Donna Davies

Fanarchy explores the rise of fan culture and ways in which fans are threatening the Hollywood system by becoming a creative force in their own right. With affordable technology at their fingertips, fans are producing more new content per month than studios or networks combined. Whether it's an original idea or a personal spin on a favorite film or TV show, fans are taking the reins and blurring the line between amateur and professional. Written and directed by Halifax’s own Donna Davies, Fanarchy exposes the burgeoning media landscape and the issues that complicate it – copyright, intellectual property and the concept of originality in a remix culture.

Nightmare Factory, directed by Donna Davies (Zombiemania), is the story of how one Pittsburgh boy’s fascination with monsters drove him to the very top of the Hollywood food chain. In 1989, Greg Nicotero, much to his parents’ chagrin, quit medical school and headed for Hollywood to pursue a dream of making monsters. Together with gore masters Howard Berger and Robert Kurtzman, Nicotero went on to create KNB EFX Group, one of the most prolific makeup effects studios in the world. After twenty years as the “go to guy” for the world’s most successful horror/sci-fi films, Greg Nicotero is the first one directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez call.

Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror is a television documentary film that premiered on the Canadian cable network Space on February 25, 2009. The hour-long documentary examines the experiences, motivations and impact of the increasing number of women engaged in horror fiction, with producers Donna Davies and Kimberlee McTaggart of Canada's Sorcery Films interviewing actresses, film directors, writers, critics and academics. The documentary was filmed in Toronto, Canada; and in Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York in the US.

The evolution of the zombie from its roots in Haitian voodoo to its coveted role as the world's most popular monster: from being a clumsy corpse to becoming a cannibal killer and the main agent of every infectious pandemic, the zombie has come a long way in seventy years. A look at the rising tide of zombie culture examining why something so dead has so much life in viewers' nightmares and at the box office.

In this program, devotees of Wicca and practitioners of tarot, astrology, palmistry, and other arcane arts explain their gifts of divination and healing while reflecting on their efforts to reconcile their unorthodox callings with Biblical injunctions and sometimes hostile skepticism. Wiccan initiation rites and psychic counseling sessions shed light on obscure practices that are very much alive today and in demand by a diverse constituency that even includes police

High Hopes: The Business of Marijuana delves into the constantly evolving world of medical marijuana. With legalization just around the corner, demand continues to escalate, with medical marijuana being used to treat a growing number of illnesses and conditions, and the results are promising. Like with most new growth industries, everyone is trying to get in on the action. Director Donna Davies follows the stories of consumers and entrepreneurs determined to carve out a place for themselves in the marijuana marketplace.