Barri Cohen

BARRI COHEN, writer, director, co-producer, is a Toronto-based documentary filmmaker, television producer, and writer. Her work includes acclaimed and award-winning documentary series for television focused on social justice issues, health and the environment. Since 2001, she has produced and directed for Breakthrough Films over 30 hours of verité television including the multiple Gemini-nominated series FAMILY DANCE: TALES FROM THE SANDWICH GENERATION; HEARTBEATS, on women in health crisis; and SITUATION CRITICAL, hour-long documentaries on trauma room medicine. She was the lead director on the ground-breaking series LITTLE MIRACLES, about the Hospital for Sick Children. Her work has premiered at Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival, including the critically acclaimed 2003 DOVE DAYS: JOURNEYS WITH PAKISTAN’S INSAN STREET THEATRE, an independent documentary about the peace movement among street theatre youth in post-9/11 Pakistan. Her first film, 1997’s NOT YET DIAGNOSED, won multiple prizes at U.S. film festivals, including a Chris Award from the prestigious Columbus Film Festival. From 1993 to 1998, Cohen was editor, critic and policy analyst of Point of View, Canada’s magazine about the independent documentary scene, and since 2004, she has functioned as its publisher. She is producing and directing the second season of CRIMES OF PASSION for Summhill TV and the Women’s Network. (1/10)

Toxic Trespass
A film by Barri Cohen, 2007, 53 min., Color
When Canadian filmmaker Barri Cohen discovers that her ten-year-old daughter’s blood carries carcinogens like benzene and the long-banned DDT, she tra...