Ludmila Zeman
Ludmila Zeman is the daughter of the famous Czech film director Karel Zeman with whom she worked on a number of his important films. She also directed a number of short films for television and authored and illustrated children's picture books in Czechoslovakia and in Canada.
​
​After immigrating to Canada in the early 1980s, she taught film animation at Emily Carr College in Vancouver and worked on projects like Sesame Street. She later collaborated with the National Film Board of Canada, producing the film Lord of the Sky. Ludmila gained international recognition for her illustrated Gilgamesh trilogy, which won major awards including the Governor General’s Literary Award. She also created other notable works such as The First Red Maple Leaf and the Sindbad trilogy.
​​
Complete Filmography & Bibliography
​
Beyond writing, she has been an active speaker worldwide. She has given lectures and taught workshops at schools, universities and libraries. She has appeared at film and literary festivals worldwide. In 2012, she co-founded the Karel Zeman Museum with her daughter, celebrating her father’s legacy. Together, they also helped restore and promote Karel Zeman’s films and produced related books and documentaries.
Linda Zeman-Spaleny
Linda was born in former Czechoslovakia and immigrated to Canada with her family. She studied developmental psychology and law, and later became an associate lawyer at an intellectual property law firm in Toronto.
Since moving to Canada, Linda has collaborated closely with her mother, contributing to the development of Ludmila Zeman’s books. Together, they co-wrote a feature film script based on the Gilgamesh series.
​
Linda developed an extensive Karel Zeman archive in Toronto, which played an important role in the creation of the Karel Zeman Museum and related projects. Linda also co-wrote and later translated the book The Fabulous World of Karel Zeman and wrote the children’s picture book Lord of the Sky.
She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario, the Writer's Union and the Writer's Guild in Canada.