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Long before "Oil Sands Karaoke" director Charles Wilkinson was a documentary filmmaker, he was a musician. So getting to make a film about a group of oil sands workers competing in a karaoke contest in Fort McMurray, Alberta — arguably Canada's most controversial town — was something of a lifelong dream come true for him.

"I've been a musician since I was, like, five. A professional musician until I was 19 or so. I play all the time. I sing all the time," Wilkinson tells the Huffington Post Canada. "I've been a filmmaker for my whole adult life and I never got to do anything about music before. When we got this idea, Tina [Schliessler], my partner and the producer of the movie said, 'You have to do this because it's made for you.' And it really, really is."

As a filmmaker dedicated to pushing past the all of the misinformation and rhetoric...

Canadian writer/director Charles Wilkinson ("Peace Out," "The Highlander") is following up the first edition of his "The Working Film Director" with an updated second edition.  The book is targeted towards just-beginning filmmakers, and covers everything having to do with what working as a filmmaker really means, from going to film school (or not) to making your first film. Below is an excerpt from the book's chapter on film school, courtesy of its publisher Michael Weise Productions.  To see more of the book or to buy it, check out the book on Amazon. How To Choose Your Film School Who have they taught? Before you sign on the dotted line, ask each school for a list of their graduates who are now established or working directors. IMDb search them. Some schools have a very good record in this area. Some not so much. If directing is what you want to learn,...

Toronto - Canadian filmmaker Nisha Pahuja’s The World Before Her, which won Tribeca’s best feature documentary prize, on Friday night grabbed the best Canadian feature prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival. The documentary about a clash between modernity and tradition faced by young women in India also earned a $10,000 prize as the Canadian doc festival gets set to wrap on Sunday. And a special jury prize for Canadian features went to Charles Wilkinson’s Peace Out, a film about resource extraction in western Canada, and its impact on the local environment. Hot Docs’ best international feature prize

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