ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
TRISH NEUFELD
Vancouver-based filmmaker Trish Neufeld first fell in love with filmmaking at the age of 12 when she was given an old video camera – from that moment, she was driven to tell stories on screen.
Dancing with Mom is her first feature-length documentary, winning a Leo Award for Best Screenwriting in 2022. Produced in partnership with Knowledge Network, this first-person account of her mother’s descent into dementia is by turns heartbreaking and hilarious. Trish is currently directing The Real Mr. Big, a 3 x part True Crime series for Amazon. She is also in post-production on a feature documentary LULU GURU:The Man Behind the Yoga Pants cantered around the rise of lululemon company and its controversial founder, Chip Wilson.
During her three-decade career as a director, producer and writer, her credits include Story Producer on The Age of AI with Robert Downey Jr.; Director of 4 seasons of The New Wave of Stand Up for CBC and Just for Laughs. She was a producer on the feature-length animated film Max Steel for Mainframe Entertainment; and the award-winning dramatic short film The Porcelain Pussy. In addition, she directed, wrote and produced the environmental documentary Save Space Nugget, as well as the three-time award-winning short documentary Mi Pasiòn in 1995. Currently, Trish is in development on a three-part true crime series in addition to a feature length environmental film focused on conservation and rewilding worldwide.
Trish has a Masters degree in Communications and a diploma in Media Studies from Capilano University; she also attended the Producer’s Lab in 2003 at the Canadian Film Center in Toronto.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & PRODUCED BY
JOHN RITCHIE
With nearly four decades of film and television experience, John Ritchie has overseen the creation of more than 500 hours of documentary and scripted films, television series and one-offs through his company Force Four Entertainment, which was acquired by Entertainment One in 2014.
John has written, produced and directed more than twenty documentary series and biographies, including films about well-known Canadians such as Rick Hansen, Terry Fox, Frank Mahovlich, the Molson family, Silken Laumann and Phil & Tony Esposito, to name a few. He also has extensive experience producing films in the nature, science and social issue strands, for broadcasters including Discovery U.S., CTV, CBC, Lifetime, Knowledge and W Network. He developed and executive produced the worldwide hit series Border Security, which airs on Netflix, Global, History and DTour, as well as the six-hour docu-series Keeping Canada Alive for CBC, narrated by Keifer Sutherland. Closest to his heart, he produced the feature length documentary 65 Red Roses (CBC/OWN), which won awards at the Banff World Media Festival and was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her Documentary Club. He has recently completed the Leo Award winning feature documentary Dancing with Mom in partnership with Knowledge Network as well as LULU GURU: The Man Behind the Yoga Pants which will have its world premier at the Whistler Film Festival this winter. John is currently an Executive Producer on the 3 part true crime series The Real Mr. Big for Amazon.
CO-WRITTEN BY
MARLENE RODGERS
Marlene Rodgers is a writer, producer, and story editor, with experience in scripted drama, documentary, factual television and shorts. She was a development executive at the Ontario Film and Development Corporation (now Ontario Creates) and the CBC Movies and MIni-series Unit, and she has also taught screenwriting and led workshops for the Canadian Film Centre, Telefilm, the National Screen Institute and Praxis, as well as Simon Fraser University and Capilano University. Her own work as a filmmaker includes the short documentary Dreams of the Dead and the award-winning drama Foxy Lady, Wild Cherry. She is currently writing the feature documentary LULU GURU: The Man Behind the Yoga Pants.
CO-PRODUCER
STEP CARRUTHERS
Step Carruthers is a producer based in Cumberland, BC. Over 20+ years in the film and television industry, he’s amassed a wide variety of experiences, ranging from producing broadcast documentaries to composing scores for feature films and post supervision of a VFX-intensive sci-fi series. He has worked with companies including Omni Film Productions, Network Entertainment, Halfire Entertainment, and Envisioning+Storytelling, and delivered to Netflix, YouTube Originals, Global Television, HGTV, CBC, and Discovery.
