Photo by Nicolas Jolliet

Toronto – PTV Productions is proud to announce that Inside the Haiti Earthquake has been nominated for a 2011 Webby Award, in the category of Best Writing in Online Film & Video.

Users can vote for the project in the Webby “People’s Voice” competition, where ITHE is competing against several comedy submissions, including an Old Spice ad:

http://webby.aol.com/media_types/online-film-and-video?focused_on_category=899#cat_id_899

Inside the Haiti Earthquake combines documentary footage with an original script to allow users to experience the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake from the perspective of a survivor, aid worker, or journalist.  The simulation was written by Michael Gibson, a previous Webby Award honoree, and co-directed by Gibson and Nicolas Jolliet (bios here).

“Michael was tasked with creating a script structure out of a documentary that had not yet been shot, then bringing it to life with the real-life footage and stories our crew brought back from Haiti.  We gave Michael a near-impossible task and he wildly exceeded all of our hopes and expectations.” says producer Katie McKenna.

Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Award closes April 28th.  Webby Award winners will be announced June 13th.

Inside the Haiti Earthquake is a previous winner of a 2011 Applied Arts Interactive Award (Gaming), a nominee for the 2010 Canadian New Media Awards (Best Cross-Platfrom Project & Best Web-Based Game), and a nominee for the 2011 HistoryMakers Awards (Best Interactive Production).

Toronto – A behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming documentary series about the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti, Inside Disaster.

Director / producer Nadine Pequeneza wants her upcoming documentary series on the Red Cross in Haiti to help viewers understand the complexities of humanitarian relief. Featuring exclusive footage from Inside Disaster, coming in Fall 2010:

Inside Disaster is directed by Nadine Pequeneza, and will be released in Fall 2010.

J.P. is the leader of the IFRC Field Assessment and Coordination Team in Haiti. He first worked for the Red Cross as a volunteer, helping to provide relief to people displaced by floods in his hometown of Sainte-Marie de Beauce, Quebec. Nineteen years later he is leading the largest single-country response in the Red Cross’ history. JP led the Red Cross’ earthquake response in Peru in 2007, and managed their hurricane response in Haiti in 2008 – but going into Haiti he knows this mission is different. A major disaster, in a capital city, in one of the poorest countries in the world.

The scale of the disaster and the population’s overwhelming need moves him and his team to call in 21 Emergency Response Units (ERUs) in the first two weeks of the disaster. He and his team immediately set priorities: health, then water, then relief, then food, then shelter.

As the situation on the ground changes, so do priorities. JP must adapt to constantly shifting realities, as displaced Haitians migrate, food insecurity grows, and the rainy season threatens hundreds of thousands of Haitians left homeless by the earthquake.

* * *

Steve McAndrew
Red Cross FACT Relief team

Over the past decade, Steve McAndrew has responded to close to 50 disasters around the world. He arrives in Haiti on day 3 of the disaster to lead the Red Cross’ global relief distributions. His emergency response team is among the first relief workers to start distributing blankets, tarps, and cooking sets, but their supplies are limited to pre-positioned stock – goods held in country by the Haitian Red Cross.

In the first weeks of the Red Cross operation, getting enough supplies to distribute is the biggest challenge. After being closed for two days after the earthquake, the Port-au-Prince airport re-opens, but with so many NGOs responding to the disaster the Red Cross is competing for landing slots with over 100 agencies. Military food drops and the use of armed security in the first days of the response have set a disorderly tone for distributions, which make it difficult for organizations like the Red Cross to operate.

Committed to providing aid without guns, Steve’s team organizes local committees to help assess and distribute relief. Getting their message and goods across to the million plus Haitians in need is never easy.

* * *

Gennike Mayers
FACT Information Officer

Haiti is Gennike’s first time responding to a natural disaster. As an information officer with the Red Cross national society in Trinidad, her day-to-day work deals with number and statistics; in Haiti, she’s seeing the human face of disaster for the first time.

As the FACT team’s information officer, Gennike’s job is to report on what’s happening in the field, so that donors can get the Red Cross perspective on the relief operation, and understand the priorities and challenges. On day 2 of the disaster, her first story is reporting on how the Haitian Red Cross is coping with the thousands injured in the earthquake. In a makeshift clinic, set up in the car park of a police station, Gennike is moved to try to help a pregnant woman who will die if she doesn’t receive medical treatment. Through out her mission Gennike comes face to face with people who need her assistance, forcing her to come to terms with not only her own limitations to provide help, but also the limitations of even large organizations like the Red Cross.

