MARY BISSELL

ABOUT ME

 

As a filmmaker, my goal is explore dark stories with a compassionate perspective, while finding innovative ways to intrigue, inform, and entertain. I’ve found my calling as a specialist in true crime documentary series, working as a showrunner, director, or writer on a variety of shows over the past five years. (The Devil You Know, Unusual Suspects, Diabolical Women, Very Bad Men, A Question of Innocence). 

 

I cut my teeth as an independent filmmaker in Vancouver, producing documentaries for CBC Television  (Naked, My Big Fat Diet); and co-hosting, directing, and writing documentary programming for The Knowledge Network.  My work has taken me to exotic places (Sri Lanka and The Gambia) and allowed me to immerse myself into all kinds of issues, from socio-economic to environmental. I’ve been honored with a variety of awards, including three Leo Awards for a show I did about female inmates who train dogs (Healing with Animals) and a Silver Chris for My Big Fat Diet, a documentary about a First Nations group that returned to their traditional diet.

 

I am passionate about film and promoting the place of women in the industry; I served as President and Vice-President of Women in Film and Television Vancouver and I have sat on the board of the Creative Women Workshops Association.  I am a graduate of the Women in the Director’s Chair program that is held every year in Banff. My mentor from the program, Kari Skogland (Boardwalk Empire), called me ‘a force to be reckoned with” and I wear that mantle proudly!