Based in Edmonton, Canada, Clearwater Documentary makes compelling and award-winning broadcast and feature documentaries for audiences around the world.
A four-time Gemini Award winner, and Member of the Order of Canada, Tom Radford continues a four-decade long tradition of uncompromising storytelling with visual flair.
A four-time Gemini Award winner, and Member of the Order of Canada, Tom Radford continues a four-decade long tradition of uncompromising storytelling with visual flair.
Our Work
Projects in Production
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Peggy & Balmer (2024), The fight of the Edmonton Journal in 1938 to preserve the freedom of the press, under attack by the Social Credit government of “Bible Bill” Aberhart, part of the rise of fascism across the world. Leading to the only Pulitzer Prize awarded outside the United States.
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Projects in Development
Four Strong Winds: Ian Tyson's Canadian Legacy (2024), A ninety-minute drama-documentary special on the incredible career and legacy of Canadian music icon, Ian Tyson.
PEGGY & BALMER, 2024. The fight of the Edmonton Journal in 1938 to preserve the freedom of the press, under attack by the Social Credit government of “Bible Bill” Aberhart, part of the rise of fascism across the world. Leading to the only Pulitzer Prize awarded outside the United States.
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FOUR STRONG WINDS: IAN TYSON'S CANADIAN LEGACY, 2024. A ninety-minute drama-documentary special on the incredible career and legacy of Canadian music icon, Ian Tyson.
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Productions
Nampeyo: The Beginnings of Modernism (2022), The life and work of America's first great indigenous artist. From the lonely mesas of the Arizona desert, to the art galleries of New York, Paris, and Berlin, this dramatized documentary explores the unlikely beginnings of modernism before Picasso or Matisse. The struggle of a Hopi-Tewa woman to found the Sityaki Revival, a revolutionary art movement that traveled around the world, is a story for our times. 26 minutes / Santa Fe Film Festival, 2022
Plutocrats (2017), The world of the 1% has arrived and the wealth gap is now greater in many countries than during the Gilded Age of the Rockefellers and the Carnegies. Can our stressed democracies deal with the fallout? Journalist Chrystia Freeland, now Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, investigates.
Common Ground (2013), A chronicle of the struggle to preserve the public sector in an era of privatization and corporatization. From a collective of Canadian farmers who take on the multi-nationals by buying a local railway, to the “recall” campaign to unseat Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, populism is on the rise in America.
Lost Years (2012), A father and son return to China to uncover the legacy of Chinese immigration to the new world. Produced with Kenda Gee and Lost Years Productions. Winner of multiple international awards including Best Historical Documentary at the Guangzhou festival.
Tipping Point (2011), Feature-length documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation exploring the struggle of First Nations living with the toxic downstream effects of the Alberta Tar Sands. In the age of climate change, can a stressed planet survive the endless growth of the fossil fuel industry
Plutocrats (2017), The world of the 1% has arrived and the wealth gap is now greater in many countries than during the Gilded Age of the Rockefellers and the Carnegies. Can our stressed democracies deal with the fallout? Journalist Chrystia Freeland, now Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, investigates.
Common Ground (2013), A chronicle of the struggle to preserve the public sector in an era of privatization and corporatization. From a collective of Canadian farmers who take on the multi-nationals by buying a local railway, to the “recall” campaign to unseat Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, populism is on the rise in America.
Lost Years (2012), A father and son return to China to uncover the legacy of Chinese immigration to the new world. Produced with Kenda Gee and Lost Years Productions. Winner of multiple international awards including Best Historical Documentary at the Guangzhou festival.
Tipping Point (2011), Feature-length documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation exploring the struggle of First Nations living with the toxic downstream effects of the Alberta Tar Sands. In the age of climate change, can a stressed planet survive the endless growth of the fossil fuel industry
NAMPEYO: THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERNISM, 2022. The life and work of America's first great indigenous artist. From the lonely mesas of the Arizona desert, to the art galleries of New York, Paris, and Berlin, this dramatized documentary explores the unlikely beginnings of modernism before Picasso or Matisse. The struggle of a Hopi-Tewa woman to found the Sityaki Revival, a revolutionary art movement that traveled around the world, is a story for our times. 26 minutes / Santa Fe Film Festival, 2022 (Under the title, "In Search of Nampeyo").
PLUTOCRATS, 2017. The world of the 1% has arrived and the wealth gap is now greater in many countries than during the Gilded Age. Can our stressed democracies deal with the fallout? Or have governments simply become instruments of the new elite?
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LOST YEARS, 2016. A father and son return to China to uncover the legacy of Chinese immigration to the new world. Produced with Kenda Gee and Lost Years Productions. Winner of multiple international awards including Best Historical Documentary at the Guangzhou festival.
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COMMON GROUND, 2013.
A chronicle of the struggle to preserve the public sector in an era of the shrinking state and corporatization of public services. From the story of labour in the coal mines of Alberta's Crowsnest Pass to the rise of Scott Walker and the Tea Party in the United States.
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TIPPING POINT, 2011. Feature-length documentary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation following the struggle of First Nations Canadians living with the toxic effects of the Alberta tar sands.
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Highlights from Tom's Career of Over 50 Films
Land (1971), a portrait of the Great Plains through the eyes of native artists and writers. 30 min. Film Frontiers / Edmonton Educational Authority.
Death of a Delta (1972), the struggle of the citizens of Fort Chipewyan, the oldest community in Alberta, against the building of the massive Bennett Dam, upstream on the Peace River. Prize, Festival dei Populi, Florence. 30 min. Film Frontiers / Alberta Education.
Every Saturday Night (1973), a reunion of dancehall musicians who survived the dirty thirties in the Alberta town of Dorothy, population, twenty-five. 30 min. NFB/CBC "West" series.
Ernest Brown: Pioneer Photographer (1974), the opening of western Canada through the eyes of an intrepid photographer and social activist. Best Overall: Alberta; Yorkton International Documentary Festival. 60 min. Filmwest. BBC / Australian Broadcasting Corporation
A Slow Hello (1974), the May to September marriage of a young camp cook and an old cowboy, sharing a love for the twilight years of the ranching frontier. 30 min. NFB/CBC "Pacificanada" series.
Man Who Chooses the Bush (1975), the adventures of trapper, Frank Ladouceur, fighting to preserve the traditional Métis lifestyle of the Canadian north. Best Overall: Yorkton International. 30 min. NFB.
The Forests and Vladimir Krajina (1977), the quest of a former Czech resistance fighter against the Nazis to found an ecological reserves program in British Columbia. 30 min. NFB
Triangle Island (1979), a portrait of an ecological reserve dedicated to the preservation of the flora and fauna of the Pacific rim. 20 min. NFB
China Mission (1980), the story of Chester Ronning, whose life as a teacher and diplomat bridged East and West, leading to Canada's recognition of the People's Republic of China. Prizes: San Francisco, Alberta, San Antonio, Ohio. 60 min. NFB.
From 1980 to 1985, as Executive Producer, Mr. Radford founded the Northwest Studio of the National Film Board of Canada in Edmonton. During that period he produced over 20 films, including the early work of artists as diverse as Anne Wheeler and Gil Cardinal. Foster Child, produced with Gil Cardinal won a Gemini in 1988. Wood Mountain Poems, produced with Harvey Spak, won the Best Arts Documentary Award at the Banff Television Festival. The Renewable Society, a 26-part television series produced for the Challenge for Change Program with Peter Boothroyd, questioned the sustainability of conventional economic and industrial development.
In Search of the Dragon (1986), a NOVA documentary on The Dinosaur Project - a scientific adventure into China's Gobi Desert. 90 min. PBS Nova.
Littlechild (1987), the chronicle of Cree artist George Littlechild’s search for his lost parents and the soul of his people. 30 min. "My Partners, My People," Canwest Global. Gemini Nomination
Mother Tongue (1988), the story of Ann Anderson and her fight to preserve the Cree language. 30 min. Canwest Global.
