Producer transformed Manitoba film industry

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This article was published 16/02/2021 (2072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Film producer Derek Mazur, credited with being one of the key creators of the Manitoba film industry, died of cancer Thursday, Feb. 11, in Winnipeg at the age of 73.

Mazur was the president of Credo Group, a company that was pivotal in launching the commercial film industry in the province with films such as Lost in the Barrens (1990), The Curse of the Viking Grave (1992) and The Diviners (1993). Credo went out of business in 2001, and Mazur subsequently worked as the CEO of the Nunavut Film Development Corp. (NFDC) from 2011 to 2017. But people in the local film community remember him as someone who made an indelible mark on the industry here.

“(Credo made) so many films that gave so many of us our first jobs in film,” says Louise O’Brien-Moran, director of film financing at Manitoba Film & Music. “Everybody that has been working in the industry for 20 years or more probably got their first jobs on a Credo show.”

Retired film editor Robert Lower, who has known Mazur since 1976, says he remembers Mazur for his sheer energy.

“He was a beginner in 1976,” Lower says. “He had no film experience, but he had an amazing ability to learn fast and really great creative judgment.

“He brought an energy and a positiveness to any project that he was interested in. He was one of those guys who makes you want to do your best, and when you did, he was always generous in his appreciation.”

Phyllis Laing, CEO of Buffalo Gal Pictures in Winnipeg, recalls Mazur as someone who nurtured potential in others, including herself.

“I was an accountant for film and I did a number of projects at Credo,” Laing says of her introduction to the business. “My first son was born in 1988, and after he was born, people would see him in the Jolly Jumper at Credo’s offices while I worked away on various accounting projects.

“My Mothers Ghost (1996) was the first television movie that I produced, and he was my mentor. He definitely took me under his wing.”

Producer Kim Todd of Original Pictures (Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale) remembers being enticed by Mazur to leave Toronto and come to Winnipeg when she was a Toronto-based producer at Atlantis Films and came to the province to work on The Diviners, an Atlantis/Credo co-production.

“I was the out-of-town producer and Derek was the person who put together the Manitoba crew,” Todd recalls in a phone interview from Toronto.

“From the moment I arrived in Winnipeg, Derek started telling people — in his Derek-y way — that I was moving to Winnipeg,” she says. “We had had no conversations about this or anything. One day he had his real estate agent come to lunch and introduced him to me. He was a very determined guy.

“I was separated from my partner at the time and becoming a single mom to a three-year-old daughter, and Derek’s offer actually fit with allowing me partners that I could work with and have the freedom to make my own choices,” Todd says. “Ultimately, his convincing me that I should leave Atlantis Films and join Credo as a member of the team gave me a way to raise my daughter. For that I will always be grateful to him.”

Both Laing and Todd say Mazur was the driving force behind the Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Association (MMPIA, later OnScreen Manitoba) and lobbied for the industry tax incentives that helped Manitoba compete across the country.

“I have so many good memories and so many laughs just thinking about some of the things that Derek would get up to,” Laing says. “He really believed in Manitoba and he believed our industry could be as good as anywhere else. And he worked very, very hard to make that happen.

“Derek was a visionary,” she adds. “He pushed the industry forward in ways that I hope are never forgotten.”

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing