We had such a great time celebrating Canadian cinema this year! With live music by Funny Death, a wonderful haul of local goodies in our raffle (many thanks to our partners), and a killer program of short films - 2019 was a really hot one! Be sure to check out our photo galleries - shot by our talented photography duo, Karla Parker and Christian Nambayan!
Thank you to our wonderful filmmakers, our volunteers, and our sponsors!
Which film took home our Audience Choice Award? 👀
Luke Parnell is Wilp Laxgiik Nisga’a from Gingolx on his mothers side and Haida from Massett on his Fathers side. His traditional training originated through an apprenticeship with a Master Northwest Coast Indigenous
carver and his classical training was achieved through a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ontario College of Art and Design University and a Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Northwest coast Indigenous art is the basis of his practice and praxis, centering on transformation narratives. Parnell explores the relationship between Northwest Coast Indigenous oral histories and Northwest Coast Indigenous art.
Find more of Luke on his Instagram!
Get your tickets today 
https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
In 1959 Bill Reid created a documentary about an expedition to ‘salvage’ historic totem poles from a deserted village on Haida Gwaii. In response to this film, Haida carver Luke Parnell explores the implications of the removal of these cultural objects through a journey with one of his own totems.
Meeshelle ‘Meesh’ Neal is a Canadian filmmaker best known for writing, producing, and acting in ‘Therapy’, and ‘Mental’, as well as directing ‘Check’, and ‘Ladies Don’t Wear Slacks’. She adapted ‘Mental’ to the screen from a one-woman stage play. The short received BravoFACT funding, various awards, and national/international acclaim. Meeshelle has atttended workshops such as the STORYHIVE ‘Career Accelerator Program’, Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC), ‘Career Advancement Module’, and the WIDC immersive ‘Story and Leadership’ program. Through the WIDC she is developing her magical realism feature film, ‘Sweet Release’. She served a full term on the board of Women in Film and Television Vancouver and is mentored by Gary Harvey.
Find more of Check on their Twitter feed!
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
A woman’s thoughts become obsessive, dark, and all-consuming, threatening to overtake her unless she can find a way to accept them… and herself.
Tracy Varju is first generation Canadian of Hungarian descent. She attended Capilano University's Acting for Stage and Screen Program from 2008 to 2011. After graduation, Tracy and five of her classmates took their original theatre piece across Canada on a Fringe Tour. Since then, she has been enrolled in acting classes, writing and working on local professional+ independent film/ TV projects. ‘Check’ is the first film Tracy made and it is based on her experience with OCD. She is currently being mentored by Jill Morrison in WIFTV’s Acting Mentorship program.
Find more of Tracy on her Instagram!
Rheanna and Brandon run the Vancouver-based video production and marketing company See Together Media. When they’re not creating videos for their clients—who are mostly impact-driven companies—they’re on the hunt for film and other art projects. Currently Rheanna is planning a docu-webseries and Brandon a podcast. They first met up-and-coming artist Serisa Fitz-James while filming a promotional video for the Vines Art Festival, where she was performing. Brandon contacted her about creating a video of her performance, and Serisa 26 was born.
Find more of Rheanna and See Together Media on their website, Vimeo, and Facebook!
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
Art school student Serisa Fitz-James performs her piece, originally titled “27 Serisas”, for a group of her friends and classmates that didn’t see its debut at the Vines Art Festival. In “27 Serisas”, Serisa humorously examines some of the many personas that she embodies day-to-day. Ever present with the themes of mental health, vulnerability, acceptance and friendship, Serisa 26 shows the performance and the moments that come soon after where one can observe her personas come to life.
Gloria Mercer was born and raised in East Vancouver. She is a writer/director/editor. All Happened Before is the inaugural project of See Horse Films, the production company founded by Gloria and her partner and collaborator Aidan West.
Find more of Gloria on her Twitter and Instagram, See Horse Films' Twitter, and Facebook page for the film!
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
A little girl with a close relationship to her babysitter sees something that she wasn’t supposed to and learns a lesson about the people you love and the reality of growing up.
Amanda Konkin (producer)
Amanda Konkin co-produced a Leo-Nominated TV series for OUTtv called The Switch (2016), the world's first transgender sitcom. She also produced the short films Dude, Where's My Ferret? (2015) and Singer Sisters (2016), as well as the Storyhive award winning webseries pilot Silk (2015). In 2013, she created and produced a webseries amassing over 2 hours of episodic content called Blank Verse, about William Shakespeare as a modern day university student.
Most recently, Amanda produced the short film Ada, premiering as part of the Crazy 8s 20th Anniversary Gala Screening. She was also selected as the Producer for Women in View and Women in Animation's prestigious Five in Focus program. She will be working with the other recipients to create an animated short film that will premiere at the Spark! Animation Festival in October 2019. She currently works as a Production Manager at Rainmaker Studios, a Division of WOW! Unlimited Media Inc, with previous studio credits as the Associate Production Manager on the Netflix original series Reboot: The Guardian Code (March 2018) and as a production coordinator on Surfs Up 2: Wavemania (Sony, 2017).
Find more of Amanda on her website!
