Human Harvest Wins Prestigious Peabody Award

Toronto, April 23, 2015—The Canada Media Fund (CMF) congratulates the producers of Human Harvest for winning one of the 74th Annual Peabody Awards for Documentary, which were announced today. The awards will be handed out May 31 in New York City, NY.

Human Harvest, supported by the CMF’s Diverse Languages Program, is a new documentary feature that follows Nobel Peace Prize nominees David Matas and David Kilgour as they investigate the atrocities of illegal organ harvesting in China.

The film is written, directed and produced by filmmaker Leon Lee, Principal of Flying Cloud Productions in Vancouver, and executive produced by Jason Loftus, CEO of Toronto-based Mark Media.

The prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards, established in 1940 to recognize distinguished achievement and excellence in broadcast and media production, are among the most esteemed and coveted in the industry. Winners must receive the unanimous support of all 17 members of the Peabody Board of Jurors, making the award one of the most difficult to win. Previous winners include CNN, PBS Frontline, NPR, and HBO.

“Winning the Peabody is a great honour and a highlight in my career so far,” says filmmaker Leon Lee. “My hope is that the attention this film receives can help shine a light on the terrible crime of organ harvesting.”

“Congratulations to Flying Cloud Productions and Mark Media for receiving the prestigious Peabody Award for their riveting documentary Human Harvest,” says Valerie Creighton, President and CEO, Canada Media Fund. “A Canadian production recognized by the international community demonstrates that Canadian content stands shoulder to shoulder with other countries. We are proud to support Canadian content in various languages representative of Canada’s diverse culture and that speak to audiences both at home and internationally.” 

“The CMF has been instrumental in supporting diverse-language productions,” says executive producer Jason Loftus. “As this award shows, these projects not only serve diverse audiences in Canada—they are being enjoyed and celebrated internationally.”

The Diverse Languages Program supports productions reflecting Canadian diversity by funding projects in languages other than English, French, or Aboriginal languages. Human Harvest was originally produced in Mandarin.

The Peabody Award is the latest win for Human Harvest (previously titled Davids & Goliath). The film was honoured with the Michael Sullivan FRONTLINE Award for Journalism in a Documentary and captured the $50,000 top prize at the Viewster Online Film Festival, the largest online festival in the world. For more information, visit humanharvestmovie.com.

About the Canada Media Fund
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) fosters, develops, finances and promotes the production of Canadian content and applications for all audiovisual media platforms. The CMF guides Canadian content towards a competitive global environment by fostering industry innovation, rewarding success, enabling a diversity of voice and promoting access to content through public and private sector partnerships. Please visit www.cmf-fmc.ca.