About

Plainspeak Pictures is a Toronto and LA-based production company focused on working with strong, independent-voiced writers and directors to shape and then achieve their visions.

HARRY CHERNIAK | Producer & Founder

Harry Cherniak is a Toronto and LA-based producer. He recently produced Astronaut (Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfus and nominee Graham Greene) and Speaking in Tongues (Austin Film Festival premiere, acquired by Concourse Media), and associate produced Stockholm (Ethan Hawke, Noomi Rapace, Mark Strong), The Padre (Tim Roth, Nick Nolte, Luis Guzman) and Benjamin (Bob Saget, Rob Corddry, Kevin Pollack). His first feature, Wexford Plaza, played Torino and Slamdance, and was one of only three films nominated in 2017 for the $100,000 Best Canadian Film Prize.

Harry is also a screenplay competition script reader, and narrative feature film programmer and co-captain, for the Slamdance Film Festival, and on the board of directors of the Inside Out Film Festival. Additionally, he is a co-founder of the African Film Festival, and the founder of United in Film, an NGO working with governments and local organizations to create sustainable, indigenous film industries in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. Harry was previously a Senior Instructor of Film Producing at Shanghai University, and taught medicine in film, television and the media in the University of Southern California (USC) Medical School’s Masters in Global Medicine program.

Harry practiced corporate law for four years at Torys LLP and worked in the British Parliament for Jon Trickett MP, previously Shadow Lord President of the Council and Shadow Minister (Cabinet Office). He holds a J.D. (University of Toronto), an MSc with Distinction (London School of Economics), and a BA in Honours Business Administration with Distinction from Western University’s Ivey Business School.