The Filmmakers

Tony Coleman

Producer, Director, DOP, Editor

Tony Coleman was born and raised in Toronto and attended Ryerson University for Radio and Television Arts. Mighty Uke is his first feature-length documentary, but he has been involved in film and television for over twenty years. He began directing music videos in 1988, then went on to edit feature films; edit and design current affairs and documentary series; and direct, write, edit, design and animate the hour-long documentary Blue Jean Confidential for the CBC. He has been nominated for Gemini Awards in editing as well as Visual Effects and won a Broadcast Design Award for Graphic Design in 2003.

Margaret Meagher

Writer, Producer, Cameraman, Graphic Designer

Margaret Meagher is a freelance writer and illustrator who has written and designed graphics for both print and television. She has been teaching English at an inner city tech school for 10 years and has edited and co-written several successful television documentary scripts.

Ron Mann

Executive Producer

Toronto filmmaker, Ron Mann, one of Canada’s foremost documentary filmmakers, established his international reputation while in his twenties with a series of award-winning theatrical documentaries, including: Imagine the Sound, 1981, Poetry in Motion, 1982, Comic Book Confidential, 1988, Twist, 1992, Grass, 1999, and Go Further, 2003.

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The Composers

James Hill

Called the “Wayne Gretzky of the ukulele” by Stuart McLean for his genre-bending original ukulele compositions and lightening quick hands, James Hill is never satisfied with knowing “how.” He wants to learn what it is that the ukulele does that no other instrument can, and write and play to these strengths. This sets him free to explore and include any and all musical genres. A little Bluegrass, a little Classical, Spanish, Blues and Jazz, with the odd bit of Asian Folk thrown in, his music is truly original, truly global and tailored to the ukulele.

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Andy McNeill

Andy McNeill is a composer and music consultant based in Toronto. He has composed the themes for many well-known television shows on Global/HGTV US, CBC, BRAVO, TVO, and the ONE Channel. He has written and performed the music for more than fifty episodes of CBC Television's The Nature of Things. In October 2007 he composed the score for the PBS Frontline/ CBC documentary Darfur: On Our Watch.

In October 2001, he received a Gemini nomination for best original music score in a documentary program for History Television’s Turning Points In History “Cloud of Death”. His music was also featured in the award winning feature documentary The Corporation. In radio, Andy has composed the music for many series on IDEAS on CBC RADIO ONE. He has also worked as a music consultant with the celebrated broadcaster and musicologist Lister Sinclair.

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