The Creators

Director

JOHANNA J. LUNN

Executive Producer

James Hoagland


Award-winning producer, director, and writer, Johanna has crafted, and assisted in crafting, many compelling, entertaining, and profoundly thought-provoking programs during her 20+ years in the business. Her work has received eight Gemini (Canadian equivalent of an Emmy) nominations and taken home three awards. In addition to producing more than 150 hours of television series and one-offs as an in-house executive producer, she has made independent documentaries for her own companies, Wild East Productions and Centre East Media, and won best documentary at Hot Docs International Film Festival for her moving and timely film, Forgiveness: Stories for Our Time. She has worked as Director of Programming for Alliance Atlantis and played a key role in the launch of IFC—The Independent Film Channel Canada. Prior to that, Johanna was Head of Independent Production for CTV, Canada’s #1 network. She created View-finders, the first competitive international children’s film festival in English-speaking Canada, and was Artistic Director of the Atlantic Film Festival. Johanna’s most recent documentary, An Uncommon King, is still making its way around the world through festivals and iTunes.
James has been working in the documentary form for more than 30 years as a producer, camera operator, sound recordist, editor and technical wizard, responsible for setting a new standard for restoring outdated video formats. He has also worked extensively in archival settings. In addition to numerous educational projects, his film credits include the recently remastered release of The Lion’s Roar about the life of His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa; Discovering Elegance, about an environmental “dharma” art exhibit created by meditation master Chögyam Trungpa, held at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art; and Living Peace, about an award given to His Holiness the Dalai Lama at The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya in Colorado featuring talks by Her Majesty Queen Noor, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Rabbi Irwin Kula. His most recent project An Uncommon King, is currently screening around the world.

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