Cassandra is a filmmaker and artist based out of Alberta, Canada. She graduated from Red Deer College with a Theatre Diploma and Applied Degree in Film and has since won several grants to fund her passions. Her work in Experimental short films and music videos have been the focus as of lately, with her most recent being a micro short based around a spontaneously recorded phone call with her sister. She continues to make films and art that she hopes mean as much to others, as her favourite films mean to her.
A woman seeks guidance from her sister after swallowing a fish bone.
Fish Bone will be showing as part of our PURPLE program exhibiting July 15-19th, 2021!
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Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe has been a professional actress for more than 18 years. She fast became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand ‘Scream Queens’ and sought-after Sci-fi heroines. While filming the second season of Signed Sealed Delivered, Yan-Kay Crystal recognized that she had a great desire to spend time behind the camera in the director’s chair. She has gone on to produce and direct award-winning short films, including The Curtain which screened in four languages in seven countries, winning a dozen awards.
Actress and film set technician, Valérie Leclair has been combining her skills to carry out humorous projects since 2008. Her desire to interpret new characters makes her portray her own ideas! She loves gender movies and she stands out as a screenwriter with a great comedic timing. Her movies Backstore and A Nightmare on Chocolate appear on festival programs; such as Fantasia International Film Festival and SPASM Film Festival at Montréal.
Sarah Gignac has made 5 short films: two live action (Curtains, Sleeping Beauty) and three animated (Borscht & Fresh Bread, Deep Blue, Rage Monster). Her films have played in festivals across North America and internationally. Her work blends more traditional narrative formats with elements of magic realism to create thoughtful, fantastical films that explore love, loss, grief and in her newest work, uncontrollable anger. Currently she is in development with her creative partner Becky Parsonson a feature horror film, The Apartment. Sarah is committed to telling stories that are often overlooked or misrepresented. She believes that stories have the power to connect people and change minds, and wants to spend her life finding and sharing tales people might not otherwise encounter. Sarah works at the public library and is currently trying to learn how to garden. She lives and creates in Dartmouth, NS.
Sheen Chan is a recent Communications grad from the University of Winnipeg and Red River College. She has written, directed, and produced multiple short films and visual media projects. She specializes in media production and seeks to accurately portray diversity in her projects and strives to create content that represents on and behind the screen. Sheen resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba and aside from make her own short films, she enjoys catching movies at Cinematheque or Landmark Theatres and writing short stories.
Travis Marx is a newcomer to the Winnipeg film industry. He enjoys creating stories that are focused on social justice and highlighting underrepresented voices. Travis got his first directing experience while making the short film “Reflected.” In his free time, he enjoys watching movies and anime, reading manga, learning Japanese, and growing many bonsai trees. Some trees he is growing include Chinese wisteria, Japanese red pine, Chinese white pine, cedar, and Japanese green maple.
Phoebe Parsons was born and raised outside of Vancouver in White Rock, British Columbia. From 2005-2009 Phoebe studied at Emily Carr University in Vancouver where she completed her Bachelor’s degree in Media Arts with a focus in film and animation studies. Phoebe’s thesis piece The Fantastic Adventures of Cloudman achieved 3rd place status in the best of film category at Emily Carr’s Grad Show and was screened internationally including the Vimeo Film Festival in New York and the anti-design festival in London, England in 2010. Since then Phoebe has been working professionally as an assistant costume designer in film and television while she continues to direct and produce films. Additionally she was awarded a Canadian National Film Board Grant for the production of Terror Fervor, a hand-drawn cel animation that has since been screened in over 30 festivals worldwide and has been featured in an episode of Adult Swims’ “Off The Air”.
Gordon Mihan is a Fredericton-based screenwriter and film director. He has produced and directed several festival-screened short films across Canada. His most recent short film Unofficial Selection won the Audience Choice Award at the 2019 Silver Wave Film Festival and his previous short film Coached was broadcast on the CBC as part of the 5th season of the Reel East Coast, now available on CBC Gem.
Nisha is a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker who often plays with handmade celluloid processes. She is interested in the melding of artistic mediums and her work explores themes of identity and the intersections therein. Her films and photographs have been exhibited at festivals on three continents and she has attended artist residencies in South and North America. Nisha was a live-in artist resident at the James Black Gallery in Vancouver from 2015-2016. She studied at Concordia University in Montreal and the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in Cuba. Her work can be found in music videos, documentaries and narrative films.
Joel Salaysay is a Vancouver-based filmmaker. His shorts have played in festivals across North America, and he is the recipient of numerous awards, including the TIFF Top Ten, Montreal World Film Festival, and BC Leo Award for Best Student Short (“Lifers” [2014/2015]). He is currently a co-director on a 3D animated series for Wildbrain Studios.
