DOCUMENTARY DIVA SETS UP SHOP IN CREATIVE COMMUNITY OF B.C.
Malcolm Parry

Vancouver Sun, BC
Oct 30 2008
Canada

SECURITY SCREENED: Montreal-raised Margaret Mardirossian enjoyed
producing, stage-managing and directing live-theatre shows in Edmonton,
but "wanted something tangible at the end of the day." Money,
that is. So she took the Canadian Securities course, not to become
a stockbroker but to pick up business smarts she hadn’t acquired
from a McGill University English-and-drama degree. "It helped me see
what investors are looking for when they’re putting money into your
project," said Mardirossian, who "begged, borrowed and pleaded" for
$60,000 to make the 1992 documentary movie Ronnie Burkett: A Line of
Balance about the Lethbridge-born puppeteer.

Without pulling strings herself, she also got married. That was to
broker Bradley Gifford, whom she approached as a possible mentor
after leafing through phone-directory advertisements. "So, I got my
husband through the Yellow Pages," Mardirossian cracked this week
while setting up a 3,500-square-foot North Vancouver office for the
now-12-employee Anaid Productions firm she launched "on no capital"
to make the Burkett movie.

"Anaid is the goddess of nurturing and growth in Armenian mythology,"
said third-generation Canadian Mardirossian, who was herself nurtured
by "the creative explosion" of late-1990s Alberta. When her debut
documentary won a Canadian Council for the Arts "Most Innovative"
award, she produced The Tourist TV series for three 13-episode
years. Simultaneously, she signed Oscar-nominated Elliott Gould to star
in the first of 52 $500,000 episodes of Mentors, in which a 13-year-old
boy conjured up historical characters to solve modern-world problems.

With reality, reality, reality becoming TV’s new watchwords,
Mardirossian made — and won a Gemini for — 49 half-hour episodes
of Taking It Off. That "docu-soap" cost $100,000 to $150,000 per
episode as it followed several individuals involved in weight-loss
programs. Anaid, meanwhile, had to add financial muscle with the
Canadian Television Fund providing up to 35 per cent of shooting
budgets. But the show spurred Anaid’s most successful series yet,
the 2005 X-Weighted, for which broadcasters wanted the story of each
participant — some lose 100 pounds — told fully in one-hour episodes
costing $300,000 each.

X-Weighted won a Gemini this month and led to a series she’s now
shooting about "fitter, healthier families." Meanwhile, Anaid’s The Rig
series, about Alberta oil-sands wildcatters, is in its second season,
and the "docu-sitcom" Family Restaurant series has morphed from 16
episodes about an Edmonton Greek restaurant to a Chinese eatery run
by the Quon family.

As for Mardirossian’s new West Coast office, "The B.C. government
has invested money in the creative community and established an
infrastructure that contains a wealth of creative resources. [Former
Alberta premier] Ralph Klein basically shut down the arts community,
and it’s very difficult to get that engine roaring again."

She’s now planning to shoot at least one non-reality drama. But there
might be big viewership for a season detailing how husbands are found
— even via the Yellow Pages.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress