Click here to access Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story full cast and crew credits.

FRANCINE ALLAIRE – PRODUCER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Now Director of Pedagogical Services of the Institut de l’image et du son (INIS), Francine Allaire has been with Galafilm in her role as producer and executive producer since 2001 to 2005. Her noteworthy accomplishments include Tripping the Wire: A Stephen Tree Mystery, a Stephen Surjik’s thriller with Clark Johnson that earned the 2005 Gemini Award for Best TV Movie. Agent of Influence, a CTV movie-of-the-week starring Christopher Plummer, Marina Orsini and directed by Michel Poulette, was sold in over 130 countries. Francine Allaire also produced three docu-soap series, École de danse, Mon été au camping and Marché Jean-Talon, Gémeaux’s Multiculturalism and Best Documentary Awards winner in 2004. The Blue Butterfly, directed by Léa Pool and starring William Hurt, Pascale Bussières and Marc Donato was a huge box-office hit in Canada in 2004.

Despite her new responsibilities at INIS, Francine Allaire is still involved in many Galafilm’s productions. She oversaw the production of La Rage de l’ange, the first feature directed by Dan Bigras released in 2006. The cast includes actors Alexandre Castonguay, Isabelle Guérard, Patrick Martin, Marina Orsini and Pierre Lebeau. Also, CTV recently broadcast an imposing movie made for TV produced by Allaire, Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story. Directed by Charles Binamé and filmed in Montreal, in Germany and in Holland, the film stars Wendy Crewson, John Corbett, William Hurt, Leslie Hope, Heino Ferch and Stipe Erceg. It was also honored with two Audience Choices Awards at the Orinda Film Festival. And a new documentary produced by Francine Allaire, Sylvie Groulx’s La Classe de Madame Lise just won a Jutra Award for best documentary.

In 1996, Francine joined SDA Productions, a subsidiary of Groupe Coscient/Motion International (now TVA International) as VP Development and was involved with the productions Sous le Signe du Lion, Riopelle, sans titre, 1999, collage, as well as, the documentaries In Search of Lucille - The Woman Behind the Surgeon’s Mask and Lucille Teasdale-Médecin de l’espoir. In 2000, she executive produced the MOW Dr Lucille - The Lucille Teasdale Story for CTV, TVA and RAI Uno. It garnered 9 Gemini nominations and won 5 awards including Best Television Movie. This television movie was sold to over 50 countries.

In the early nineties, Francine made her mark with numerous cultural organizations. During this period she worked for Telefilm Canada as Director of International Marketing, establishing and managing a substantial marketing assistance program for Canadian producers and exporters. She was then appointed Director of Communications and Special Projects at the Cinémathèque Québecoise – Musée du Cinéma in Montreal. Following this, Francine consulted for five years in various aspects of film; Content Analyst of film and television projects for Téléfilm Canada, Radio-Québec, Sogic, and the National Film Board of Canada, and as Consultant for Rogers Communications in the establishment of an investment fund for the production of documentaries for Canada’s English and French private sectors. Francine also drafted a study on the status of documentary film for the Quebec Government.

In the mid-70’s, she co-founded Cinéma Libre where she distributed independent Canadian and foreign films in Quebec. As Founder and President of Films Transit Inc. in Montreal and Holland in the 1980s, she managed international sales of Canadian films, organized Canadian film retrospectives throughout Europe, established a Canadian film season slot on Britain’s Channel 4, and produced a Dutch documentary Daughters of the Nile, which was filmed in Egypt, and sold globally.

ANNE MARIE LA TRAVERSE – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND SHOWRUNNER

After 12 years as an executive producer in the film and television industry, Anne Marie La Traverse founded her own company, Pink Sky Entertainment, and is currently producing three movies this year: Tripping Wire, directed by Stephen Surjik and starring Clark Johnson; Hunt for Justice, directed by Charles Binamé and starring Wendy Crewson and William Hurt; and the romantic comedy Playing House, currently in production.

La Traverse joined Alliance Atlantis Films in 1991 as Director of Business Affairs and happily made the leap to executive producing one year later. During her career at Alliance Atlantis Films, she produced such Gemini-award-winning television movies as Lucky Girl, starring Elisha Cuthbert (24), and Murder Most Likely, starring Paul Gross (Due South). Both produced for CTV, they received a total of twelve Gemini nominations, including the prestigious Best TV Movie or Dramatic Miniseries. Lucky Girl was also nominated for best international television movie at the 2002 Banff Television Film Festival.

Further credits as an executive producer include the television movies A.K.A. Albert Walker and No Night is Too Long, both for the BBC; Derby, for ABC and CTV; the Gemini-award-winning and ACE-nominated Race to Freedom: The Underground Railroad, for CTV, The Family Channel and BET; the highly rated Night of the Twisters for CTV and The Family Channel; the series The Associates and Cold Squad for CTV; Destiny Ridge for the Global Television Network; African Skies for The Family Channel; and Mysterious Island for The Family Channel and Global.

From 2000 to early 2003, La Traverse acted as Senior Vice-President, Television Production, for Alliance Atlantis. In that capacity, she developed and oversaw all original Canadian dramatic projects, including the critically acclaimed and Gemini Best Series winner, Eleventh Hour.

A bilingual native of Montréal, La Traverse received her law degree from Osgoode Hall in 1983 and was called to the bar in 1985. Prior to joining Atlantis, she practiced at the Toronto law firm of Strathy, Archibald & Seagram, acted as Montréal representative for Grosvenor Park Securities and was Director of Legal and Business Affairs for Sunrise Films.

ARNIE GELBART – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Arnie Gelbart is the CEO of Galafilm, the internationally renowned, independent film, television and new media production company he founded in 1990.

Between 1984 and 1990, Gelbart co-founded and was President of Cleo 24 Inc, that produced several feature films, notably Cargo, Manuel, le fils emprunté, as well as Vent de galerne. Gelbart has also written and co-written a dozen feature films, such as the critically acclaimed feature Claire... cette nuit et demain and directed a number of dramas, documentaries and shorts.

Gelbart has produced commercially successful documentary programming for Galafilm, including the Primetime Emmy Award-winning series Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within, the Prix Europa winning The Origins of AIDS and Gemeaux Award-winning Big Sugar. Among his dozens of acclaimed and award-winning documentary one-offs, miniseries and series are The Valour and the Horror, The War of 1812, Korea: The Unfinished War, Chiefs, To Kill or to Cure, Marché Jean-Talon, Road Stories for the Flesh-Eating Future and École de Danse.

The company has produced or co-produced four feature award-winning films featuring Canada's internationally acclaimed directors: Lilies (John Greyson), The Hanging Garden (Thom Fitzgerald), Two Thousand and None (Arto Paragamian), and The Blue Butterfly (Lea Pool), La Rage de l’Ange (Dan Bigras), the Jutra Award-winning La Classe de Madame Lise (Sylvie Groulx) and Steel Toes (David Gow). Galafilm has also had great success with children’s programming (Tale of Teeka, The Worst Witch, 15/Love, Fungus the Bogeyman) and adult dramas and MOWs (Tripping the Wire, Hunt for Justice, Agent of Influence, Bliss).

Arnie Gelbart is a member of the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association, as well as a member of the APFTQ.

CHRISTINE RUPPERT – EXECUTIVE CO-PRODUCER

In 1994, Christine Ruppert founded Tatafilm GmbH with her brothers, Dr. Peter Ruppert and Dr. Philipp Reisert. With a head office in Cologne and satellite offices in Munich and Leipzig, the company produces and co-produces German and European films as well as documentaries intended for a wide-reaching, international public. Tatfilm’s feature film credits include Invincible, directed by Werner Herzog and starring Tim Roth, 100PRO which premiered at the Munich Film Festival 2001 and was nominated for the Hypo-Preis, The Crossing, which premiered at San Sebastian in1999 and won the best script prize at the Arcachon Film Festival, Ordinary Decent Criminal, starring Kevin Spacey and Linda Fiorentino, Croupier starring Clive Owen, and All for Love, starring Miranda Richardson. TV movies include Relative Strangers and The Writing on the Wall starring William H. Macy. Documentaries include The Making of the Misfits, directed by Gail Levin, Fashion Victims, Mein liebster Feind – Klaus Kinski / My Best Friend, directed by Werner Herzog, and Waiting for Harvey.

RANDY HOLLESCHAU – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

In 2001, Holleschau combined his extensive business knowledge with the power of creativity to form Crazy Dreams Entertainment. As a successful entrepreneur and business professional, he understands the importance of merging commerce with art in the creation of profitable and entertaining feature films. Holleschau's passion for storytelling and his desire to uplift the human spirit inspired the creation of Crazy Dreams.

As a young actor in the early 1980s, he was featured in many national television commercials and small parts in various films and an NBC television series. As founder and CEO of Crazy Dreams Entertainment, Randy has guided and nurtured the creative process that is so vital to the film industry. His first film, All You Need, directed by Emmy Award winner Randy Ser, starring Kellie Martin, was licensed to PorchLight Entertainment for worldwide distribution including a domestic release on Lifetime Network. Holleschau's sophomore producing effort, Changing Hearts, directed by Martin Guigui, starring Faye Dunaway, Lauren Holly, Tom Skerritt and Ian Somerhalder, was also realeased internationally by PorchLight Entertainment and can be seen on the Lifetime Network. His latest film Confession, starring Chris Pine, Bruce Davison, Cameron Daddo, Peter Greene, and Tom Bosley has wrapped and is currently in postproduction. These films have allowed Holleschau to utilize his years of business experience to discover what independent filmmaking can accomplish when creativity intersects with smart, honorable business practices.

GALAFILM INC.

For over 16 years, Galafilm has been at the forefront of independent film and television production in Canada. Founded and helmed by Arnie Gelbart, the company has grown into one of Canada’s leading producers with a expertise of international co-productions. Synonymous with high-quality production values, Galafilm’s catalogue boasts over 200 hours of award winning and commercially successful entertainment content that aim to educate and entertain worldwide audiences. Galafilm’s diverse slate includes documentaries, youth programs, television dramas and feature films.

A pioneer in Canadian documentary production Galafilm built its reputation by producing close to 150 hours of cutting edge and socially reflective documentaries. Brian McKenna’s widely controversial The Valour and the Horror won three Gemini awards including Best Direction and Best Documentary Series. Since then, the company has earned numerous accolades for its documentaries, such as a 2003 Primetime Emmy award for Cirque du Soleil Fire Within, a 2004 Prix Europa for The Origins of AIDS and a Jutra Award for La classe de Madame Lise. In 2004 and 2005, Galafilm won the Gémeaux Awards for Best Documentary Series for Marché Jean-Talon and Big Sugar.

Galafilm has been a hit with the kids since its first foray into children’s programming; the award winning Tale of Teeka. Following this success the company produced four seasons of the Canada/UK co-production and international hit The Worst Witch. Current youth programs include the highly popular 15/Love, co-produced with France’s Marathon International and Fungus the Bogeyman, produced with production partner Indie Kids based in the UK.

Galafilm’s feature film ventures are striking. The company has produced six feature films, each directed by one of Canada’s pre-eminent talents. Lea Pool’s The Blue Buttefly (2004) was the second highest domestic box-office English-language hit in Canada. Arto Paragamian’s Two Thousand and None (2000) was honoured at the Taormina International Film Festival. Thom Fitzgerald’s The Hanging Garden, was winner of the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award for Most Popular Film and John Greyson’s Lilies (1996), won four Genie Awards (Canada’s Academy Awards) including Best Motion Picture. La Rage de l’ange, directed by Dan Bigras released in 2006, and Steel Toes, directed by David Gow and Mark Adam, will be released in 2007.

As Galafilm’s production slate has expanded so have its creative pursuits. In the last few years, Galafilm has co-produced several successful television dramas. 2003’s Agent of Influence starred Christopher Plummer and Marina Orsini. This true-to-life story of espionage was sold in 130 territories worldwide. Bliss I-III, the groundbreaking erotic anthology series directed and told from a woman’s perspective garnered numerous awards and international recognition. Tripping the Wire: A Stephen Tree Mystery with Clark Johnson has been crowned Best TV Movie at the Geminis 2005. Directed by Charles Binamé, Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story featuring a stellar international cast including Wendy Crewson, John Corbett, William Hurt, Heino Ferch, Stipe Erceg and Leslie Hope was broadcast on CTV in 2006.

Domestic and international broadcast partners include CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV, The Global Television Network, TVOntario, History Television, YTV Canada, Discovery Canada and Discovery US, Showcase, PBS, Bravo!, Bravo US, Oxygen, Channel 4, ITV, France2 and La Cinquième. International coproducers include Indie Kids (UK), France2, Marathon International (France), Multimedia France Productions (MFP) and Germany’s Tatfilm.

More information is available at Galafilm’s website: www.galafilm.com.

CHARLES BINAMÉ – DIRECTOR

An esteemed auteur with an international reputation, Charles Binamé started his career at the National Film Board in the early 1970s. He began making documentaries—sketches of Pierre Vallières, Denis Vanier and others—which immediately revealed Binamé’s artistic and technical talents. After directing documentaries for television and television commercials in Quebec and London England, he turned to dramatic projects, including feature films, television movies and mini series.

In 1993, Binamé directed the television series Blanche, a sequel to Les Filles de Caleb. Blanche won seven Gémeaux awards—including best directing—and the FIPA D’OR in Cannes. This was followed, in quick succession, by two acclaimed feature films: C'était le 12 du 12 et Chili avait les blues, which was selected by Sundance, and Eldorado, which Binamé also wrote, was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, in addition to receiving an honourable mention from the Confédération internationale des cinemas d'art et d'essai européens and a Genie nomination for best direction.

In 1996, he directed the series Marguerite Volant, followed by the movies Le coeur au poing and La Beauté de Pandore, both written by Binamé and featuring Pascale Monpetit. Le coeur au poing won the top prize and the best direction award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, plus the best Canadian screenplay award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2001, he made the documentary Gauvreau ou l'obligation de la liberté.

Binamé recent feature film Séraphin: Un homme et son péché (Heart of Stone), which he wrote and directed, was a critical and popular success, beating the Canadian box-office record with close to $10 million at the box-office, for which he received the Billet d'or at the Jutra awards and the Bobine d'Or at the Genie Awards.

In 2004, he directed his first project in English, the mini-series H20: The Last Prime Minister starring Paul Gross and Leslie Hope (CBC) and, now, Hunt for Justice (CTV). He's currently preparing to shoot a documentary on the legendary filmmaker Gilles Carle.

IAN ADAMS – CO-WRITER

For the past three years, Ian Adams has worked with his 33-year-old son Riley Adams. In close collaboration, they adapted two of Ian’s novels for the screen: CTV’s MOW Agent of Influence, starring Christopher Plummer; and Bad Faith a.k.a. Cold Blooded. Upcoming productions include: S. Portrait of a Spy (Alberta Film Works), Cause of Action (CBC television), based on the combative lawyer career of Rocco Galatti; and The War Correspondent (ImagiNation Films of Calgary), based on the life and death of Clarke Todd.

Ian Adams worked as a reporter/photographer for 25 years. Five of those years were spent as an investigative journalist for Maclean's Magazine where he was assigned to cover national and international stories—such as covering the war in Vietnam as a writer/photographer and revolutions in South America that included the military coup in 1973 that overthrew Salvador Allende of Chile. A naturalized Canadian, Adams was born July 22 1937 in what was then the Belgium Congo. The son of Irish lay missionaries he grew up in central and eastern Africa. He left Africa as a young man to pursue studies in Europe as a visual artist. He now resides and works out of Toronto where, during the 1980s and early 1990s, he wrote television episodes for Night Heat, Street Legal, Adderly, Top Cops, and other episodic shows.

He has written several novels, including Agent of Influence (Stoddart, 1999, with his son Riley), Becoming Tania (McClelland Stewart), Bad Faith (NC Press, 1983), Endgame in Paris (Doubleday, 1979), S. Portrait of a Spy (Gage, 1977), and The Trudeau Papers (McClelland & Stewart, 1972). His non-fiction publications include The Poverty Wall (M&S, 1970) and The Real Poverty Report (Hurtig, 1972).

RILEY ADAMS – CO-WRITER

Following in his father’s footsteps, Riley Adams is a celebrated young investigative journalist and author. After obtaining his university degree from the University of Toronto in Latin American Studies, he lived in Spain and wrote a series of articles for The Globe & Mail. He also published a book with Stoddard Publishing, Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution (written with Ian Adams and Rocco Galati) and Agent of Influence. With his father, Adams turned his book Agent of Influence into a television movie for CTV, directed by Richel Poulette and produced by Alberta Filmworks and Galafilm Inc.

