PATRICK REED

documentary film director

BIOGRAPHY

Patrick Reed

Reed is an award-winning director and producer. He specializes in access-driven, character-based films that are emotionally powerful and thought provoking. His credits include “Shake Hands With The Devil: Romeo Dallaire,” “Triage: James Orbinski,” “The Team,” “Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children,” and “Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr.” Each feature documentary had successful festival and theatrical runs, and was broadcast worldwide.

In addition to feature documentaries, Reed has directed TV-one hours, short documentaries, and music videos. He’s also worked as a story-editor and writer for award-winning series, and a field producer/director in conflict zones.

Reed is HEFAT certified and is based in Toronto, Canada.

FILMS

NOTWITHSTANDING

Short Documentary [director, producer]

The notwithstanding clause is the most controversial element of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, allowing parliament to temporarily suspend many rights. It’s been so rarely invoked that many now dismiss it as innocuous. But others say its very existence undermines the entire Charter. This speculative documentary imagines a doomsday scenario in which the notwithstanding clause weaponizes the Charter against itself.

BEYOND TRAUMA

TV Documentary [director, producer]

From Hollywood blockbusters to front-page news, the tormented veteran unable to transition from warzone to home-front is everywhere. This focus on the military’s struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) obscures a simple truth: PTSD hits more civilians than soldiers, and more women than men. And it manifests with a dizzying range of symptoms, from flashbacks and nightmares to aggression and depression. Scientists are developing increasingly clear pictures of the brain activity that results in PTSD. But as they search for a sure-fire treatment, they’re still trying to understand a confounding question: When so many people experience the trauma of sudden loss, near-death, or violence, why are some more vulnerable to PTSD than others?

GUANTANAMO’S CHILD

Feature Documentary [director, producer]

Omar Khadr: child soldier or unrepentant terrorist? The 28-year-old Canadian has been a polarizing figure since he was 15. In 2002, Khadr was captured by Americans in Afghanistan and charged with war crimes, including murder. After spending half his life behind bars, including a decade at Guantanamo, Khadr is unexpectedly released. Finally, his story in his words.

THE INTERPRETERS

Short Documentary [director, producer]

Every Saturday night, a group of former combat interpreters from Afghanistan gather in an apartment in Toronto, Canada. They risked their lives working as interpreters and were branded traitors for assisting foreign forces. Their families became targets of the Taliban. Now they live in limbo, trapped between there and here; happy to have found safety; guilty for leaving relatives behind in harm’s way. Another Saturday night. Forging a sense of family, in an imperfect world.

THE LOWEST FRUIT

Short Animated [director, producer]

An animated short, in collaboration with Toronto-based artists Nick Sewell and Hector Herrera, based on text written by Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, and featuring the voice of Michel Chickwanine, a former child soldier. It’s a companion piece to the feature documentary, “Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children.”

FIGHT LIKE SOLDIERS DIE LIKE CHILDREN

Feature Documentary [director, producer]

When you’ve been to hell and back, how do you shake the memories? This question has haunted General Roméo Dallaire since 1994, when he was UN Force Commander during the Rwandan genocide, explored in our award-winning documentary Shake Hands with the Devil. Dallaire has now found a reason to live: embarking on a mission to end the use of child soldiers. Will Dallaire succeed where others have failed? Or will he once again be forced to look on as the world turns away?

THE TEAM

Feature Documentary [director, producer]

Kenyans scramble to produce a controversial TV soap opera about a soccer team, confronting their country’s troubled past and uncertain present. The ethnically diverse cast struggle on set and off to resolve conflicts, desperate to captivate an audience and potentially save a nation.

PETS ON PROZAC

TV Documentary [director, writer, producer]

These days our pets have it all: “pawdicures,” yoga classes, and…Prozac? Identifying a multi-billion dollar untapped market, Big Pharma has just released psychoactive drugs for dogs and cats, treating everything from aggression to separation anxiety. Is the popularity of these “pooch-me-up drugs” a sign of our heightened compassion, or evidence of an overindulgent society chasing its tail?

