Pete McCormack (born January 27, 1965) is a Canadian author, filmmaker, screenwriter and musician. He is best known for directing the Academy Award short-listed documentary Facing Ali and the Leacock Award-nominated novel Understanding Ken. He is the creator of the HBO Canada documentary television series '' Sports on Fire''.

Film

In 2003, McCormack directed and wrote his first feature film, the award-winning '' See Grace Fly'', starring

Paul McGillion Paul McGillion (born January 5, 1969) is a Scottish-Canadian actor, who has worked in television, film and theatre. He is best known for his role on the television series ''Stargate Atlantis'' as Dr. Carson Beckett. Early life McGillion was bo ...

and

Gina Chiarelli Gina Chiarelli is a Canadian actress."Setting high standards for Vancouver stage acting: In separate performances, Seana McKenna and Gina Chiarelli show how it's done". ''Vancouver Sun'', January 17, 2001. Most associated with stage roles in Vancou ...

. Chiarelli won multiple awards and was nominated for a

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978), known as the "Etrog Awards" for sculptor ...

for her role as Grace McKinley, a woman suffering from schizophrenia. In 2006, McCormack wrote and co-directed (with Jesse James Miller) the award-winning documentary ''Uganda Rising'', about the plight of the people of Northern Uganda. The film was narrated by

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-winner

Kevin Spacey Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. Known for Kevin Spacey on screen and stage, his work on stage and screen, he List of awards and nominations received by Kevin Spacey, has received numerous accolades, including two ...

. For

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

in 2007, McCormack wrote and co-directed (with Tim Hardy) the 25-minute

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...

-narrated short film ''Hope in the Time of AIDS'' about the HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and the potential of antiretroviral drugs. In 2009, McCormack directed the documentary ''

Facing Ali ''Facing Ali'' is a 2009 documentary directed by Pete McCormack about Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky) as told from the perspectives of ten opponents he faced during his career: George Ch ...

''. The film was short-listed in the 2010 Academy Awards’ category for best full-length documentary. In October 2009, the film won the Audience Choice award for Best Documentary at the

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festi ...

. In 2011, McCormack directed '' I Am Bruce Lee'', a biographical documentary of

Bruce Lee Bruce Lee (born Lee Jun-fan; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was an American-born Hong Kong martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy which was formed from ...

. Its debut on Spike TV was the highest rated documentary in the station's history, reaching 1.4 million viewers. Spike's previous record-holder was McCormack's 2009 documentary, ''Facing Ali''. In 2015, McCormack created, directed and executive produced the HBO Canada documentary television series ''Sports On Fire''. In 2016, his film '' Spirit Unforgettable'', a profile of the rock band

Spirit of the West Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which m ...

on their final concert tour, premiered at the

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...

. Screenplays: * Whirlygirl, 2006, directed by Academy Award Winning producer Jim Wilson ( Dances With Wolves) * Plague City: SARS in Toronto (TV movie), 2005 * The Blue Butterfly, 2004, directed by

Léa Pool Léa Pool C.M. (born 8 September 1950) is a Canadian and Swiss filmmaker. She has directed several documentaries and feature films, many of which have won significant awards including the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and she was the first wom ...

and starring Academy Award winner

William Hurt William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. For his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Cannes Film Festival Award for B ...

Novels

McCormack's first novel, Shelby, about a university drop-out who falls for an exotic dancer near the end of her career, was published in 1994. McCormack's second novel, Understanding Ken, was released in 1998. The novel focused on a young boy who creates a mythology around hockey, the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

and

Ken Dryden Kenneth Wayne Dryden (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender, politician, lawyer, businessman, and author. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was ...

in order to deal with the trauma of his parents’ divorce. In 1999 the novel was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award for Canadian Humour, and named one of the 10 best books of the year by the Ottawa Citizen.

Music

McCormack has released three independent CDs. His debut CD, Breathe, was released in 1995.

Paul Hyde Paul Reginald Nelson (born 21 May 1955), known by the stage name Paul Hyde, is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter. He co-founded the rock band Payola$ with Bob Rock, serving as the band's main lyricist and vocalist. He later performed and ...

Payola$ Payolas (stylized as Payola$) was a Canadian rock band that was most prominent in the 1980s. Evolving from a new wave sound toward mainstream pop rock, they were best known for the single "Eyes of a Stranger", from their 1982 album '' No Strang ...

fame, and members of

Geoffrey Kelly Geoffrey Kelly (born October 23, 1956, in Dumfries, Scotland) is a Canadian rock musician. He played guitars, flutes and bodhrán for the folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and Amer ...

, Hugh MacMillan and drummer and producer

Vince Ditrich Vince Richard Ditrich (born April 4, 1963) is a Canadian rock musician, best known as the drummer and manager of the band Spirit of the West. Ditrich is also the author of three novels featuring fictional musician Tony Vicar. Early life Ditrich ...

played on the CD. Renowned jazz musician and two-time

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

winner Brad Turner played the trumpet solo on the opening track “Stay With Me.” McCormack released a second CD, Trust, in 1998. The track, Be Brave Tonight, was screen-tested in Los Angeles as the proposed song to close the Kevin Costner-film

Message in a Bottle A message in a bottle (abbrev. MIB) is a form of communication in which a message is sealed in a container (typically a bottle) and released into a conveyance medium (typically a body of water). Messages in bottles have been used to send distres ...

. The song was ultimately not chosen because the screen-test audience reportedly found the song combined with the film's ending “too depressing.” McCormack recorded an unplugged third album, Wide Open, in 2008. In 2009, he contributed the closing song to the Academy Award-shortlisted documentary,

, which he also directed.

Personal life

McCormack was born in

Thetford, Norfolk Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2011 had a population of 24 ...

, England. His father was a doctor. In 1966, his family emigrated to Canada where he grew up mostly in the West Kootenay area of British Columbia. His parents divorced when he was six. McCormack attended Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia from 1984 to 1986. McCormack dropped out of university after three and a half years and started writing songs. McCormack currently lives in Vancouver and is married to Samantha Reynolds, also a writer, and CEO of Echo Storytelling Agency, a custom media company.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McCormack, Pete 1965 births Canadian male screenwriters Film directors from Vancouver Living people Canadian humorists People from Thetford Canadian documentary film directors Writers from Vancouver British emigrants to Canada Screenwriters from British Columbia