Life After Hockey (1990), a modern-day fairy tale of how a local rink rat helped Team Canada defeat the Soviets. Best Overall, Best Drama, Best Director, Alberta Film Awards. Quebec/Alberta Prize, Banff TV Festival. 60 min. Canwest Global.
The Road Home (1992), a multicultural history of the settlement of Alberta, as portrayed in the work of writers Rudy Wiebe, Myrna Kostash, Marilyn Dumont, and Eva Brewster. 60 min. CBC.
Hockey Night in Harlem (1993), New York inner city kids fight for respect on hockey rinks from Central Park to central Alberta. Quebec/Alberta Prize, Banff Television Festival. 30 min. CBC Man Alive.
The Life and Times of Peter Lougheed (1994), a chronicle of the rise to power of Alberta’s most influential premier and the federal/provincial struggle over control of energy resources. 60 min. CBC Life and Times.
The Buffalo Ground (1995), the musician as historian, a portrait of The Great Western Orchestra. 60 min. CBC.
The Long River (1998), the northern adventures of explorer, geologist and paleontologist J. B. Tyrrell. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
A Land As Green As the Sea (1998), the legacy of five generations of Scots in Canada. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
Impossible Journey (1999), the story of Katherine Ryan, the first woman to take the overland route to the Klondike. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
Tickling the Dragon's Tail (1999), the mystery of Louis Slotin, the Canadian physicist killed building the atomic bomb. Best Director, 1999 Alberta Film Awards. 60 min. Great North Productions / Canwest Global.
New Norway (1999), the immigrants’ dream of building of a multi-cultural society on the western Canadian frontier. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
The Last Roundup (2000), the story of country music legend Wilf Carter, the yodeling cowboy. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
Distant Skies (2000), World War One flying ace Wop May opens up the Canadian North and invents the saga of the bush pilot. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
Ma Vlast, My Homeland (2000), Michael and Renata Jiranek, two Czech immigrants, coach rural Alberta’s Kurt Browning to four World Figure Skating Championships. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
The Tree Planter (2001), the 98-year life of prairie populist, conservationist, and author Grant MacEwan. Part of "The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation," 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
The Great Lone Land (2001), the western adventure of Canada's first draft dodger, American Civil War artist and doctor, Richard Barrington Nevitt. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
The End of Evolution (2001), an exploration of the world of Seattle Paleontologist Peter Ward, expert in the mass extinctions that have threatened the planet over millions of years. 60 min. Discovery Network / Credo Entertainment / National Film Board of Canada.
The Honour of the Crown (2002), the story of the Head of the Rapids people, and their 100-year old land claim against the Government of Canada. Best Documentary over 30 minutes, 2002 Alberta Film Awards. CBC "Witness" / National Film Board of Canada.
Conscience (2002), a biography of Czech writer and actor Vladimir Valenta, freedom fighter with the Czech resistance and star of the Academy Award winning film "Closely Watched Trains". 60 min. Alliance Atlantis / History Television.
The Great Divide (2003), the life of David Thompson, considered by many to be one of the world's greatest land geographers. 60 min. S4C Wales and History Television..
Arctic Dreamer (2003), the biogrpahy of controversial explorer and writer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, one of the last polar adventurers and advocate of Canada’s Inuit culture. 90 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television. Gemini Award, Best Biography; The Chris Award, Columbus, Ohio.
Great Lodges of the Canadian Rockies (2004), a mini-series on the eccentric character and history of “castles in the wilderness” like the Banff Springs Hotel and Jasper Park Lodge. 2x60 min. PBS / National Geographic / Alliance Atlantis. Five network telecasts, PBS.
Arctic Winter Games Opening Ceremonies (2004), a variety special on the gathering of peoples from across the circumpolar north for the 18th Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray, Alberta. 60 min. CBC.
