Biography
"If you're a music lover then the short film documentary In the Zone: Rick Kilburn, Vancouver Island Bassist and Producer is a must-watch." -Film Daily
Kerilie McDowall is the guitar instructor/owner and film/artist/writing coach at Canadian Online Guitar Lessons & Services. She is the 13x award-winning jazz short documentary Filmmaker-Director of In the Zone: Rick Kilburn. McDowall was shocked to learn that her short film's cast had reached 1.47 billion IMDB Pro hits from June 2023-24.
In the 90s Kerilie was a jazz guitarist and jazz bandleader in Vancouver (1990-2000). She is a past jazz radio host/producer, volunteer (17 years), Podcaster (7 years), TV Hosting/co-hosting, volunteer TV Producer (540+ hours), Shaw Spotlight (7 years), bi-weekly TV Director (400+ hours), Shaw Spotlight volunteer (2015-2020, and 2022).
Writer/Publicist:
A monthly Canadian music review contributor to prestigious DownBeat jazz magazine from 2016 to 2020 (USA). McDowall's freelance and past writing work includes The Polaris Music Prize Awards Gala (Canada), All About Jazz (USA), Canadian Musician, Inspired 55+, Canadian Antique Phonograph Society, Nanaimo Magazine, The Vancouver Island Symphony, Friends of Nanaimo Jazz Society, the Bethlehem Centre (2015-2020), and the Nanaimo Conservatory of Music's Chordial Notes (2013-2015 add Kerilie's continued writing and coaching work with elite Canadian and American-Canadian jazz and indie musicians like Dan Brubeck, Mike Allen, and others.
TV/FILM: Kerilie was mentored as a volunteer from 2015-2022 in TV hosting, production, filming, and directing at Nanaimo's Shaw Spotlight television studio, on location, and in the mobile unit. Kerilie directed television bi-weekly, directing up to 5 people (3 cameras, sound operator, graphics, host) while simultaneously camera switching/training and directing volunteers on the Shaw Spotlight program Coast Connections from 2015-2020.
Kerilie McDowall's first short jazz documentary produced with the Shaw Spotlight team with her Shaw Spotlight mentor, Producer Todd Jones (2020), features the story of the life and career of multi-award-winning Canadian jazz bassist and music producer Rick Kilburn and it won a 13th film award in February 2024.
Background
In December 2021, first-time short documentary film director Kerilie McDowall was surprised to discover that she had peaked at almost 8.4 million hits and 6.4 million in July 2021 on the IMDB Pro STARmeter and had won an award for Best Director from the Seoul Short Film Festival in South Korea for her short film, "In the Zone: Rick Kilburn." Later Rick Kilburn on IMDB Pro's STARmeter peaked at 11.4+ million hits per month, or daily, with Kerilie' at 10 million in 2022, then Kilburn's STARmeter shot up to 13 million at times in 2023, with Kerilie at 12.7 million in September 2023, with Kerilie at 12.7 million in September 2023 and February 2024. The stats for the cast this past year were 1.4 billion IMDB Pro hits.
The 13x award-winning short film was made possible thanks to the inspirational Nanaimo television team from Shaw Spotlight and gifted jazz bassist and music producer Rick Kilburn and his family. The short picked up a 13th award, the Creative Innovator Award at the Women of Influence Awards for the team and McDowall in February 2024, Nanaimo, BC.
Shaw Spotlight supervisor Cameron McLean had given the green light to Shaw Spotlight volunteer producer/host Kerilie to produce a short from Vancouver Island. Kerilie felt that Kilburn, due to his natural storytelling abilities, gifts, and talents, was the best fit for a local music short documentary. Rick Kilburn is very modest and at first had declined, but Kerilie finally convinced him it would be a great story for the public to enjoy.
Kerilie has been focused on jazz since her teens and has been documenting different recording artists and guests through different periods consisting of writing and radio spanning two decades and seven years of television work. She also worked as a jazz guitarist and bandleader in Vancouver, BC for over a decade.
