Board Member Biographies
Mandy Leith
Through her love of film and its potential to inspire change, Mandy Leith has worked creatively in the film & television industry for over 25 years, focusing on socio-political and environmental documentaries. After graduating with an honours degree in Radio, Film & TV Studies from Christ Church College in England, she began her editing career with a prestigious apprenticeship at the BBC in London in 1984. Later she fulfilled a lifelong dream when she worked as an editor and director at the National Film Board in Montreal after immigrating to Canada in 1989. She has worked with independent film producers and broadcasters in Canada, the US and Britain.
Mandy currently lives in Victoria, B.C. where she works with the local independent film and television community as an editor, story consultant, media educator and producer. Editing credits include the following award-winning films: The Friendship Village (Cypress Park Productions, 2001), From Baghdad To Peace Country (NFB, 2002), Breaking Ranks (NFB/Screen Siren 2006) and Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot’in Fight for Fish Lake (RAVEN, 2010), the first documentary to be accepted as evidence in a Federal land claim hearing.
Mandy is also the Founder and Director of OPEN CINEMA, a successful screening program dedicated to the use of film as a tool for community engagement. Since 2003, OPEN CINEMA has screened over 70 documentaries in 17 café-style venues, followed by open forum discussion with invited guests (www.opencinema.ca). Mandy’s contribution to the local arts community was recently recognized with a 2007 Victoria Leadership Award nomination. As an active member of DOC-BC and the Victoria Film Producers’ Association (ViFPA), Mandy is a passionate supporter of alternative media production, access and distribution.
Mandy recently returned to her childhood home in Kenya and she is now developing an interactive media project with youth in one of Africa’s largest slums. Slum Parliament.tv received early development assistance through two recent interactive documentary incubator programs, DOC’s Reboot and Melting Silos (NFB, Praxis and Agentic Communications).
Mandy’s Mission Statement:
The documentary market is changing and DOC can play a vital role in proactively defining our industry’s role in the emerging media landscape. Developing a vision, policies and models for the future presents new challenges that must include broadcast, theatrical, online, offline and interactive models of production and distribution.
In addition to 25 years as a broadcast professional and documentary editor, I bring a wide variety of perspectives, including a decade of developing a successful community screening model (www.opencinema.ca), as well as media education, marketing, non-profit and board experience. Over the last year I have been immersed in exploring emerging interactive technologies and narrative possibilities through my participation in both DOC’s ReBoot and NFB’s Melting Silos interactive documentary and transmedia incubator programs.
I am honoured to have been invited to stand as an at-large member by DOC National’s nomination committee. If elected, I look forward to engaging with the exciting opportunities offered by this transitional moment and to continuing the legacy of Canada’s pivotal role in the unfolding history of the documentary form.
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