Kevin Eastwood
Kevin Eastwood is an award-winning filmmaker who lives and works on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Optic Nerve Films is his company through which he provides producing and directing services for various genres of film and television production. A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Kevin is the third generation in his family to go to art school and make a living making art. His mother was a painter, his father a well known commercial artist, and his grandfather was a painter and sculptor. Kevin’s work often focuses on issues related to social justice, public health and the environment and he has produced or directed a diverse array of fiction and non-fiction programming including movies, TV series, documentary features, docuseries, dramatic series, music videos and PSAs.
Most recently, Kevin wrote and directed British Columbia: An Untold History, a four-part documentary series produced by Screen Siren Pictures for Knowledge Network, centered on retelling the history of “British Columbia” from a more diverse and inclusive perspective. The series garnered critical praise, received a special award from the BC Historical Federation for its “significant contribution to the study of BC history”, and won five Leo Awards, including Best Documentary Series, Best Direction and Best Screenwriting. The series was also nominated for five Canadian Screen Awards by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & TV (including Best Direction in a Documentary Series and Best History Series), and two Golden Sheaf Awards at the Yorkton Film Festival.
Before that, Kevin co-wrote and co-directed Humboldt: The New Season, a documentary for CBC Television about the survivors of a tragic bus crash in which 16 members of a junior hockey team died. The program received great reviews, was nominated for Best Documentary Program at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards and won the Ruth Shaw Award at the Yorkton Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the Chilliwack Independent Film Festival, Hollywood North Film Festival and CARE Awards.
Other non-fiction credits include writing, directing and producing After the Sirens, a documentary for CBC Television about paramedics and PTSD that premiered in 2018 to great reviews and generated considerable press and media coverage. The program was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards, Best Documentary (Social/Political) at the Yorkton Golden Sheaf Awards, five Leo Awards (winning for Best Cinematography and Best Score) and won the Mindset Award for Workplace Mental Health Reporting at the 2019 Canadian Association of Journalists Awards.
Kevin also wrote, directed and produced The Death Debate, a documentary for Telus Optik about the landmark Carter v Canada Supreme Court case on physician assisted-dying (for which Kevin was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction).
Kevin is probably best known however for being the series director and co-executive producer of Emergency Room: Life + Death At VGH, a ground-breaking documentary series that scored record-setting ratings for Knowledge Network, was nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards (Best Direction and Best Documentary Program) and won Best Documentary Series and The People’s Choice Award for Favourite Television Show at the Leo Awards.
In addition to his own directing work, Kevin also produces the work of other filmmakers. For director Charles Wilkinson he has produced four films: Haida Modern (Winner: Most Popular Canadian Documentary - Vancouver International Film Festival, Winner: Best Canadian Film at the Festival International du Film sur l'Art), Vancouver: No Fixed Address (Official Selection: Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival), Haida Gwaii: On The Edge Of The World (Winner: Best Canadian Documentary at Hot Docs and the Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary at the DGC Awards) and Oil Sands Karaoke (Winner: Best Documentary-Science/Nature/Technology, and Best Director-Non-Fiction at the Yorkton Golden Sheaf Awards). For Oscar-winning director John Zaritsky, he produced Do You Really Want To Know? (Winner: Best Documentary and Best Director at the Yorkton Golden Sheaf Awards), and for Canadian Screen Award-winning director Trish Dolman, he produced Eco-Pirate: The Story Of Paul Watson (Official Selection - Hot Docs and Winner: Best Documentary - Projecting Change Film Festival).
Recent drama credits include co-producing and directing the second unit for the CBC drama series The Romeo Section from creator Chris Haddock, and producing the feature comedy Preggoland, directed by Jacob Tierney and starring Sonja Bennett, James Caan and Danny Trejo.
Some of Kevin's other feature credits as a producer include the cult hit zombie comedy Fido, starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Billy Connolly (Official Selection: TIFF and Sundance); the Canadian box office hit comedy, The Delicate Art Of Parking and Crimes Of Mike Recket directed by Bruce Sweeney (Official Selection, TIFF). Among his television credits, Kevin was the Supervising Producer on the Gemini Award-winning CTV movie Elijah about the late Canadian First Nations leader, Elijah Harper.
Kevin's other directing credits include the music video for Post-War Blues by Dan Mangan starring Don McKellar; the Gemini Award-nominated artist profile short Douglas Coupland: Pop Artist; seven episodes of a documentary series for Animal Planet; and multiple projects for the BC Civil Liberties Association, Canada’s longest-running civil liberties association.
For his work, Kevin has won a Gemini Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (Best TV Movie for Elijah), six Leo Awards (for British Columbia: An Untold History, Haida Modern, Emergency Room and Elijah), four Gold Sheaf Awards (for Do You Really Want to Know?, Oil Sands Karaoke, Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH, and Humboldt: The New Season) and he has been nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards (for British Columbia: An Untold History, Humboldt: The New Season, After the Sirens, The Death Debate and Emergency Room).