Michael Jorgensen is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker with a passion for storytelling.

In 1997, Michael founded Myth Merchant Films. Myth Merchant’s first production, Battle of the X-Planes, in 2003, was honoured with an Emmy Award for best Feature Length Documentary. Battle of the X-Planes is the story of the competition between Boeing and Lockheed in the development of the ultimate high-tech fighter. It tells a saga of designers and pilots pushing the envelope against high stakes and of the attempt by the Pentagon to change its way of doing business. The program not only gained the distinction of being the highest-rated show in NOVA’s thirty-year history, but also marked the first and only time that the U. S. Department of National Defense allowed a filmmaker an inside look into a major defense competition. This being Myth Merchant’s first production makes the whole feat quite overwhelming.

In 2004, Michael wrote, produced, directed and was the cinematographer for the HDTV production, Lost Nuke, for the Discovery Channel. Lost Nuke reveals the untold story about the Americans who accidentally crashed a plane on the B.C. coast in the early 1950s with a nuclear weapon aboard. This film was awarded Best Documentary from the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, as well as eight ‘Rosies’, the award of the Alberta Motion Picture Industry.

Over the past 20 years, Michael has earned over eighty national and international awards for writing, producing, directing and cinematography, including Best International Feature from CNN. He has also received honours from the Canadian Association of Journalists, the New York Film Festival and the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.

Michael recently acted as the producer for the six-hour series, Mars Rising. Set to air on the Discovery Channel in the fall of 2008, the $6 million production chronicles the scientific and technical efforts to launch the first human mission to the Red Planet. Currently Michael is in production on two Discovery Channel specials: Dinosaur Resurrection which follows the scientific investigation into the world’s only dinosaur cadaver and Arctic Exhumation, a forensic investigation into the identity of the Mad Trapper.

We have been truly blessed to have such a talented individual from our community accomplish such remarkable goals and we are very proud to have him recognized in the industry as “Spruce Grove’s filmmaker”. We look forward to many more great productions from Michael Jorgensen.