Prolific producer

Invisible City, produced by Mehernaz Lentin and directed by Hubert Davis, won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary honor at the Hot Docs Film Festival, 2009. Held annually in Toronto, Hot Docs is the largest documentaries film festival in North America. The award which came with a CDN $ 15,000 cash prize is sponsored by the Documentary Organization of Canada and the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation. The 75-minute documentary that was premiered on May 2, 2009 at the Royal Cinema was also co-written by Lentin.

Shot over three years, Invisible City is an intimate portrait of two Regent Park boys crossing into adulthood — their mothers and mentors rooting for them to succeed, their environment luring them to poor choices. Amid the pressures of high school and harsh realities, their voices express angst, alienation, hopefulness and understanding. Surrounded by poverty, disadvantage and inherent racism, they struggle to turn their lives around.

"Documentaries are often referred to as ‘windows on the world,’ to the point of cliché. But, as seen by the winners of two of the top prizes at this past Friday’s awards ceremony for Hot Docs 2009, clichés always have a ring of truth to them. Through the two winners — Invisible City and The One Man Village — audiences at this year’s festival could catch a glimpse of both the gritty urban environment of Toronto’s Regent Park and the deserted, war-torn Lebanese village of Ain El Halazoun, respectively,” notes an article posted on the web by Barry Walsh.

Besides Invisible City, Lentin has produced films like Toxic Trespass in 2007 which won the 2008 Writer’s Guild of Canada Best Documentary Award, Dem Bones (2004), Skin Deep (1994), What about Dad (1993)…She was co-producer for Deepa Mehta’s The Republic of Love (2003), and line producer for Mehta’s Bolly­wood/Hollywood (2002), the latter opening the Perspective Canada program at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and becoming one of Canada’s highest grossing box-office hits of 2002, according to Lentin’s bio data. For the one-hour documentary 24 Hour Cab-Ride for the CBC’s The Lens, Lentin was also co-writer and co-director.

Mehernaz Lentin (left) with a still from Invisible City

Daughter of Siloo and Beji Lentin of Toronto, as mentions the June 2009 newsletter of the Zoroastrian Society of Ontario, Mehernaz has her own company, Industry Pictures Inc in Toronto, where she serves as president, mentions her mother. Created in 2000, Industry Pictures Inc is committed to developing and producing socially relevant and internationally diverse dramas, television programs and documentaries. Under the banner of Industry Pictures she produced Heaven on Earth by Mehta in 2008, which was selected as Canada’s Top Ten by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2008.

"As an independent producer Mehernaz is committed to developing and producing a diverse and audacious slate of writer/director driven feature films, documentaries and arts based new media content,” notes an introduction to her on the web. A resident of the 1993 Producer Lab at the Canadian Film Centre, Lentin had worked as program coordinator from 1990-92. Her diverse background includes producing live theater events. Mona Darling which she co-wrote was launched as a benefit fundraiser for the Royal Ontario Museum’s South Asian Heritage Wing. Her interest in interactive new media led her to produce Alpha Girls, a 75-minute performance based interactive multimedia DVD and website project. She has also produced shorts like Desperately featuring Grammy award-winning musician Shirley Eikhard.