Road of Bones (2004), a feature documentary on Cambridge anthropologist Niobe Thompson’s journey to the remotest region of Siberia to explore the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of indigenous Chukchi culture. 94 min. Canadian International Development Agency / Clearwater Media / Black Spring Pictures.
Worlds Collide (2005), the search of an Inuit family for the history of their people, nearly lost in the collision of cultures that took place in the 1890’s when whaling ships first brought the global economy to Herschel Island in the Western Arctic. 60 min. Clearwater Media / White Pine Pictures / History Television. 2 Gemini Nominations.
Great Canadian Wilderness (2005), a journey to the most remote parks and wildlife refuges which make up the “path seldom taken” of the vast uninhabited Canadian wilderness. 3x60 min. Kaizen West Productions / Readers Digest UK
Alberta Bound (2005), a centennial celebration of 100 years of Alberta music from Wilf Carter to Nickelback to kd lang. 120 minutes, CBC, White Iron Pictures. Best Long Form Documentary, Best Director, 2006 Alberta Film Awards. Nominations: Best Entertainment Special, Banff Television Festival; Gemini, Best Variety.
I, Nuligak (2006), the Inuvialuit version of Worlds Collide, telling the story of first contact in the high Arctic from an Inuit perspective. 70 min. Clearwater Media / White Pine Pictures / Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Special recognition, Hors Competition, Banff Television Festival.
Tar Sands (2007), an investigative documentary on the global politics of energy that are driving the breakneck development of the Athabasca Oil Sands, the last eldorado in a world of declining energy supply. 60 minutes. Clearwater Media / White Pine Pictures / CBC / NHK.
Power of Dreams (2007), young Canadians fight to bring social reform to the urban favelas of Brazil. 42 min. Canadian Learning Television / ACCESS.
Inuit Odyssey (2008), a thousand year old adventure in anthropology and archaeology following the migration of the Thule people across the circumpolar north. 42 min. CBC Nature of Things. Best Popular Science Documentary, Banff World Television Awards. Global Issues Award, Yorkton Film Festival.
Cities Crossing Borders (2009), the power of participatory democracy to solve the problems of world cities. 42 min. UN Habitat Conference, Rio de Janeiro.
Codebreakers (2010), from Lake Baikal to Brazil, an adventure story that explores the controversy surrounding the peopling of the Americas at the end of the last Ice Age. 42 min. CBC Nature of Things. Best Cinematography and Best Science and Adventure Program, 2011 Geminis.
Tipping Point (2010), the fight of environmentalists and First Nations to slow down the development of the world’s largest industrial project: the Alberta Tar Sands. 84 min. CBC DocZone / The Nature of Things / Al Jazeera.
Death of a Delta (1972), the struggle of the citizens of Fort Chipewyan, the oldest community in Alberta, against the building of the massive Bennett Dam, upstream on the Peace River. Prize, Festival dei Populi, Florence. 30 min. Film Frontiers / Alberta Education.
Every Saturday Night (1973), a reunion of dancehall musicians who survived the dirty thirties in the Alberta town of Dorothy, population, twenty-five. 30 min. NFB/CBC "West" series.
Ernest Brown: Pioneer Photographer (1974), the opening of western Canada through the eyes of an intrepid photographer and social activist. Best Overall: Alberta; Yorkton International Documentary Festival. 60 min. Filmwest. BBC / Australian Broadcasting Corporation
A Slow Hello (1974), the May to September marriage of a young camp cook and an old cowboy, sharing a love for the twilight years of the ranching frontier. 30 min. NFB/CBC "Pacificanada" series.
Man Who Chooses the Bush (1975), the adventures of trapper, Frank Ladouceur, fighting to preserve the traditional Métis lifestyle of the Canadian north. Best Overall: Yorkton International. 30 min. NFB.