* * *

Ian Heigh
Red Cross FACT ERU Logistics Coordinator

Ian Heigh leads the logistics Emergency Response Unit, the most critical component of the Red Cross mission in the early days of disaster. His job is to get specialized teams, life-saving equipment and relief supplies into the field — but the Haiti earthquake has a record number of complicating factors. The scale of the disaster, the number of people affected, a weak pre-existing infrastructure, and the location of the earthquake – an overcrowded capital city — makes Haiti one of the most challenging missions in Ian’s 20-year career.

His team must move tens of thousands of tons of supplies through a damaged airport, a destroyed port, and a city in ruins. Within two weeks, the Red Cross’ Haiti operation becomes the largest disaster response the organization has ever run in a single country. Twenty-one Emergency Response Units (ERUs) supplying healthcare, water, sanitation, relief and shelter are deployed to the field. With more than half of P-A-P flattened, Ian is also tasked with finding land and warehouses for a rapidly expanding operation.

* * *

Hossam Elsharkawi
Red Cross FACT Emergency Field Hospital Coordinator

At age 4, Hossam Elsharkawi was medevaced out of war-torn Gaza by the Red Cross. As soon as he was old enough, he began volunteering in disaster zones.

A public health specialist, Hossam is in charge of establishing the Red Cross’ rapid deployment field hospital, an Emergency Response Unit (ERU) which he helped develop. It’s designed for easy transport and quick assembly – plug and play – and the Haiti earthquake is its first deployment. Hossam and his medical team are on the ground just four days after the quake, but logistical problems delay surgery. A damaged airport, blocked roads and downed communications are the recurring challenges in the early days of the operation.

With 20 years experience responding to some of the world’s worst disasters in over 30 countries, Hossam becomes the point person for organizing the dozen NGOs that set up around the general hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince.

* * *

Louken Pluviose
Volunteer Paramedic

Louken Pluviose is a volunteer paramedic without any formal medical training in a camp called Juvenat. He is a natural healer who uses his rudimentary first-aid training to open a clinic. Starting with only gauze and a few aspirin and with the help of the Nicaraguan military he builds a first-class clinic for the community in his camp.

Louken’s dream is to win a scholarship to a medical school in Florida; it’s a dream he is avidly pursuing. His story is uplifting and inspirational.

* * *

Magalie Landee
Haitian Entrepreneur

Magalie Landee is a 37-year-old, middle class entrepreneur who lost four of her five children, her business and her house in the earthquake. She lives on the street next to her destroyed home with her 11-year-old son, and her deeply depressed husband. Weeks go by and Magalie’s neighbourhood of Car Feuille, in the hills surrounding Port-au-Prince, receives very little assistance. A water truck comes regularly, but food is scarce for those who don’t have money. Magalie must rely on the goodwill of her neighbours to eat. She and her remaining family sleep on pieces of cardboard on the street in the open air. There is no privacy to wash or go to the bathroom.

Magalie is a strong woman, who built a thriving electronics business with the help of her family, but her resolve seems to have died along with her children. She says she doesn’t have the strength to start over. For Magalie just staying alive is a daily battle.

* * *

Marcel Phevenun
Haitian Mechanic

Marcel can fix anything. He’s a mechanic by trade and a survivor at heart. None of Marcel’s family died in the earthquake, but he lost his home. Refusing to dwell on the past, Marcel immediately builds a shelter made of wood and sheet metal for he and his family in Champ de Mars; a 35,000-person camp opposite the destroyed National Palace.

To feed his family Marcel finds work fixing motorbikes and cars; he has never been dependent on aid and doesn’t want to start now. He is the leader of his large extended family: a wife, a son, eight siblings, and his mother. They all look to Marcel for answers, especially his mentally challenged brother, Romain. Romain dreams about going to the United States because he loves Obama and sees no future in Haiti. It is up to Marcel to balance the hopes and dreams of not only the loved ones around him, but himself.

Weeks after the earthquake the situation in Haiti remains dire, and Marcel is worried for his own future and the future of his country.

Toronto – A behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming documentary series about the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti, Inside Disaster.

Cinematographer/ field director Stefan Randstrom describes filming Marcel and Romain’s quad-bike tour of a “post-apocalyptic” Port-au-Prince. Featuring exclusive footage from the documentary series Inside Disaster, coming in Fall 2010:

Inside Disaster is directed by Nadine Pequeneza, and will be released in Fall 2010. You can learn more about the documentary crew here, or join our mailing list at right to receive updates on the production.

Toronto - A behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming documentary series about the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti, Inside Disaster.

In this video, Inside Disaster Location Sound Recordist Simon Paine was confronted with a life-and-death situation during the crew’s documentary shoot:

Inside Disaster is directed by Nadine Pequeneza, and will be released in Fall 2010. You can learn more about the documentary crew here, or join our mailing list at right to receive updates on the production.

Toronto – A behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming documentary series about the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti, Inside Disaster.
Featuring exclusive footage from the documentary series Inside Disaster, coming in Fall 2010.

In this video Directorand producer, Nadine Pequeneza, describes the complexities of successful aid distribution in Haiti:

Inside Disaster is directed by Nadine Pequeneza, and will be released in Fall 2010. You can learn more about the documentary crew here, or join our mailing list at right to receive updates on the production.

Toronto – A behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming documentary series about the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti, Inside Disaster.

Location Sound Recordist Simon Paine describes meeting Louken, a young Haitian Red Cross volunteer thrust into a leadership role after the earthquake:

Inside Disaster is directed by Nadine Pequeneza, and will be released in Fall 2010. You can learn more about the documentary crew here, or join our mailing list at right to receive updates on the production.

Toronto – A behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming documentary series about the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti, Inside Disaster.

Cinematographer/ field director Stefan Randstrom describes meeting Marcel and Romain, two brothers building a house in the Champs-de-Mars camp. Featuring exclusive footage from the documentary series Inside Disaster, coming in Fall 2010.

Inside Disaster is directed by Nadine Pequeneza, and will be released in Fall 2010. You can learn more about the documentary crew here, or join our mailing list at right to receive updates on the production.

Toronto – A behind-the-scenes look at our upcoming documentary series about the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti, Inside Disaster.

Director and Producer Nadine Pequeneza describes what her crew saw in Haiti’s camps in the month after the earthquake:

Inside Disaster is directed by Nadine Pequeneza, and will be released in Fall 2010. You can learn more about the documentary crew here, or join our mailing list at right to receive updates on the production.

TORONTO, June 4 /CNW/ – Five months after the disastrous earthquake, the Inside Disaster documentary crew returns to Haiti to continue filming. Donations, press attention and funds are diminishing and, with the hurricane season about to hit, tensions are running high – millions are still without proper shelter or care.

Haitians that are residing in camps are being encouraged to return to their homes but, with land rights causing a building gridlock and hurricane season looming, the country has a long way to go. The crew will cover breaking stories and reconnect with the earthquake survivors and humanitarian workers they followed during their month-long shoot immediately after the earthquake.

The Inside Disaster documentary series offers unprecedented access to the International Red Cross relief teams throughout their post-earthquake recovery efforts. The crew will be following the stories of both the victims and heroes that survived and responded to the quake.

“When a disaster first hits, media coverage is intense, but the news reports are short-lived. Humanitarian agencies remain years after a big disaster to help reconstruct a country. The obstacles they face are many and complex. Inside Disaster explores the issues surrounding disaster recovery, reconstruction and prevention.” – Nadine Pequeneza, Director.

The Inside Disaster website offers a rich resource of frequently-updated photos, blog posts, video and mini-documentaries from the front lines of post-earthquake Haiti.

Series director Nadine Pequeneza will be available for interviews from Port-au-Prince between June 6th and June 12th.

The series will air on TVO, Canal D, Access and SCN in 2011 and is being distributed by ITV Studios Global Entertainment, which has all rights to the series outside Canada. Produced in association with TVO, ITVS Global Entertainment, Canal D, ACCESS, SCN and ichannel, with the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the participation of the Canadian Television Fund.

PTV Productions Inc. is an established, diverse & innovative producer of documentaries, lifestyle and factual series. It is owned and operated by Andrea Nemtin and Ian Dunbar. PTV Productions works with broadcasters and co-producers in Canada and around the world, and owns a growing library of over 60 hours of award-winning and award-nominated documentaries and series.

For further information: or to schedule an interview please contact Lyndsey Westfall, lwestfall [at] ptvproductions.ca, (416) 531-0100 x233