Spirit Unforgettable , a profile of the rock band Spirit of the West on their final concert tour, premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. [11]
Screenplays:
McCormack's first novel, Shelby, about a university drop-out who falls for an exotic dancer near the end of her career, was published in 1994.
McCormack's second novel, Understanding Ken, was released in 1998. [12] The novel focused on a young boy who creates a mythology around hockey, the Montreal Canadiens and Ken Dryden in order to deal with the trauma of his parents’ divorce.
In 1999 the novel was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award for Canadian Humour, [13] and named one of the 10 best books of the year by the Ottawa Citizen. [14]
McCormack has released three independent CDs. His debut CD, Breathe, was released in 1995. Paul Hyde of Payola$ fame, and members of Spirit of the West, Geoffrey Kelly, Hugh MacMillan and drummer and producer Vince Ditrich played on the CD. Renowned jazz musician and two-time Juno Award winner Brad Turner played the trumpet solo on the opening track “Stay With Me.”
McCormack released a second CD, Trust, in 1998. The track, Be Brave Tonight, was screen-tested in Los Angeles as the proposed song to close the Kevin Costner-film Message in a Bottle. The song was ultimately not chosen because the screen-test audience reportedly found the song combined with the film's ending “too depressing.”
McCormack recorded an unplugged third album, Wide Open, in 2008.
In 2009, he contributed the closing song to the Academy Award-shortlisted documentary, Facing Ali, which he also directed.
McCormack was born in Thetford, Norfolk, England. His father was a doctor. In 1966, his family emigrated to Canada where he grew up mostly in the West Kootenay area of British Columbia. His parents divorced when he was six.
McCormack attended Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia from 1984 to 1986. McCormack dropped out of university after three and a half years and started writing songs. [15]
McCormack currently lives in Vancouver and is married to Samantha Reynolds, also a writer, and CEO of Echo Storytelling Agency, a custom media company. [16]
Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.
Eric James McCormack is a Canadian actor known for his roles as Will Truman in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, Grant MacLaren in Netflix's Travelers, and Dr. Daniel Pierce in the TNT crime drama Perception.
When We Were Kings is a 1996 American documentary film directed by Leon Gast about the "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight championship boxing match that was held on October 30, 1974, in Zaire between world heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. It features archival footage of celebrities, including James Brown, B.B. King, and promoter Don King, in the lead-up to the fight and accompanying Zaire 74 music festival, alongside interview footage of Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Spike Lee and Thomas Hauser from the 1990s.
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4 Little Girls is a 1997 American historical documentary film about the murder of four African-American girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. The film was directed by Spike Lee and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
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See Grace Fly is a 2003 independent film directed and written by Pete McCormack and starring Gina Chiarelli and Paul McGillion. Its dramatic and often heartwrenching plot revolve around siblings, Grace and Dominic McKinley as they struggle to cope with their mother's death and Grace's mental illness.
James Bobin is a British filmmaker. He worked as a director and writer on Da Ali G Show and helped create the characters of Ali G, Borat, and Brüno. With Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, he co-created Flight of the Conchords. He directed the feature films The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016), and Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019).
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Facing Ali is a 2009 documentary directed by Pete McCormack about Muhammad Ali as told from the perspectives of ten opponents he faced during his career: George Chuvalo, Sir Henry Cooper, George Foreman, "Smokin'" Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers, Leon Spinks and Ernie Terrell.
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I Am Bruce Lee is a 2012 documentary film directed by Pete McCormack. The film documents the life of Bruce Lee, the famous actor and martial artist, featuring interviews with is widow Linda Emery and daughter Shannon Lee. It won a Leo Award in 2012.
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Spirit Unforgettable is a Canadian documentary film, which premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in 2016. Directed by Pete McCormack, the film profiles the Canadian folk rock band Spirit of the West in preparation for a 2015 concert at Massey Hall, as part of their farewell tour following lead singer John Mann's diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, interspersing the story of his diagnosis and the band's preparations for the concert with a portrait of their overall history.
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