David N. Bernatchez is a carpenter of knowledge, images and sounds. Active in research and teaching for years, he currently lives and works in film production and performing arts. Whether they focus on music (Rumba in fragments (2018)), sport (Temps temps (2009)) or more widely, on history and memory (Ludovica (2018), Joseph Samuel Jacques Julien (2015)), Berntachez's films constantly questions social and narrative structures. His images, performances and lectures had been presented in various contexts and countries.
Find more of David and Project Ludovica on the web and on Instagram!
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
Max Gros-Louis has been the chief of the Huron-wendat nation for over thirty years. Fighting for native rights and culture, he was active on many levels. Now in his eighties, he recalls some of his memories.
This short film is part of a broader web project about Quebec city memoirs and landscapes. You can visit online, although it is not yet available in english.
Tina Korki is an Iranian-Canadian director, producer and screenwriter. The short film, “Intimate fears”, which she wrote, directed and helped produce marks Tina's official film debut. Since her first student short film, “Failing to See the Truth Within the Lies”, which she wrote and directed, Tina has gone on to support many talented Canadian filmmakers. She is most notably known for casting the Leo award-winning television comedy series, “The Switch”, which debuted on OUTtv, in 2016. The series was the first transgender-themed series to be produced in Canada. Tina has also worked on award-winning shows such as the independent feature "Floating Away" and the short independent film "Bamboozle".
In addition, she was the director and the associate producer on "Tell Me What It Takes", a short video produced for the Canadian charity, Whitecrow Village. Tina now hopes to make more films that give voice to those who need it the most.
Find more of Tina on her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
Having difficulty maintaining sexual relationships, Eve lets her best friend connect her with a newly certified sex coach. In the sessions that follow, Eve is forced to confront her dark and secretive past.
Amanda Konkin (producer)
Amanda Konkin co-produced a Leo-Nominated TV series for OUTtv called The Switch (2016), the world's first transgender sitcom. She also produced the short films Dude, Where's My Ferret? (2015) and Singer Sisters (2016), as well as the Storyhive award winning webseries pilot Silk (2015). In 2013, she created and produced a webseries amassing over 2 hours of episodic content called Blank Verse, about William Shakespeare as a modern day university student.
Most recently, Amanda produced the short film Ada, premiering as part of the Crazy 8s 20th Anniversary Gala Screening. She was also selected as the Producer for Women in View and Women in Animation's prestigious Five in Focus program. She will be working with the other recipients to create an animated short film that will premiere at the Spark! Animation Festival in October 2019. She currently works as a Production Manager at Rainmaker Studios, a Division of WOW! Unlimited Media Inc, with previous studio credits as the Associate Production Manager on the Netflix original series Reboot: The Guardian Code (March 2018) and as a production coordinator on Surfs Up 2: Wavemania (Sony, 2017).
Find more of Amanda on her website!
Sydney Southam is a visual artist, filmmaker, performance artist, and professional pole dancer. She often works with archival 16mm film, exploring themes of nostalgia, death, memory, and identity. Her current work explores the backstage and domestic lives of exotic dancers and how their private and professional lives are defined through ideas of Feminism, objectification, power, and love.
Sydney is one of the founding members of Vancouver-based Iris Film Collective, and the curator of the potluck dinner and artist talk series Special Sunday Supper. Her films and artwork have shown across Canada, Europe and Asia, at venues such as MOCA Taipei, Gabriel Rolt Galerie (Amsterdam), Athens International Film and Video Festival, Antimatter Media Art Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Access Gallery, Emmedia Gallery, Yinka Shonibare Guest Projects, Vivo Media Arts Centre, Cinema Spectacular, Western Front, Cinemateque Vancouver and the Haida Heritage Centre.
She graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA Fine Art First Class Honours in 2011 and from the University of Toronto with a BA in English, Philosophy and Cinema Studies in 2007.
Find more of Sydney's work on her Instagram!
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
The 3 channel film “That’s Why I Like It” is a culmination of my work as an artist, filmmaker, professional pole dancer and stripper. Using my own experience with strip club labour conditions as inspiration for my line of questioning, I began interviewing and filming professional exotic dancers from varying backgrounds in their homes, asking them questions around feminism, objectification, power, and love. The edited interviews are paired with a multi-channel video depicting the women’s bodies from behind, swaying and twerking in hypnotic slow motion. The resulting work seeks to understand what is means to be consensually objectified for a living, and is a critical and empathetic look into the lives of a group of women who are simultaneously exalted and demeaned for their chosen profession.
Graduated from University of Montreal in 2011 and studied at INIS in Montreal in 2017. Works as a TV Producer for news channel and makes films whenever he feels the urge to do so. Many of which have had a great career in festivals around the world.
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
William loves Fanny. But since he is being bullied everyday at school, it takes him a lot of courage to let her know.
Linnea Ritland (Violet and June, Everything's Great!, Amateur Dramatics) holds a BFA in Film Production from the University of British Columbia, and specializes in queer, comedy and youth content.
Find more of Linnea's work on her website, film Facebook page, and Instagram!
Get your tickets today https://cinemaspectacular6.eventbrite.ca
Everything's Great! is a comedy-drama about an awkward, hapless lesbian who bounces between a messy not-relationship relationship and her alcoholic-dad-soaked home life, trying to find stability in others—and eventually finding it in herself.