TAR SANDS

TV Documentary [writer, researcher, producer]

Tar Sands follows an international cast of characters struggling to cash in on an unprecedented oil boom playing out in the backwoods of Canada. Washington lobbyists, Newfoundland pipefitters, Chinese investors, and Norwegian industrialists descend on Fort McMurray, Alberta, where the streets may not be paved with gold, but the soil is soaked with oil—the world’s second largest reserve, after Saudi Arabia. The stakes are global; the battle intense; the outcome uncertain. It comes down to one simple idea: whoever controls the Tar Sands, controls the world.

TRIAGE: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma

Feature Documentary [director, writer]

Triage is the ultimate humanitarian nightmare. Racing against time with limited resources, relief workers make split-second decisions: who gets treatment; who gets food; who lives; who dies. This impossible dilemma haunts humanitarians like Dr. James Orbinski, recipient of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize as President of Médecins Sans Frontières, and field doctor during the Somali famine, the Rwandan genocide, among other catastrophes. Now, Orbinski embarks on his most difficult mission to date—writing a deeply personal book that struggles to make sense of it all. He returns to Africa, revisiting the past and engaging with the present, discovering where bonds of solidarity are forged, and human spirits somehow remain unbroken.

TSEPONG: A Clinic Called Hope

TV Documentary [director, writer]

Lesotho is a tiny country in southern Africa with one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates—over one-third of all adults are HIV positive. A small team of Canadian health care workers has traveled to a remote corner of Lesotho to help set up one of the country’s first HIV/AIDS clinics, distributing life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). If the drug pilot project collapses an ARV resistant strain of HIV/AIDS may develop, spreading across the continent, and perhaps into the West. Lesotho is the front-line of the global battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, with millions of lives at stake.

SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire

Feature Documentary [producer, researcher]

On the 10th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Canadian Lt-General Roméo Dallaire, commander of the failed U.N. peacekeeping mission, finally returns to the African nation, confronting the past, and the ghosts that haunt him.

MY CITY

Music Video [director, producer]

A music video we shot in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood with Dantrell Blake, featuring Deshon Hannah, among others. Talented rappers and inspiring guys—Dantrell and Deshon mentor youth who, like them, are survivors of gun violence.

UKRAINE: ROGUE MILITIAS

Short Documentary [director, producer]

In 2014, Ukraine was under siege and the military was unprepared. Desperate, the government urged anyone to get to the front and fight the Russian-backed separatists. As the war drags on, Ukraine claims their military is now in control and the volunteers have all been disbanded. But we tracked down some rogue volunteers still out there fighting, not prepared to hand over their weapons anytime soon.

PAIN

Music Video [director, producer]

Another music video we shot in Chicago with Dantrell Blake (Feb Trell), featuring Deshon Hannah. Talented rappers and inspiring guys—Dantrell and Deshon mentor youth who, like them, are survivors of gun violence.

MY PEOPLE

Music Video [director, producer]

Music video with Chicago-based rapper Dantrell Blake (Feb Trell). Final piece of trilogy that includes tracks “My City” and “Pain.”

FIRE IN MY CITY

Short Documentary [director, producer]

A group of young men from Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods navigate growing pains, neglect, ambition and deadly gang lines to meet regularly in an unlikely program for youth who’ve been shot. This short is proof of concept for a feature documentary and companion online series.

WHITE SPACE

TV documentary [director, writer, producer]

Emboldened by the victory of “their” president, Donald Trump, hundreds of white nationalists took to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, shocking America, and startling the world.

The event descended into chaos—one person was killed and many injured. When the dust cleared a nation was left reeling, wondering how it got there, where it’s going, and what it all means.

From the crossroads of identity to the crosshairs of hate, the battle-lines have been drawn. At stake—the fate of a nation.

WAR CONTINUED: Iraq

TV documentary [director, writer, producer]

In 2003, the US rushed into Iraq, hell-bent to stop Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction, promising to bring democracy to the country, and stability to the world.

