JERRY KREPAKEVICH

Jerry Krepakevich is an independent Production Consultant/Sound Designer-Editor with director, writer, editor, sound editor, mixer and producer credits on over 140 films, including animation, documentary and drama during a 34 year career at the National Film Board of Canada. He has also returned to two of his first loves, photography and sound production, having recently partnered with Downy Karvonen in Sonus Post Audio, a sound editing and mixing studio.

Formerly Regional Producer at the National Film Board of Canada's North West Centre in Edmonton, his recent credits include four documentaries for the CBC Witness series: In My Own Time: Diary of a Cancer Patient (1995), which won Gemini Awards for Best Science program and Best Director; The Sterilization of
Leilani Muir (1996), an examination of a dark period in Alberta history; My Healing Journey: Seven Years With Cancer (1999), which also won two Geminis for Best Direction in a Documentary and Best Science, Technology,
Nature, Environment or Adventure Documentary and Honour of the Crown (2001). Recently, he also produced
Worst Case Scenario (2001), which was broadcast on the CBC's Nature of Things and Beaverman (2002) which was broadcast on CBC Newsworld’s Rough Cuts.

His recent films include Lost Songs (2001), providing a Native perspective on an era of Canadian medical history; Donna's Story (2001), about a remarkable Aboriginal woman who overcame a life of addiction and prostitution to help others on that path; Truckers; The Road well Travelled, which tells the story of several long haul truckers(2001); Red Run, which documents the spectacular and dangerous fishing methods used by Aboriginal bands netting salmon along the Fraser River Canyon and Totem; the return of the G'psgolox Pole which documents the struggle to obtain the return of the totem pole taken from northern British Columbia to Stockholm, Sweden in 1928( Jerry was not only one of the producers on this film but also sound edited this film with his partner, Downy Karvonen for release as a surround sound production).

Recent productions also include several award-winning films on war and the military which premiered on the CBC Network: Protection Force (1995), a three-part series exploring the daily lives of Canada's peacekeepers;
Forgotten Warriors (1997), a one-hour television special dealing with the contributions of Canada's Aboriginal veterans; and Lost Over Burma: Search for Closure (1997), a Remembrance Day special about six young Canadian airmen who disappeared in the jungles of Burma in the Second World War. Other production highlights include Cactus Swing (1995), a toe-tapping animated short that played in theatres across Canada, and the educational videos
Unsuitable Actions (1997), winner of the Amtec Award of Excellence and the Canadian Educational Association Award, and Appropriate Actions (1998), Bronze Apple Award winner, National Educational Media Network. His recent productions with Aboriginal filmmakers include: Silent Tears (1997), The Gift (1998) and The Little Trapper (1999).

Originally from Saskatchewan, Krepakevich joined the NFB in 1967 after a polyvalent career that encompassed theatre, farming, carpentry, photography and radio. At the Board, he directed such films as the multi-award winners
I've Never Walked the Steppes (1975) and Long Lance (1985), the story of an imposter. In 1974, he coordinated the opening of the Prairie Studio and went on to serve as the NFB's first producer at the Winnipeg unit.

Over the years, Krepakevich's film's have won numerous international prizes. Film festivals around the world honoured Elk Island: Managing a Sanctuary (1985), Shooting Stars (1987) (a Stein-MacLean Production in co-production with the NFB, produced with Allan Stein), and Foster Child, which has garnered nine awards since its release in 1987. In 1989, as part of the NFB's 50th Anniversary, Krepakevich produced Movie Showman, a tribute to the early itinerant projectionist on the prairies. The Spirit Within (1989), an introduction to Native spirituality programs in Western Canadian penal institutions, won a slate of prizes, including a Special Merit Award at the
American Indian Film and Video Competition and a Wilbur Award from the Religious Communicators Council.

Jerry Krepakevich has also co-produced such films as Land of the Ice Bear (1999), a nature documentary (with Karvonen Films); Beating the Streets (1998), a documentary about street kids (with Lorna Thomas Productions); and, most recently, Manon Rheaume: The Woman Behind the Mask (2000) (with Voice Pictures and Les Productions Colin Neale), the extraordinary tale of the first and only woman ever to play hockey in the NHL. He also served as NFB producer on such features as Anne Wheeler's Bye Bye Blues (1989 ), nominated for a dozen Genie Awards and winner of three, and The Song Spinner (1997), which was nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards and three Cable Ace Awards.