The short documentary team has been delighted that the jazz short picked up five awards in June and July 2021. The short picked up three of those awards in October 2021: an Honorable Mention at the Tokyo International Monthly Film Festival, and Best Documentary Short and Best Inspirational Film double Awards of Prestige from the Vegas Movie Awards. In October 2021 the film was selected by the Swedish International Film Festival, World Cinema Milan and Filmhaus Berlin. After this, the short received a whopping 9 nominations in Berlin including: Best Documentary Short, Best Independent Film, Best Zero-Budget Short, Best First-Time/Directorial Debut, Short, Best Documentary Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Podcast or Documentary Host/Presenter. The short was also nominated at Paris, France's Beyond the Curve International Film Festival, and has been selected numerous times. McDowall was thrilled that the short was selected at the 2021 Milan, where Kerilie and Technical Supervisor Todd Jones picked up an award for Best Editing of a Short Documentary.
Kerilie and her cast and crew have been very excited and honored that the film was selected at the 2021 Hong Kong International Short Film Festival, China, and the 2022 Japan International Film Festival, Tokyo, where the documentary won distinguished awards in China and Japan for Best Documentary Short.
A former radio host and global Rhythm 'a' ning jazz podcast producer, Kerilie McDowall is also known as a writer and has been a music critic/writer contributor for the American jazz magazine DownBeat (2016-2020). As a former volunteer live radio host, producer/on-air engineer (2000-2016) she became a #1 globally Google-ranked jazz podcast radio host on Player FM. McDowall interviewed Canada's elite jazz and creative music artists including JUNO winners and Order of Canada recipients during her time in radio and while working on contract.
Her blog In the Zen is a Jazz and Creative music and lifestyle blog. Mountain writing, journeyed jazz, life. Exceptional Canadian and international jazz and creative artists are interviewed and featured with music articles and notes from the music and film industry. Journeyed quiet moments emerge from Canadian wilderness-immersed lifestyle. Bald eagle, hummingbird-friendly mountain-inspiration.
A Vancouver jazz guitarist, instructor, and music composer(1989-2000), as well as a volunteer television Director/Host and Producer from 2015-22, she enjoys teaching and working with music students and recording artists. Kerilie teaches guitar online with her business Canadian Online Guitar Lessons. She also teaches recording artists about crucial aspects of the music industry to aid their self-management and further their careers internationally. Kerilie offers workshops and private coaching to new and established musician recording artists and aspiring writers.
McDowall sits on the Polaris Music Prize jury, judged the JUNO Awards from 2016-2018 and last year, and has judged the prestigious annual jazz DownBeat Critics Poll for several years.
Kerilie volunteer hosted/directed television shows at Shaw Spotlight. A past host of Community Producers, McDowall co-hosted with others as a volunteer on Shaw Spotlight Nanaimo, Canada's The Show. As a volunteer television director, McDowall directed Shaw TV's Coast Connections weekly from October 2015 until 2019, then bi-weekly in 2020 prior to the pandemic, as well as directing and hosting on other Shaw Spotlight television productions. She enjoys working with local community enjoying both Canadian and international work.
Kerilie released her first short mini-documentary film during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic on March 17, 2020, as a Shaw volunteer with the assistance of Todd Jones, Jocelyn Matwe, and the Shaw Spotlight team. The film is titled, In the Zone: Rick Kilburn, Vancouver Island Bassist and Producer, or "In the Zone: Rick Kilburn," for short.
The Nanaimo mini-documentary film about Vancouver Island/Vancouver, BC resident jazz bassist/producer/composer Rick Kilburn, "In the Zone: Rick Kilburn," in June 2021 achieved a third Hollywood award win.
Film director and Canadian Polaris Music Prize juror Kerilie McDowall and her crew won the June 2021 Best Web and New Media award at IndieX Film Fest in Hollywood, Los Angeles. At Hollywood's Indie Short Fest the short received an Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Web and New Media and an Honorable Mention Award for Best Web and New Media at the Independent Shorts Awards in LA in March 2020.
In June 2021, the short won Best Documentary at the London International Monthly Film Festival and Best Canadian Documentary at the Toronto Independent Film Festival of CIFT. In October 2022 the team and McDowall were excited to learn that the short won a twelfth distinguished international award, with the short's win as Best Documentary Short at the Japan International Film Festival. Fans can learn more on the film website page and can keep an eye out, as a new film-dedicated website is in design.
McDowall in August 2024 is seeking a film investor and a sales agent due to a recent 2024 Hollywood distribution offer from a well-established LA distribution company. More can be learned at Kerilie McDowall's website and an In the Zone: Rick Kilburn website is on the way.