But 15 years later, no one has won, and the region is enflamed.

War Continued is the ultimate cautionary tale. A story scripted by insiders who spun fiction as fact, promoted by a compliant media, and consumed by a public hungry for revenge.

BREAKING NEWS

[director, producer]

Ben Makuch, National Security Reporter for VICE, is waging an uphill battle for press freedom. After losing a lower court challenge, the Supreme Court of Canada has finally agreed to hear his case. At stake: Makuch’s personal liberty and the future of journalism.

As national security consistently trumps journalistic integrity, and the pressure to betray sources rackets up, the pursuit of news is on the verge of breaking down. It’s time to discover new ways to put it back together.

FOREVER YOUNG

TV documentary [director, producer, writer]

The elusive dream of living forever has fascinated, obsessed, and haunted human beings since time immemorial. For many, there’s something enticing about denying biological inevitability, casting off the shackles of death.

Scientific breakthroughs are slowly starting to move radical life extension from the realm of fantasy to reality. It’s time to pause and consider where things are headed. While pushing the end of life to the outer limits what is found and what is lost along the way?

GLOBAL WARNING

TV documentary [director, producer, writer]

Human activity is cooking the planet, and time is running out as we near total system failure. It’s easy to blame this on partisan politics, or disinformation campaigns of climate change deniers, or just plain stupidity. But it’s actually a sign of something much more universal: the biggest barrier to mass action on this front is not political or informational but psychological: how do you wake people up and save them from themselves?

FILMOGRAPHY

(Printable Filmography)
2020
Global Warning

Director/Producer/Writer

55 minutes; VICE


Forever Young

Director/Producer/Writer

50 minutes; VICE

2019
War Continued: Iraq

Director/Producer/Writer

50 minutes; VICE


White Space

Director/Producer/Writer

50 minutes; VICE

2018
Ukraine: Rogue Militias

Director/Producer

22 Minutes; VICE

2017
Notwithstanding

Director/Producer

15 minutes; What Escapes/Reed Media; HotDocs

2016
Beyond Trauma

Director/Producer

45 minutes; CBC

2015
Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr

Director/Producer

80 min and 45 min; White Pine Pictures; CBC; Al Jazeera

(Select Festivals: TIFF; IDFA)

2014
The Interpreters

Director/Producer

15 min; Reed Media; Bravo/Bell Media

2013
The Lowest Fruit

Director/Producer

5 minutes; animated

2012
Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children

Director/Producer

85 min and 55 min; White Pine Pictures; TVO

(Select Festivals: IDFA; Full Frame; Hot Docs)

2010
The Team

Director/Producer

80 min and 55 min; White Pine Pictures; Sundance Institute/ITVS International

(Select Festivals: IDFA; HotDocs; Silverdocs; Full Frame; Human Rights Watch)

2009
Pets on Prozac

Director/Writer/Producer

52 min; White Pine Pictures; CBC

2008
Tar Sands

Writer/Researcher/Producer

52 min; White Pine Pictures; CBC/NHK/NRK

2007
Triage: Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma

Director/Writer

90 min and 52 min; White Pine Pictures/NFB; Global TV

(Select Festivals: IDFA; Sundance; Silverdocs; HotDocs)

2006
Tsepong: A Clinic Called Hope

Director/Writer

50 min; White Pine Pictures; CBC/Vision TV/SRC

2005
I, Nuligak; Worlds Collide

Co-Director/Writer/Researcher

70 min and 46 min; White Pine Pictures; APTN/History Television

2004
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire

Producer/Researcher

91 and 56 min; White Pine Pictures; CBC/SRC/NHK/BBC

(Select Festivals: TIFF; IDFA; Sundance; Full Frame)

2003
Arctic Dreamer: The Lonely Quest of Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Writer/Researcher/Producer

70 min and 45 min; White Pine Pictures; History TV

Gemini Award for Best Biography

2002
Undefended Border

Writer/Researcher

3×1 hour; White Pine Pictures; TVO

CONTACT

CONTACT PATRICK