The Forests and Vladimir Krajina (1977), the quest of a former Czech resistance fighter against the Nazis to found an ecological reserves program in British Columbia. 30 min. NFB
Triangle Island (1979), a portrait of an ecological reserve dedicated to the preservation of the flora and fauna of the Pacific rim. 20 min. NFB
China Mission (1980), the story of Chester Ronning, whose life as a teacher and diplomat bridged East and West, leading to Canada's recognition of the People's Republic of China. Prizes: San Francisco, Alberta, San Antonio, Ohio. 60 min. NFB.
From 1980 to 1985, as Executive Producer, Mr. Radford founded the Northwest Studio of the National Film Board of Canada in Edmonton. During that period he produced over 20 films, including the early work of artists as diverse as Anne Wheeler and Gil Cardinal. Foster Child, produced with Gil Cardinal won a Gemini in 1988. Wood Mountain Poems, produced with Harvey Spak, won the Best Arts Documentary Award at the Banff Television Festival. The Renewable Society, a 26-part television series produced for the Challenge for Change Program with Peter Boothroyd, questioned the sustainability of conventional economic and industrial development.
In Search of the Dragon (1986), a NOVA documentary on The Dinosaur Project - a scientific adventure into China's Gobi Desert. 90 min. PBS Nova.
Littlechild (1987), the chronicle of Cree artist George Littlechild’s search for his lost parents and the soul of his people. 30 min. "My Partners, My People," Canwest Global. Gemini Nomination
Mother Tongue (1988), the story of Ann Anderson and her fight to preserve the Cree language. 30 min. Canwest Global.
Life After Hockey (1990), a modern-day fairy tale of how a local rink rat helped Team Canada defeat the Soviets. Best Overall, Best Drama, Best Director, Alberta Film Awards. Quebec/Alberta Prize, Banff TV Festival. 60 min. Canwest Global.
The Road Home (1992), a multicultural history of the settlement of Alberta, as portrayed in the work of writers Rudy Wiebe, Myrna Kostash, Marilyn Dumont, and Eva Brewster. 60 min. CBC.
Hockey Night in Harlem (1993), New York inner city kids fight for respect on hockey rinks from Central Park to central Alberta. Quebec/Alberta Prize, Banff Television Festival. 30 min. CBC Man Alive.
The Life and Times of Peter Lougheed (1994), a chronicle of the rise to power of Alberta’s most influential premier and the federal/provincial struggle over control of energy resources. 60 min. CBC Life and Times.
The Buffalo Ground (1995), the musician as historian, a portrait of The Great Western Orchestra. 60 min. CBC.
The Long River (1998), the northern adventures of explorer, geologist and paleontologist J. B. Tyrrell. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
A Land As Green As the Sea (1998), the legacy of five generations of Scots in Canada. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
Impossible Journey (1999), the story of Katherine Ryan, the first woman to take the overland route to the Klondike. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
Tickling the Dragon's Tail (1999), the mystery of Louis Slotin, the Canadian physicist killed building the atomic bomb. Best Director, 1999 Alberta Film Awards. 60 min. Great North Productions / Canwest Global.
New Norway (1999), the immigrants’ dream of building of a multi-cultural society on the western Canadian frontier. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
The Last Roundup (2000), the story of country music legend Wilf Carter, the yodeling cowboy. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
Distant Skies (2000), World War One flying ace Wop May opens up the Canadian North and invents the saga of the bush pilot. 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
Ma Vlast, My Homeland (2000), Michael and Renata Jiranek, two Czech immigrants, coach rural Alberta’s Kurt Browning to four World Figure Skating Championships. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
The Tree Planter (2001), the 98-year life of prairie populist, conservationist, and author Grant MacEwan. Part of "The Canadians: Biographies of a Nation," 60 min. Great North Productions / History Television.
The Great Lone Land (2001), the western adventure of Canada's first draft dodger, American Civil War artist and doctor, Richard Barrington Nevitt. 30 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television.
The End of Evolution (2001), an exploration of the world of Seattle Paleontologist Peter Ward, expert in the mass extinctions that have threatened the planet over millions of years. 60 min. Discovery Network / Credo Entertainment / National Film Board of Canada.
