'' Steven Silver is a South African / Canadian media entrepreneur, producer, and director. Together with media industry veteran Peter Sussman, Silver co-founded and was the CEO of Kew Media Group Inc., a publicly listed content company that produced and distributed multi-genre content worldwide.

Early life and education

Silver was born and raised in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He earned his

LL.B Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. As a student, Silver was an anti-

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

activist during the 1990s.

Career

He started his career in South Africa and later in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, writing and co-producing a feature-length 1997

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

(CBC) documentary '' Gerrie & Louise'' that earned him an International

Emmy award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. In addition to documentaries for the CBC, he also directed documentaries for

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

, and

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

. Silver's documentaries ''Diameter of the Bomb'' and the critically acclaimed '' The Last Just Man'' won a number of international awards. He collaborated with Barna-Alper Productions to produce ''Box Car Rebellion'', ''Doctor's Strike'', ''The Last Just Man, The Anglo Boer War'', and ''The Dark Years''. With Neil Tabatznik, Silver is also partner and co-founder of Toronto-based Blue Ice Group Capital. In 2005, the duo bought into Barna Alper productions, at which Silver served as president from 2005 to 2009, when it was sold to

Entertainment One Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...

. After the sale, Silver spent a year as head of eOne's factual entertainment division. In 2010, the Blue Ice Group partnered with Echo Lake Entertainment to form the Blue Lake Media Fund. The fund provides financing for mid- to large-budget independent films and television series. In 2011, the Blue Ice Group acquired the South African production company Out of Africa, and with the owner Lance Samuels established Blue Ice Pictures. Blue Ice Group is also responsible for a number of philanthropic initiatives including the Hot Docs–Blue Ice Group Documentary fund, which provides financial support to African documentary filmmakers for development and production. His most recent film for which he also wrote the screenplay is a Canadian–South African long feature film entitled '' The Bang-Bang Club'' based on the book ''The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War'' co-written by

Greg Marinovich Greg Marinovich (born Gregory Sebastian Marinovich, 8 December 1962) is a South African photojournalist, filmmaker, photo editor, and member of the Bang-Bang Club. He co-authored the book '' The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War'' (2 ...

and João Silva who were part of the group of four photographers in South Africa known as

Bang-Bang Club The Bang-Bang Club was a group of four conflict photographers, Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and João Silva, active within the townships of South Africa between 1990 and 1994 during the transition from the apartheid system ...

, the other two members being Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek. The film premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

. More recently, he has executive produced a number of films including ''Truth'', ''Indian Point'', and ''Midnight's Children''. Amid mounting debt and a pending court case, Kew Media Group dissolved in February 2020. FTI Consulting, a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

-based business management firm, took control of the company's assets and the board of directors resigned, including Silver.

Filmography

Director

*2002: ''Stories from the War Zone'' (TV documentary) *2002: ''Soul of India'' (TV documentary) – Part of ''Wide Angle'' series *2002: ''The Last Just Man'' (documentary) *2003: ''The Great Atlantic Air Race'' (TV documentary) *2005: ''Diameter of the Bomb'' (documentary) *2005: ''H5N1: Killer Flu'' – Part of ''Wide Angle'' series *2007: ''The Dark Years'' (TV mini-series) *2010: '' The Bang-Bang Club'' – First directed long feature film

Writer

*1997: '' Gerrie & Louise'' (documentary) *2003: ''The Great Atlantic Air Race'' (TV documentary) *2010: ''The Bang-Bang Club'' (screenplay / writer)

Producer

*1997: '' Gerrie & Louise'' (documentary) (co-producer) *2002: ''Soul of India'' (TV documentary) – Part of ''Wide Angle'' series *2005: ''H5N1: Killer Flu'' – Part of ''

Wide Angle Wide angle may refer to: * Wide-angle lens, type of camera lens * Wide Angle (TV series), ''Wide Angle'' (TV series), television series * ''Wide Angle'', 1999 album by Hybrid * ''Wide Angles'', 2003 album by Michael Brecker * Wide-angle X-ray scatt ...

'' series *2007: '' Shake Hands with the Devil'' (executive producer) *2007: '' Who Do You Think You Are?'' (TV series) (executive producer) *2007: ''Party Mamas'' (TV series) (executive producer – 6 episodes: "Emily", "Rosalie", "Angel", "Suzanne" and "Bridget") *2008: ''Céline'' (TV movie) (executive producer) *2009: ''Bio-Dad'' (TV documentary) (executive producer) *2009: ''Ted Rogers: A Life in Broadcasting'' (TV movie) (executive producer) *2009: ''Almost Audrey'' (TV movie) (executive producer) *2010: '' Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie'' (documentary) (executive producer) *2010: ''The Bang-Bang Club'' (executive producer) *2010: ''Flip, Flop, and Fly, 40 Years of the Downchild Blues Band'' (documentary) (executive producer) *2010: ''Pickton'' (TV documentary) (executive producer) *2011: ''The Pig Farm'' *2012: ''Midnight's Children'' (executive producer) *2013: ''

The Numbers Station ''The Numbers Station'' is a 2013 American action thriller film, starring John Cusack and Malin Åkerman, about a burned-out CIA black ops agent assigned to protect the code operator at a secret American numbers station somewhere in the British ...

'' (executive producer) *2013: ''

Romeo & Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with ''Ham ...

'' (executive producer) *2015: ''Shark Killer'' (executive producer) *2015: ''Indian Point'' (executive producer) *2015: ''The Missing Ingredient: What is the Recipe for Success?'' (executive producer) *2015: ''Truth'' (executive producer) *2016: ''

Madiba Iziduko (pl.) in Xhosa are family names that are considered more important than surnames among Xhosa people. Many Xhosa persons can trace their family history back to a specific male ancestor or stock. Mentioning the clan name of someone is the ...

'' (TV Mini-Series) (executive producer)

Awards and nominations

;For ''Gerrie & Louise'' *1998: Won Gemini Award for "Best Writing in a Documentary Program or Series" (shared with Barry Stevens) *1998: Won Writers Guild of Canada Award (shared with Barry Stevens) ;For ''The Last Just Men'' *2002: Won "Best Documentary Film/Video" at Hamptons International Film Festival *2002: Won "Humanitarian Cinema Award" at Newport International Film Festival Award *2003: Won both "Audience Award" and "Special Jury Award" at the Prague One World Film Festival ;Others *2006: Won "Silver Screen Award: Documentaries" U.S. International Film and Video Festival for "Wide Angle" "H5N1: Killer Flu" (Shared with Micah Fink) *2008: Nominated for Gemini Award for "Best Direction in a Documentary Series" and for "Best Documentary Series" for ''The Dark Years'' *2009: Nominated for Gemini Award for "Best TV movie" for ''Céline'' (shared with Laszlo Barna)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Silver, Steven Canadian documentary film directors South African film directors Living people Canadian Screen Award winners Year of birth missing (living people)