Susan Cardinal is a storyteller and an award
winning documentary maker. Her various roles as: writer, director,
story editor, narrator and teacher highlight an impressive journalistic
career that started with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on
British Columbia's north coast, and has taken Susan around the world.
Susan is the Creator and a key writer and director of the international
hit series - The Thirsty
Traveler - airing on the Canadian Food Network and
syndicated to 65 countries. over the past five years, Susan's taken the
crew to Chile, Cuba, Iceland, Peru, the Czech Republic, Italy, France
and Spain to name a few places, in her quest to discover great spirits
and great people.
Dream Makers is Susan's lastest
documentary. It is a real life drama that's been playing out for years
on the screen and behind the scenes. It is the stuff of movies with
tragedy and triumph and laughter and tears. This one hour documentary
is the inside story about film and television as told by Canada's
leading aboriginal actors and directors: people who've dared to dream.
Her documentary, The Snow Eater
is a multi-award winning documentary about Alberta's famous Chinook
Wind (AMPIA 2003 awards include: best documentary, writer, director,
editor, narrator, sound and music). The Snow Eater premiered in prime
time on the Discovery Channel (Canada).
God's
Explorers, a feature length historical documentary has
garnered numerous awards and international recognition (January 2002).
Written and directed by Susan, it's about the first Catholic
missionaries (the Oblates of Mary Immaculate) in Canada's north and
their controversial mission among the Dene people. God's Explorers
received five Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association Awards (AMPIA
Awards 2002) for writing, directing, narrating, editing, and music. It
also received honours from two U.S. television festivals (U.S.
International Film and Video Festival and the Axiem Awards). Produced
in association with History Television, it is being broadcast on five
networks in Canada.
Writer & Director of On
The Edge: The Nature of Risk (June 1999) - a co-production
with the National Film Board of Canada, for the Discovery Channel. This
prime time documentary received two nominations from the Alberta Motion
Picture Industries Association (AMPIA Awards 2000) for Best Documentary
and Best Female Host. Narrator for several network documentaries.
Before turning to independent television production and forming
Westmount Productions Inc. in 1996, Susan enjoyed a distinguished
career as a senior documentary maker with the CBC Radio Network for 20
years. She traveled extensively for programs such as Sunday Morning and
Ideas, covering major national and international stories.
Between CBC assignments, Susan served as an in-house staff trainer
teaching documentary production.
She was also the Executive Producer and Writer for
an interactive
training CD-ROM on how to make documentaries for the CBC's Training
Department, published by Irwin. Susan has trained journalists in South
Africa and Cambodia..
return to top
Mark
Simpson -
He works as second cameraman and production manager for Susan's films.
Mark has a wonderful ability to work with other
people. His audio expertise ranges from CBC Radio studio production to
field audio for CBC TV Sports. return to top
return
to top
