Pete McCormack
Pete McCormack (born January 27, 1965) is a Canadian author, filmmaker, screenwriter and musician. He directed the Academy Award short-listed documentary Facing Ali and the Leacock Award-nominated novel Understanding Ken. He is the creator of the HBO Canada documentary television series Sports on Fire.
Pete McCormack
Tavisdunn · Public domain
- Name
- Pete McCormack
- Born
- 27 January 1965
- Birthplace
- Thetford, Norfolk, England
- Occupation
- * Author
- Nationality
- Canada
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Pete McCormack • Born — 27 January 1965 • Birthplace — Thetford, Norfolk, England • Occupation — * Author • filmmaker • screenwriter • musician • Website — https: petemccormack.com/
Novels
Novels
McCormack's first novel, Shelby, about a university drop-out who falls for an exotic dancer near the end of her career, was published in 1994. McCormack's second novel, Understanding Ken, was released in 1998. The novel focused on a young boy who creates a mythology around hockey, the Montreal Canadiens and Ken Dryden in order to deal with the trauma of his parents' divorce. In 1999, the novel was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award for Canadian Humour, and named one of the 10 best books of the year by the Ottawa Citizen.
Music
Music
McCormack has released three independent CDs. His debut CD, Breathe, was released in 1995. Paul Hyde of Payola$ fame, and members of Spirit of the West, Geoffrey Kelly, Hugh MacMillan and drummer and producer Vince Ditrich played on the CD. Renowned jazz musician and two-time Juno Award winner Brad Turner played the trumpet solo on the opening track "Stay With Me." McCormack released a second CD, Trust, in 1998. The track, "Be Brave Tonight", was screen-tested in Los Angeles as the proposed song to close the Kevin Costner-film Message in a Bottle. The song was ultimately not chosen because the screen-test audience reportedly found the song combined with the film's ending "too depressing." McCormack recorded an unplugged third album, Wide Open, in 2008. In 2009, he contributed the closing song to the Academy Award-shortlisted documentary, Facing Ali, which he also directed.
Film
In 2003, McCormack directed and wrote his first feature film, the award-winning See Grace Fly, starring Paul McGillion and Gina Chiarelli. Chiarelli won multiple awards and was nominated for a Genie Award for her role as Grace McKinley, a woman suffering from schizophrenia. In 2006, McCormack wrote and co-directed (with Jesse James Miller) the award-winning documentary Uganda Rising, about the plight of the people of Northern Uganda. The film was narrated by Academy Award-winner Kevin Spacey. For UNICEF in 2007, McCormack wrote and co-directed (with Tim Hardy) the 25-minute Pierce Brosnan-narrated short film Hope in the Time of AIDS about the HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and the potential of antiretroviral drugs. In 2009, McCormack directed the documentary Facing Ali. The film was short-listed in the 2010 Academy Awards' category for best full-length documentary. In October 2009, the film won the Audience Choice award for Best Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2011, McCormack directed I Am Bruce Lee, a biographical documentary of Bruce Lee. Its debut on Spike TV was the highest rated documentary in the station's history, reaching 1.4 million viewers. Spike's previous record-holder was McCormack's 2009 documentary, Facing Ali. In 2015, McCormack created, directed and executive produced the HBO Canada documentary television series Sports On Fire. In 2016, his film Spirit Unforgettable, a profile of the rock band Spirit of the West on their final concert tour, premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Screenplays: • Whirlygirl, 2006, directed by Academy Award Winning producer Jim Wilson (Dances With Wolves) • Plague City: SARS in Toronto (TV movie), 2005 • The Blue Butterfly, 2004, directed by Léa Pool and starring Academy Award winner William Hurt.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Pete McCormack, revision 1357683568 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Gee, Dana. Sports on Fire: New HBO series from Vancouver’s Pete McCormack looks at sports through a cultural lens. www.theprovince.com.
- 2.IMDB: Awards for Gina Ciarelli
- 3.Uganda Rising.
- 4.Star Magazine
- 5.New York Times: Fifteen Documentaries Eligible for Oscar Nod
- 6.VIFF: 2009 Awards
- 7.I Am Bruce Lee. IMDB.
- 8.'I Am Bruce Lee' sets Spike TV ratings record for documentaries. MMA Junkie. March 8, 2012.
- 9.Gee, Dana. Sports on Fire: New HBO series from Vancouver’s Pete McCormack looks at sports through a cultural lens. www.theprovince.com.
- 10.HBO Canada
- 11."Home, For A Rest: With front man John Mann battling early-onset Alzheimer's, Spirit of the West is preparing to play its final gig". The Globe and Mail, April 14, 2016.
- 12.Amazon: Understanding Ken
- 13.Hansard -- Volume 14, Number 7 -- Thursday, April 15, 1999. www.leg.bc.ca.
- 14.Robert J. Sawyer: The Ottawa Citizen Best Books of the Year
- 15.Cited in the source article.
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
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