Sharing stories over coffee in a small Huntsville bistro, one is immediately struck by Geordie Sabbagh’s quiet, observational gaze.
Engaging, instantaneously likable, and possessed of a cosmopolitan disposition, Geordie invites rapport, celebrating his guest’s success as much as his own, recounting the magical thinking that makes up the life of a professional filmmaker. While Geordie regales his listener in friendly, witty banter, there is a lingering sense that his watchful awareness is studying every nuance, taking notes, gathering information, and framing shots. Nothing less might be expected from a man who has built a life behind the camera as a director, and a writer, yet his own journey unfolds with spellbinding intrigue – a worthy movie of its own.
Raised in a Lebanese-Canadian family, Geordie’s entrepreneurial father took his young family to the Cayman Islands, where Geordie spent most of his early development until he left for Queen’s University in Kingston. Eagerly, following in his itinerant father’s footsteps, Geordie travelled to the Netherlands to complete his undergraduate studies, finalizing his international Masters of Business Administration in London.
His acumen for business management secured him a position, working in radio, with the BBC World Service in Afghanistan, where he began to learn the technical aspects of both journalism and production.
He received death threats from Al-Qaeda, for his managerial involvement with in-country stringers or freelance journalists who reported on the dangerous and turbulent events during the continued upheaval. Despite the risks inherent in reporting from a war-torn country, Geordie also produced radio shows and soap operas, featuring much-loved Afghani performers including renowned musician Aryana Sayeed, known as Afghanistan’s Madonna. Thus began his early introduction to production work, writing, casting, and meeting deadlines.
Geordie Sabbagh moved to BBC TV/Radio where he learned the craft of TV production. He realized that his future would be in making TV shows and movies. After three years with BBC, he returned to Canada and began to write, direct, and produce TV series for Learning TV and the Discovery Channel. “As VP of a FactEnt company, (he created), multiple series: After the Attack, Conspiracy Test, Rogue Nature for Discovery, and learning the art of the cliff-hanger from the inventor of Shark Week.” Discovery’s Shark Week has been on for sixteen seasons.
Geordie has a fundamental appreciation for humour, irony, and how the absurd finds audience fascination. Conspiracy Test, a series he worked on, explored a vast array of opinions on world events. As a multi-faceted filmmaker, Gordie has produced TV series and movies, and directed several acclaimed shorts and pictures including Canadian Strain, When I Go Outside, and A Sunday Kind of Love. “Geordie’s work has achieved worldwide commercial success, played at renowned festivals such as ComicCon, Fantasia, and Shanghai, and won multiple awards for directing, acting, and writing.”
His short, The Toy, won best comedy at the Three Fires International Film Festival held in Huntsville from July 27 to 30th, 2023. A hilarious, insightful portrait of a married couple’s adventure into re-igniting the spark in their love life, the short underscores many of the themes and influences Geordie has absorbed in his career – from his love of old Chinese Kung Fu movies to “creating work where sarcasm is the highest form of wit, and nice people get away with it.”
He is currently working on a new project about the guy who started the Cold War titled Out in the Cold.
Check out the demo reel: HERE
In December of 2022, Geordie decided to move to the Huntsville area. He had fond memories of the Pines Cottage Resort on Oxtongue Lake, Dwight, and decided that this would be a memorable place to raise his family and establish his production company. He is impressed with the remarkable breadth of talent in music, theatre, and writing in Huntsville and finds the arts community to be quite inspirational.
“Outside directing, he holds the four-door sedan lap record at Canada’s fastest race track, survived two terms as Parent Council chair, and founded the design collective -Eat Creativity.”
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