TORONTO – To help mark Human Rights Week, CTV’s Hunt For Justice: The Louise Arbour Story will be screened at the United Nations in New York on Monday. 
CTV and Galafilm Inc. announced today that Ambassador Allan Rock, Canada’s United Nations representative, Wayne Clarkson, executive director of Telefilm Canada; Hunt for Justice star Wendy Crewson (right) and Louise Arbour, the High Commissioner of Human Rights at the United Nations, will attend the event.
This will be the second pre-broadcast screening for the CTV movie. In October, Bell Globemedia and CTV CEO Ivan Fecan, together with Minister of Heritage Liza Frulla and Telefilm’s Clarkson, hosted a special premiere screening in Ottawa. The exclusive event was attended by over 400 dignitaries.
The $7 million CTV movie, also starring John Corbett (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sex in the City) and Academy Award-winner William Hurt, will air on CTV sometime in 2006.
Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story is a fictionalized account of former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour’s three-year struggle to indict, arrest and convict the war criminals of the Balkan Conflict.
“When age-old hatreds in the Balkans ended in ethnic cleansing, mass killings and rape of civilians, the world watched in horror as war criminals went unpunished. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, created by the United Nations, was derided as a lame duck. That is, until the 1996 arrival of Arbour as Chief Prosecutor for the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Three years later, former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic was imprisoned. He continues to this day to stand trial for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity,” says the press release.
Time magazine named Arbour one of the world’s 100 most influential people in April of 2004. In July of that year, Arbour became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland.
"I have put all of my faith in Louise Arbour. I share her belief in international law and giving a voice to the thousands of innocent victims of ethnic and religious cleansing," said Executive Producer Francine Allaire.
"We are thrilled that this powerful movie about her story has received recognition from the United Nations."
Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story is directed by Charles Binamé (Seraphin: Heart of Stone, The Rocket, H2O). Gemini award-winner Wendy Crewson (The Man Who Lost Himself, The Santa Clause, Air Force One, The Clearing) stars as Arbour. Joining her are John Corbett (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sex in the City), Academy Award-winner William Hurt (The Village, Kiss of the Spider Woman) and German film stars Heino Ferch (The Fall, Run Lola Run, The Tunnel) and Stipe Erceg (The Edukators). Leslie Hope (Commander-in-Chief, 24, H2O) and Claudia Ferri (Mambo Italiano, Ciao bella) round out the ensemble cast. Ian and Riley Adams (Agent of Influence) and Michelle Lovretta (Instant Star, The Associates) wrote the screenplay.
Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story is a Canada/Germany co-production involving Montreal’s Galafilm Inc. and Germany’s Tatfilm in association with CTV. Producers are 2003 Primetime Emmy Award-winner Arnie Gelbart (Cirque de Soleil: Fire Within, The Origins of AIDS, Big Sugar, Lilies) and Gemini Award-winner Francine Allaire (Dr. Lucille: The Lucille Teasdale Story, The Blue Butterfly, Steel Toes). Executive Producers are Gemini-Award Winner Anne Marie La Traverse (Tripping the Wire, The Eleventh Hour, Lucky Girl) and Randy Holleschau (Changing Hearts) along with Francine Allaire, Arnie Gelbart and German co-producer Christine Ruppert. Tecca Cosby is CTV’s production executive overseeing the movie. Bill Mustos is Senior Vice-President, Dramatic Programming for CTV. Susanne Boyce is President of CTV Programming and Chair of the Media Group.
Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story is being distributed worldwide outside of Canada and Germany by PorchLight Entertainment.
Hunt for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story is a part of CTV’s "Heroes, Champions and Villains" production strand focusing on remarkable Canadian personalities, characters and stories. Previous titles that have enjoyed critical and ratings success include the two-part mini-series Lives of the Saints, TERRY (the story of Terry Fox’s remarkable Marathon of Hope) and, most recently, The Man Who Lost Himself, which garnered an average of 1.5 million viewers and was the most watched Canadian movie this year.
Additional titles in the strand include the upcoming Shades of Black, based on the rise and fall of media mogul Conrad Black.
