Kevin McMahon

Kevin McMahon (born December 13, 1957) is a Canadian documentary writer, director and producer. One of Canada's most innovative documentary makers, McMahon’s environmentally themed films have garnered dozens of awards, including the Hot Docs Special Jury Prize, Tokyo Film Festival Earth Prize, Planet in Focus Eco Hero Award, Silbersalz Homeland Earth Award, Canadian Academy of Cinema’s Rob Stewart Award and the First Peoples’ International Festival’s Rigoberta Menchu Grand Prix.

McMahon began his career as a newspaper journalist in St. Catharines, Ontario where his work helped the paper win honors from the Canadian Centre for Investigative Journalism and a nomination for a Governor General's Award for public service journalism. In 1990, McMahon and his brother Michael McMahon founded Primitive Entertainment, a Toronto production company specializing in documentary film, television and interactive media. The McMahon brothers gained notice for their first feature, The Falls, about the poisoning of their hometown, Niagara Falls. Critic Jay Scott said “the film intermarries the naturally sacred and the unnaturally profane with breathtaking dexterity”. McMahon's feature documentaries include The Birdman of Cooper Island (2024), Borealis (2020), Spaceship Earth (2016), Waterlife (2009), An Idea of Canada (2003) and In The Reign of Twilight (1994). His films exploring communication include Intelligence (1997), Truth Merchants (1998), McLuhan's Wake (2002) and Viral News (2022). Notable work on television includes writing, co-directing and co-producing the 10-hour series The Polar Sea (2014) and the 12-hour series Equator: A New World View (2018). An advocate for the craft of documentary, McMahon has been a mentor in programs run by Hot Docs, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, the Documentary Organization of Canada, the Canadian Film Centre and the National Film Board of Canada.