MediaMentor

From a community access & media training base, George Lessard creates in print, broadcast radio & TV and educational media. A Kodak Brownie box camera in his hands at 12, encouragement from a family of artists, opened up at a beginning back at 1969's Montreal's first English language CEGEP, Dawson College through with the unboxing of the student radio station's Revox stereo reel-to-reel tape recorders and a subsequent immersion in the dawn of Canadian community access radio at the then Radio McGill (now CKUT 90.3 FM https://www.ckut.ca/ ) where we were part of the enabling of Montreal's Radio Centre-Ville 102.3 FM (the city's first multilingual/cultural broadcast community station) https://radio-centreville.com/son-histoire/ and the fight for community access cable TV in Canada.... Two years as SENIOR AUDIO VISUAL TECHNICIAN - VANIER COLLEGE Snowdon Campus, Montrèal, Quèbec, George managed a multimedia production centre; created classroom audiovisuals & instructed the use & production of multi-camera live video, super 8, audio and black & white photography was his lead in to a stint as EDUCATIONAL MEDIA CONSULTANT & AUDIO VISUAL TECHNICIAN - CHATEAUGUAY VALLEY REGIONAL PROTESTANT SCHOOL BOARD Ormstown, Quèbec. George was responsible for the day to day operations; the software, hardware & allocation of capital equipment; maintenance & repair of all equipment; provided support services for about 125 high school and elementary school teachers & their students in this 6 school organization. George's first exposure to the world outside Quebec was as MANAGER & TRAINER OF VOLUNTEERS - ROGERS CABLE TV, Toronto, Ontario where he taught all aspects of community TV production & managed the volunteer corps of Canada's largest access station. Returning to Quebec's Arctic as MEDIA PRODUCTION & MANAGEMENT TRAINER for TAQRAMIUT NIPINGAT INC., Salluit, Nunavik where he taught all aspects of media production, scripting, construction and content & management at an Inuit owned and operated radio & TV broadcast centre that was one of the founding members of TVNC (TV Northern Canada) the immediate predecessor of the Aboriginal People's TV Network from late 1981 to 1988. He then undertook a similar posting at the INUVIALUIT COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY, Inuvik, N.W.T. In 1992 George was offered the position of LECTURER at the COLLEGE OF THE BAHAMAS, Nassau, Bahamas, lecturing & providing hands on training for Journalism & Communications majors in Electronic News Gathering (ENG), Photojournalism, Business Communications and Introduction to Interpersonal & Small Group Communications. In 1995 he was hired as a FOREIGN EXPERT - COPY EDITOR / POLISHER for the CHINA DAILY GROUP, Beijing, People's Republic of China, copy editing & polishing stories written by Chinese reporters and editors for the only English language educational "21st Century" publication distributed across China. In Eastern India as a MEDIA PLANNER for Gram Vikas in Orissa, India George took up a post to this rural development NGO to establish a media facility and to document its field work and create training media for its staff; advise on the purchase of appropriate hardware; and train staff in the operation of audio, video & photographic hardware. In the late 1980's George was able to undertake studies at The Banff Centre in ADVANCED TV PRODUCTION - ELECTRONIC & FILM MEDIA with the eminent documentarian and American TV producer of the war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, Milton Fruchtman and a second full scholarship for the Visual Arts . During this time at Banff, amongst his many collaborations as video artist & editor, in 1986 the dramatic narrative, video "RUMBLESPHINX" (with video artists Robert Hamilton and Dave Clark) won the 1987 PRIX RADIO-QUEBEC from Quebec's educational TV network and the AWARD OF EXCELLENCE, 10th TOKYO VIDEO FESTIVAL and was distributed in both the US and Canada by Vidéographe. This was his first work where he collaborated using the first Kou Nakajima "Aniputer" digital animation device outside of Japan The Aniputer was an animation device that combined a video camera and a personal computer. Using joysticks instead of a keyboard, artists used the Aniputer to create animation in real time without the need to know a programming language ... George toured Canada demonstrating the Aniputer, stopping at VIDEO POOL, Winnipeg; EM MEDIA, Calgary; INTER-ACCESS, Toronto; the VISUAL STUDIES WORKSHOP, Rochester, NY; and La Maison de la Culture du Plateau Mt. Royal Montrèal in addition to his presentations at Banff. Now a Lethbridge artist in electronic & digital media, George was born / brought up in Rosemère, north of Montreal, Canada. His muse now moves from his postings to & showings in Toronto, Vancouver, Banff Calgary, Yellowknife, Inuvik, and Fort Smith Northwest Territories, Salluit, Nunavik (Arctic) Quebec & Arviat, Nunavut, Beijing, China; Nassau, the Bahamas; La Paz, Bolivia; Butare, Rwanda; Chelyabinsk, Russi