Kirk Shaw

Kirk Shaw is a Canadian-born producer who originally intended to be a writer. After graduating with a degree in journalism from Douglas College in British Columbia, he opted to pursue a career on the administrative side of the industry. He was part of the management team that launched the "Edmonton Sun" in 1978. He spent over a decade in the computer industry during the 1980s until he decided to start his own production company called Insight Films in 1990. The business initially produced audio work for museum guides but upon a request by the Museum of Vancouver, began filming video displays as well. The company made numerous documentaries throughout the 1990s and ventured into dramatic film production in 2002 with "Killer Bees! ." Over 130 film and television projects have followed, including such notable fare as "Battle in Seattle," a 2007 political-activist docudrama starring Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson, and the award-winning meditation on clinical depression "Helen," with Ashley Judd. Shaw's penchant for harrowing global issues and the related condition of the disturbed human psyche paid off big time when he became a part of the production team behind the Oscar-winning Best Picture "The Hurt Locker," director Kathryn Bigelow's suspenseful look at the addictive qualities of war.