Documentary Film, Television & Digital Media

Kevin McMahon

Vice President, Creative

Kevin has written and directed 17 films for Primitive Entertainment, eight of them feature-length. He also provides creative guidance for  the development and production of the company’s other  film and television projects.  

With an abiding interest in our relationship with nature, technology and the Canadian landscape, Kevin has made films about Niagara Falls, nuclear weapons, cod fishing, the Great Lakes, the rebirth of the Haida and Inuit First Nations and the seer Marshall McLuhan. Kevin’s films have won many awards and been generously received by critics. The Canadian Film Institute and Hot Docs have both held retrospectives of Kevin’s work.

Kevin is a frequent guest in film education classes and devotes a lot of energy to mentoring younger filmmakers, both informally and through various documentary organizations. He has been a mentor  on programs run by Hot Docs, the National Film Board of Canada, the Canadian Film Centre, the Ontario Media Development Corporation and the Documentary Organization of Canada.

Kevin lives in Toronto with his three teenaged children.

Kristina McLaughlin

Vice President, Business Affairs

Kristina runs Primitive Entertainment, overseeing all aspects of the company’s various film and television productions. As such, Kristina manages everything and everyone who operates under the company’s iconic logo -- from the budgets and schedules that govern the many projects, to the technical experts and creative artists who bring them to life, to Primitive’s daily interactions with broadcasting partners and government agencies.

Kristina is particularly known for her sharp grasp of the multi-layered complexities of production financing and regulation, contract negotiation and copyright law.

As a former Board Member of the Documentary Organization of Canada, serving on the Executive Committee, Kristina has been involved in supporting the documentary community throughout her career.  Generous with her knowledge, she has served as a mentor to a variety of young producers, with a focus on aiding young women entering the film business.

Kristina is also the mother of two young school-age children.

 

Michael McMahon

President and Executive Producer.

Michael oversees Primitive’s selection of projects and focuses on the company’s many relationships with broadcasters, distributors, co-production partners, industry organizations and government agencies. Internationally, Michael has forged partnerships with co-producers and investors in Britain, Europe, Australia and Japan.

Michael has served for 15 years on the board of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), an industry group representing 700 documentary filmmakers across Canada. He is currently Co-Chair of DOC Toronto. For the past  eight years, Michael has served as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Hot Docs, North America's largest documentary film festival. He is also a member of the Industry Advisory Committee of the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

Having entered the film industry as a self-taught editor in the go-go years of Toronto B-movie production in the 1980s, Michael retains a keen fascination with the fusing of technology and artistry that is filmmaking. As a result, Primitive has always been in in the forefront of embracing new technologies – from digital imaging to computerized special effects to web-based documentaries – which has enabled the company to consistently pioneer new non-fiction storytelling techniques.

Michael is the father of pre-school twin boys and lives with his family in Toronto.