ShebaFilms is a film production company based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We focus primarily on documentary filmmaking, but we also produce fiction, animation, commercial and educational films. The company was established in 1996 as Shebandowan Films by Kelly Saxberg and Ron Harpelle. We have filmed around the world creating documentaries focusing on history, globalization, social justice, the environment and mental health issues. ShebaFilms has built a reputation of creating strong documentary content that speaks to important issues in Canada and abroad. We produce films as both ShebaFilms and Franco Finn Films.
New Releases!
A Tale of Two Qallunaat is a one hour documentary about two intrepid women artists who travelled to the Arctic in the early 1970s and left a lasting legacy of their art and love of the north.
SILENT CRIES (KIAYUNIK TUHANAK), documents the work of Navalik and her colleagues as members of the NTRC’s sharing circle. As a respected Elder, Navalik shares her experience and that of the other survivors who attended the private meeting with Pope Francis in 2022. She weaves her personal story into the narrative to bring an intimate perspective to a historical event and what followed.
Coming Soon!
The View From Up Here is a six-part “found footage” documentary series that takes a satirical look at historical themes and events in a remote region of Canada. The series is centred on the Lakehead, the Thunder Bay region at the head of the Great Lakes. It is presented in a talk show format by a host who provides a Canadian perspective on local, national and world history in the twentieth century The host for the series is historian, researcher, writer, and amateur thespian, Tom Peotto, a resident of the Lakehead with an unfiltered view of his hometown. The primary visual sources for the series are local news clips from CKPR TV shot between 1958 and 1978, archival film
footage from the region, and artifacts from the Thunder Bay Museum.
The View From Up Here is the creation of Ron Harpelle and Kelly Saxberg, who, together with a team of writers, filmmakers, and animators, bring everyday life in “small town” Canada to the world. The series is an extension of a public history project called Reel Memories of the Lakehead, which saw the digitization and indexing of 235 hours of clips from the local news.