The Honour of the Crown (2002), the story of the Head of the Rapids people, and their 100-year old land claim against the Government of Canada. Best Documentary over 30 minutes, 2002 Alberta Film Awards. CBC "Witness" / National Film Board of Canada.
Conscience (2002), a biography of Czech writer and actor Vladimir Valenta, freedom fighter with the Czech resistance and star of the Academy Award winning film "Closely Watched Trains". 60 min. Alliance Atlantis / History Television.
The Great Divide (2003), the life of David Thompson, considered by many to be one of the world's greatest land geographers. 60 min. S4C Wales and History Television..
Arctic Dreamer (2003), the biogrpahy of controversial explorer and writer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, one of the last polar adventurers and advocate of Canada’s Inuit culture. 90 min. White Pine Pictures / History Television. Gemini Award, Best Biography; The Chris Award, Columbus, Ohio.
Great Lodges of the Canadian Rockies (2004), a mini-series on the eccentric character and history of “castles in the wilderness” like the Banff Springs Hotel and Jasper Park Lodge. 2x60 min. PBS / National Geographic / Alliance Atlantis. Five network telecasts, PBS.
Arctic Winter Games Opening Ceremonies (2004), a variety special on the gathering of peoples from across the circumpolar north for the 18th Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray, Alberta. 60 min. CBC.
Road of Bones (2004), a feature documentary on Cambridge anthropologist Niobe Thompson’s journey to the remotest region of Siberia to explore the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of indigenous Chukchi culture. 94 min. Canadian International Development Agency / Clearwater Media / Black Spring Pictures.
Worlds Collide (2005), the search of an Inuit family for the history of their people, nearly lost in the collision of cultures that took place in the 1890’s when whaling ships first brought the global economy to Herschel Island in the Western Arctic. 60 min. Clearwater Media / White Pine Pictures / History Television. 2 Gemini Nominations.
Great Canadian Wilderness (2005), a journey to the most remote parks and wildlife refuges which make up the “path seldom taken” of the vast uninhabited Canadian wilderness. 3x60 min. Kaizen West Productions / Readers Digest UK
Alberta Bound (2005), a centennial celebration of 100 years of Alberta music from Wilf Carter to Nickelback to kd lang. 120 minutes, CBC, White Iron Pictures. Best Long Form Documentary, Best Director, 2006 Alberta Film Awards. Nominations: Best Entertainment Special, Banff Television Festival; Gemini, Best Variety.
I, Nuligak (2006), the Inuvialuit version of Worlds Collide, telling the story of first contact in the high Arctic from an Inuit perspective. 70 min. Clearwater Media / White Pine Pictures / Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Special recognition, Hors Competition, Banff Television Festival.
Tar Sands (2007), an investigative documentary on the global politics of energy that are driving the breakneck development of the Athabasca Oil Sands, the last eldorado in a world of declining energy supply. 60 minutes. Clearwater Media / White Pine Pictures / CBC / NHK.
Power of Dreams (2007), young Canadians fight to bring social reform to the urban favelas of Brazil. 42 min. Canadian Learning Television / ACCESS.
Inuit Odyssey (2008), a thousand year old adventure in anthropology and archaeology following the migration of the Thule people across the circumpolar north. 42 min. CBC Nature of Things. Best Popular Science Documentary, Banff World Television Awards. Global Issues Award, Yorkton Film Festival.
Cities Crossing Borders (2009), the power of participatory democracy to solve the problems of world cities. 42 min. UN Habitat Conference, Rio de Janeiro.
Codebreakers (2010), from Lake Baikal to Brazil, an adventure story that explores the controversy surrounding the peopling of the Americas at the end of the last Ice Age. 42 min. CBC Nature of Things. Best Cinematography and Best Science and Adventure Program, 2011 Geminis.
Tipping Point (2010), the fight of environmentalists and First Nations to slow down the development of the world’s largest industrial project: the Alberta Tar Sands. 84 min. CBC DocZone / The Nature of Things / Al Jazeera.
