Sue Ridout is a storyteller with extensive experience in broadcast journalism and documentary film-making. People from all walks of life feel instinctively they can trust her with their stories.
Under Sue’s leadership, Dreamfilm has produced numerous award-winning documentaries that have been aired around the world. From intimate biographies to pressing health issues to how we’re coping with a rapidly changing world, Sue has produced, written and directed documentaries for a wide range of broadcasters. Her work has garnered many honours, from investigative reporting awards to the Michener Fellowship, presented by then-Governor General Romeo LeBlanc at Rideau Hall. But the award she’s most proud of is the 2009 Gemini for Best Biography Documentary for Peace Warrior, the dramatic story of the rehabilitation of Canadian soldier Trevor Greene.
Sue founded Dreamfilm Productions in 2001 after a 20-year career in TV news and current affairs. She feels incredibly lucky that her “job” is to work with a fabulous team of creative people, all while getting a fascinating education about every new subject that Dreamfilm tackles in its films.
Bruce is a science journalist who has produced, directed, hosted and written hundreds of hours of television. His most recent awards are Gold and Silver World Medals from the New York Festivals for The Downside of High and Programmed to Be Fat?, both for Best Health/Medical Documentary. Bruce’s programs have aired on CBC, Discovery, Knowledge, TVOntario, Access, and SCN. His documentary Deciphering Dyslexia won a 2008 Freddie Award (the Oscars of health & medical media), and the Helen Hayes Award for best consumer program at the 2008 Freddies. His three-hour series on global warming was screened at the New York Film Festival, and the Image and Science Film Festival in Paris. He has been honoured with both the Science Council of British Columbia’s Eve Savory Award for Science Communication, and the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies Gordin Kaplan Award for Science Communication.
Ally’s production management skills come to her very naturally. Long before she started booking crews, publishing call sheets & locking down locations, she would call all her friends, tell them when to bring the keg, and hold the house party ten minutes after her parents had pulled out of the driveway. In 1998, these untapped skills finally starting paying dividends when a friend offered her work re-organizing the tape library for Discovery Channel’s Storm Warning. She has been organizing, scheduling, renting, hiring, and adding skills to her bag of tricks for Vancouver production companies ever since. She joined forces with Sue in June 2008, and is currently managing production and supervising post-production for the award-winning documentaries created by the talented team at Dreamfilm.