The Museum

It's tough running a museum in the 21st century, competing with all the flashy distractions of the digital age. So when William Thorsell assumes command of Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, he moves quickly to rejuvenate the beloved but dowdy old lady of Bloor Street.

As former editor of one of Canada's leading newspapers, Thorsell envisions an iconic public building— a bold gesture that will inject a shot of architectural amphetamine into the staid and sensible veins of Canada's biggest burg. Who to trust with such a venture?
Enter Daniel Libeskind. More than a celebrity architect, Libeskind is a global brand linked to some of the world's most prestigious building projects, including the most famous of all—Ground Zero.

As Libeskind's unusual crystalline structure rises into the Toronto sky, Thorsell and Libeskind dance a high-tension tango. Budgets are blown. Timetables trashed. Citizens outraged. Smartly tuned to contemporary debates on public architecture, The Museum charts the progress of Thorsell's grand scheme in an entertaining tale of art, ego and steel beams.

Kenton Vaughan, Director

Over the last ten years, Toronto based filmmaker Kenton Vaughan has directed many award-winning documentaries, including The Ghosts of Lomako, which appeared on The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. His last feature, Todd McFarlane: The Devil You Know (2002), was broadcast on CBC, The Documentary Channel, Bravo, Space and TVOntario.

Gordon Henderson, Producer

Before Gordon Henderson founded 90th Parallel Productions in 1987, he was a parliamentary correspondent for Global TV, a documentary producer at CBC's The Journal and the senior field producer at CTV's W-FIVE. Henderson was the senior series producer of the landmark CBC/Radio-Canada series "Canada: A People's History." For more than a decade he was an instructor with the Journalism department at Toronto's Ryerson University./p>

Silva Basmajian, Producer

Since 1976, Silva Basmajian's more than 65 NFB films have garnered numerous awards, with many premiering at more than 200 festivals, including Berlin, Toronto and Sundance. As executive producer of the NFB Ontario Centre, Ms. Basmajian oversees English-language production, fostering partnerships among broadcasters and other industry leaders. Since her appointment in 2004, she has explored innovative ways to tell Canadian and international stories and championed innovative projects like the groundbreaking NFB Filmmaker-in-Residence at St. Michael's Hospital and North America's first interactive dramatic feature film, Late Fragment, co-produced with the Canadian Film Centre. Recently, Basmajian co-produced the critically acclaimed Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma, and is executive producer for Deepa Mehta's new feature drama Heaven on Earth, the 2008 Hot Docs winner FLicKeR, along with Tiger Spirit and the 2007 Hot Docs winner The Bodybuilder and I.