Following his recent collaboration with his father to write Hunt for Justice, he’s teaming up with his father again to develop Resurrection in Kigali, Icarus for Chell.com Productions and The Square: The Tainaman Massacre for Sleeping Dragon Productions.

MICHELLE LOVRETTA – CO-WRITER

After studying film and television writing at York University and the Canadian Film Center, Michelle Lovretta immediately embarked upon an industrious career in her field. Her writing credits include: The Fishing Trip, a feature film produced by Camelia Frieberg and directed by Amnon Buckbinder, which garnering a Genie Award nomination for best supporting actress and was on the Cannes Film Festival Short List in 1999; the new television series Instant Star, which Lovretta is the executive producer; Relic Hunter; The Associates; The Goon Squad; Banff Springs a.k.a. The Radley, co-created with Paul Quarrington; and Sherpa Love for the CBC. Lovretta was also the story editor and executive story editor on Mutant X (2003) and The Associates (2001). Currently, she’s working with Anne Marie La Traverse, who is producing Lavretta’s romantic comedy Playing House for CTV/Alliance Atlantis.

DOMINIQUE FORTIN - EDITOR

Dominique Fortin is a much sought after Montreal editor whose many credits in feature film include: La Vie avec mon Père (2004); Head In The Clouds starring Charlize Theron, Penélope Cruz and Stewart Townsend); Seducing Doctor Lewis, winner of the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival and the 2004 Jutra award for best editing, How My Mother Gave Birth To Me During Menopaus; The Sixth Day directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; Sunshine, a Golden Globe nominated and Genie Award winner for Best Picture, directed by Istvan Szabo and starring Ralph Fiennes; Tomorrow Never Dies, directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Pierce Brosnan, Erreur Sur La Personne; Les Amoureuses; Montreal Vu Par; Respondetemi, directed by Lea Pool, and City Of Champion.

Her contributions to documentary film include close collaborations with Jean-Claude Labreque on Les Compagnons de Saint-Laurent, André Mathieu, Musicien, and 67 Bis Boulevard Lannes; plus Lea Pool’s Histoires de Femmes; In My Own Time, Les Seins dans la Tête and Une Enfance à Natashquan.

Renowned for her work in television as well, Dominique has also collaborated extensively with director Roger Spottiswoode on Icebound starring Susan Sarandon, The Matthew Shepard Story produced by Goldie Hawn, Prince Street, and Hiroshima—which garnered her the 1996 ACE award for Best Editing as well as nominations for the EMMY and the Jutra.

MICHEL CUSSON - COMPOSER

From his acclaimed place in the international spotlight as the virtuoso guitarist of the famed jazz-fusion band UZEB, to his established position behind the scenes as a talented television and film score composer, Michel’s work has garnered dozens of awards, including 14 Félix Awards, 7 SOCAN awards, 6 Gémeaux Awards, and a Gemini. His original score for the hit film Séraphin – Un Homme et son Péché earned him the Jutra Award in 2003 for Best Original Music and has set the record as the best-selling soundtrack in Quebec with more than 75,000 copies sold to date. In November 2003, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television awarded Michel with one of its highest honours, a Prix des Immortels de la télé for his three-time award winning scores for the TV series Omertà.

He began composing at the age of fifteen and in 1976, when he was only 19 years old, he founded the legendary group UZEB that went on to tour 20 countries and release 10 award-winning albums. When the group broke apart in 1991, Michel knew that film scoring was to be the next phase in his career. Within a decade, his credits ranged from Cavalia, an equestrian mega-show staged under one of the world’s largest touring big tops, to box-office favourites like Michel Boujenah’s Père et Fils Charles Binamé’s Séraphin, Jean Beaudin’s Le Collectionneur and the IMAX documentaries Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, Wolves and Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag by Stephen Low. Michel’s roster of television scores includes the series Napoleon starring Gérard Depardieu, Isabella Rosselini and John Malkovich, as well as several episodes of the Cirque du Soleil’s Solstrom series and countless episodes of the popular Tag, Bunker, Last Chapter and Omertà (1996-1999). Having created the music for 16 films, six mega-shows, 13 television series and 26 albums, Michel views these achievements as just the beginning.