Company History

In November 1997, President and Producer Trish Dolman incorporated Screen Siren Pictures Inc. with a vision to create socially minded, high quality, innovative documentaries, and dramatic film and television.

Originally housed in an office in Yaletown, the company’s first production was a season of Beetlemania, a weekly column about insects that aired nationally on “@discovery.ca”, Discovery’s daily news show. The first documentary that Screen Siren undertook was award-winning director David Vaisbord’s Britannia Beach, the story of a mining town and its legacy of environmental devastation with CTV, TVO, Knowledge and SCN.

1998 was a busy year for the company. In the spring, Trish attended the Banff Television Festival where she pitched Ice Girls, a feature length documentary that chronicles the lives of three elite young figure skaters. From there it went into development with participation from the BBC, CTV, BC Film and Telefilm.

Simultaneously, David Vaisbord and Trish began developing a documentary about the life and work of controversial painter Attila Richard Lukacs. Also in 1998 Trish and Keith Behrman embarked on the development of Keith’s first feature Flower & Garnet, a film about eight-year old Garnet whose mother died giving birth to him. Raised by his 16-year old sister, Flower and kept at a distance by his father Ed, Garnet has silently shouldered the responsibility for his mother’s death.

Screen Siren went into principal photography on Britannia in April of 1999. That year Flower & Garnet was also selected for the National Screen Institute’s Features First program. Meanwhile, Ice Girls went into principal photography in October 1999 as an official BBC Canada-UK treaty co-production. Having outgrown its Yaletown office space, Screen Siren moved to a larger location on West 1st Avenue.

In 2000 both Leah Mallen and Stephanie Symns began working at the company in a variety of roles, which led to both of them becoming producers with the company in 2002. The completion of Ice Girls in 2001 led to a nomination for a prestigious Rockie Award for Best Sports Program at the Banff Television Festival. At the 2003 Leo Awards, Ice Girls was awarded three Leo’s in the Best Sports Program category. Stephanie Symns and Trish Dolman together began producing Drawing Out the Demons, which went into production in 2002.

Continuing with the success of Screen Siren’s previous projects, Flower & Garnet premiered at the 2002 Montréal World Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. The film went on to win numerous awards and garner much critical acclaim, including the Genie's Claude Jutra award for Best First Feature. Odeon Films released the film in Canada on March 28, 2003 where it enjoyed a successful eleven-week run in Vancouver while playing in theatres in cities across Canada.

2003 was an intense time of development for Screen Siren, with all three producers committed to building the slate. This resulted in development financing for several feature films, documentary one-offs and a limited documentary series. Again outgrowing its space, Screen Siren Pictures formed a strategic alliance with Anagram Pictures to share office space and moved into a 3,500 square foot space occupying the entire third floor of a building on East 2nd Avenue.