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Judith Keenan
BookShorts Executive
Producer
Judith Keenan’s 20-year career in Canada and the United
States has been focused on business development in the culture
and entertainment industries, spanning roles in executive
management, strategic marketing and production.
She is currently (2003-present) Executive Producer and Founder
of BookShorts Inc. and its not-for-profit sister company BookShorts
Literacy Program (bookshorts.com). The corporations produce
screen media oriented around authors, books and publishing
for distribution via television broadcast, Internet and wireless
initiatives, live events, film festivals and other multi-platform
promotions. Since its launch in 2004, Judith has produced
fourteen original productions, a national television series
(movingstories.tv), and over a hundred news and feature vignettes.
She has secured public, private and contributed services valuing
more than $750,000 CDN for the enterprise to date.
Toronto’s Drake Hotel (thedrakehotel.ca, 2004-05) recruited
Ms. Keenan shortly after the venue’s launch. During
her contract term as Executive Director Business Development,
she was responsible for creating the organizational infrastructure
for personnel, operations, and financial business models.
Once in place, she developed strategic alliances locally,
nationally and internationally which resulted in sponsorship
deals with over 60 art, corporate and media organizations.
She developed the business model for DrakeTV, an in-venue
original broadcast program, and secured distribution and production
deals with Air Canada, Channel Zero and Rogers Television.
Her work there became the model for its ongoing stability,
artistic growth, and high community profile.
In 2003 and again in 2004, Toronto Arts Council Foundation
contracted her as Producer of ArtsWeek, a multi-disciplinary
city-wide festival celebrating arts and culture. She secured
media and corporate sponsorship valued at over $500,000 in
financial and contra services. Supervising a team of staff,
volunteers, advertising agency, publicists, and over 200 independent
arts organizations each year, she also conceived and produced
a one-hour documentary television show for the Foundation
in partnership with Rogers Television, to bring additional
visibility to the Festival and catalyze its fundraising initiative.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation hired Judith to undertake
the US promotion of a 14-week series of CBC/Radio-Canada programs
curated and hosted by The Museum of Television and Radio (mtr.org)
in New York and Los Angeles. Working with the producers of
feature doc McLuhan’s Wake, she publicized and produced
two New York screenings for the National Film Board/Primitive
Entertainment, resulting in a sale to Sundance Channel.
Ms. Keenan spent a decade based in Manhattan during the height
of the global communications revolution and through the turn
of the century. One highlight of many was the launch of ChoicePoint
Films (1997), the content-production division of multi-media
production company Planet Theory. As Executive Producer, she
negotiated the distribution contract for one of the world’s
first interactive movies on DVD. The project not only earned
its distribution advance, but made profit for the company
within three months of its market release.
Keenan has represented a number of artists in the sale and
licensing of original media properties. In 2000, representing
the animation studio Twinkle (www.twinkleland.com) headed
by underground cartoonist Gary Leib, she sold original webisode
series to distributors such as Icebox.com (Pitchfork Holler),
Honkworm.com (Jickett’s Speed Shop) and a book entitled
The Art of Cartooning with Flash to Sybex Publishers. Twinkle
and Keenan produced animated promotions for graphic novelists
such as Daniel Clowes (David Boring) and Chris Ware (Jimmy
Corrigan) which she then licensed to Amazon.com, BN.com and
various online book retailers.
Previous credits in Canada and the US include promotion,
production and marketing positions with Association of Canadian
Orchestras, Canadian Opera Company, Desrosiers Dance Theater,
and Random House of Canada as well as multimedia development
companies LaunchBox, Oven Digital, Ouryearbook.com, and cultural
events at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy
of Music, Joyce Theater and many other venues in New York.
She currently lives in Toronto and consults to artists and
companies in Canada and the United States.
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