Film producer Debbie Nightingale co-founded the documentary festival Hot Docs

Globe and Mail

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Debbie Nightingale produced movies and television shows before a personal plot twist led her to become a goat farmer. Over time, her Ontario farm became a popular tourist attraction.
Ms. Nightingale, who has died at 71, was a prominent member of the Canadian film and television industry whose many credits included co-founding a documentary festival now known as Hot Docs.
In a career lasting more than three decades, she served as executive producer for the documentary Quality Balls: The David Steinberg Story, a 2013 documentary about the Winnipeg-born comedian, as well as for the 2010 series, Living in Your Car, a comedy about a high-flying executive convicted of fraud who tries to rebuild his life from his luxury car, for which she received a Gemini nomination.
Some other notable projects include serving as producer for Chicks with Sticks, also titled Hockey Mom, a made-for-TV movie; Bailey's Billion$, about a talking golden retriever inheriting a fortune; and Lipstick & Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling, a feature-length documentary about trailblazers in the choreographed sport.
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The latter had its world premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto in 2004, by which time the showcase was a decade old. A group of documentary filmmakers had formed a Canadian Independent Film Caucus and one of them, Paul Jay, suggested starting a festival to finance their activities. He asked Ms. Nightingale to serve as an unpaid festival manager.
'The feeling was, 'Oh god, not another film festival.' But Paul made a compelling argument. The only thing, he told me, was that I had to raise the money,' she told Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail in 2018. 'It took six months to get about $100,000, which in 1993 was a hefty chunk of change.'
Ms. Nightingale's experience running industry events, including for the Toronto International Film Festival, proved invaluable, and Hot Docs grew to become North America's biggest documentary showcase. She became executive director of Hot Docs, while also sharing her expertise by serving on other boards, including Women in Film & TV Toronto.
'Every part of the Hot Docs we know today grew from what Debbie helped establish,' the organization said in a statement released on her death. 'She recognized the importance of documentary filmmaking and providing a place where filmmakers, funders and audiences could connect. Without her, we wouldn't be here.'
Even as she succeeded in her entertainment career, she dreamed of raising animals in the countryside.
In 2008, she and her husband, a soon-to-retire literary agent, purchased a 25-acre (10.1 hectare) hobby farm with a Victorian farmhouse in Campbellford, about 180 kilometres east of Toronto. The property, which cost $450,000, came with three horses and 20 chickens.
While she enjoyed her weekend immersion into a more bucolic lifestyle, she also soon discovered she had a limited knowledge of animal husbandry.
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'The chickens seemed easy enough at first: all I had to was feed them, collect their eggs and clean their coop,' she wrote for Toronto Life magazine. 'That was until I walked in one day to find one lying dead. The next day, I walked in to find another dead chicken, and another the following morning. It was like a scene from The Birds – and I was convinced that I was somewhat responsible. When I called the vet in a panic, he burst out laughing. 'The thing about chickens,' he said, 'is that they live, and then they die.' They weren't spring chickens, he told me. They'd died of old age.'
She moved to the farm full-time after purchasing four Nigerian dwarf goats at $100 each, juggling her day job as a film executive by e-mail while tending to the farm from dawn until well past sunset.
An education in hircine care was gained through YouTube videos and word-of-mouth instruction. The addition of a buck to the herd quickly led to four pregnant does. One morning, she was greeted by a shivering kid separated from the does in the barn.
'I freaked out: whose baby was it? What if it hadn't eaten or bonded with its mother?' she wrote in Toronto Life. 'I called our breeder. 'Just pick up the baby,' she said nonchalantly. 'The mother will start screaming once you do.' She was right: As soon as I grabbed the kid, Pearl bleated bloody murder.'
The couple later moved to a 200-acre (80.1-hectare) farm outside Port Hope at Newtonville, about 100 km east of Toronto, adding sheep, pigs, alpacas, miniature Icelandic horses and a mule to the menagerie.
Experience in marketing movies and television programs proved invaluable in gaining a following for the farm, named Haute Goat, on social media. The farm became a popular attraction, including such scheduled events as a 'shmurgle,' during which customers spend an hour hugging, cuddling, snuggling, scratching and otherwise enjoying the playfulness of a goat herd. The farm also hosts an annual event called Goatchella.
The farm includes an 18-hole disc golf course, a café called the Screaming Goat, and a shop selling products made from goat milk such as cheeses, chocolates and fudge, as well as skin-care products, including soap, lip balm and face cleansers.
Deborah Esther Nightingale was born in Toronto on Oct. 14, 1953, to Helen (née Coffer) and Bernard (Buddy) Nightingale. Her Polish-born paternal grandfather was an upholsterer who repaired cinema seats before starting an office furniture manufacturing company, which became the family business. Her father eventually sold the business before working in commercial real estate.
Ms. Nightingale died of a rare form of lung cancer at Northumberland Hills Hospital in Coburg, Ont., on July 10. She leaves Shain Jaffe, her husband of 27 years. She also leaves children Sarah, Leland and Noah Nightingale-Forfar; stepchildren Gita Jaffe and Meave Forfar; four grandchildren; a sister, Caron Nightingale; a brother, Ben Nightingale; and her stepmother, Margaret Nightingale.
For all the early hiccups in farming, Ms. Nightingale proved an adept agriculturalist. In 2015, she and her husband received a premier's award for their products made from goat milk. At a ceremony, two Ontario MPPs presented a plaque, as well as a certificate from the Premier and a cheque from the province for $5,000.
Ms. Nightingale said success depended on their goats.
'They are our livelihood and our inspiration,' she told a reporter from the Brighton [Ont.] Independent newspaper at a ceremony in which she received the award. 'Time to get going. I've got goats to feed.'
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