R. W. Gray - Chokehold (NB)
R. W. Gray has had over ten short scripts produced including the award-winning shorts “alice & huck” and “Blink.” “Choke Hold” is his fifth film as a director. His film “zack & luc” was featured in Cinema Spectacular last year. He is a senior editor of numerocinqmagazine.com, and is chiefly responsible for “Numero Cinq at the Movies,” the monthly film column. He has written two books of short stories, Crisp (2010) and Entropic (2015). He is a professor of film and creative writing at the University of New Brunswick.
Tyrone Deise - Away Home (MB)
A self-taught graphic designer, video artist and digital filmmaker; Tyrone Deise was born quite close to the geographical centre of North America, in the ‘one great city’ of Winnipeg to be specific. A complex and beguiling place that not only serves as his home, but as a major influence and source of inspiration.His most recent work includes the experimental shorts; The Child Molester (2016), Away Home (2015), and Connection Series (2015), as well as the short documentary, Thank You For Coming (2015).With a strong distaste for repeating himself, he chooses to remain a moving target, constantly challenging himself to treat each project as a complete departure from everything before it. His goal is to create films of all types - from the real to the fantastic and from the accessible to the experimental.
Lynn Dana Wilton - Celestial Red & Blue and Robot Monster Us (ON)
Lynn Dana Wilton’s (Sheridan, Classical Animation -2001; Ryerson, BAAID - 1991) commercial work principally includes directing, animating, and lending hands where needed in stop-motion for TV series, specials, and interstitials including “Scout & the Gumboot Kids”, “What’s Inside?”, “Glenn Martin, DDS”, “Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All the World”, “A Miser Brothers’ Christmas”, “Lunar Jim”, and “Henry’s World”. Indie shorts including “(Re)Cycle” and “Celestial Red & Blue” have screened around the world and she conducts workshops & lectures at home and abroad. She’s also very proud of her former involvement in Scratch Track, a cameraless film project performed live with hand-drawn sound (yes, drawn sound!) at the 2002 OIAF.
Jason Karman - Up and Down (BC)
Jason Karman is a Vancouver-based screenwriter and director whose films have screened at festivals in Brazil, Australia, China, across Europe, United States and Canada. He received the Gerry Brunet Memorial Award at Vancouver Queer Film Festival in 2011, and in 2015 was recipient of the Jury Choice Award at Reel Pride Winnipeg.
Sydney Southam - Postcards from a Ghost (BC)
Sydney Southam is a visual artist, filmmaker, and performer based in Vancouver. She holds a B.A. in English for the University of Toronto (2007) and a B.A. in Visual Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (2011). Her work explores themes of memory, death, nostalgia and identity, and she often works with archival footage in her films and videos. More recently, she has experimented both with the documentary form and performance as ways to explore these themes. Sydney has exhibited her films and artwork widely across North America and Europe, most recently at MOCA Taipei. Sydney is the creator and curator of the Special Sunday Supper artist talk and dinner series, now in it's fourth year, and she is also one of the founding members of the Iris Film Collective. You can catch Sydney performing somewhere in The Hague this summer with her super awesome experimental performance art dance crew LUMI CREW...stay tuned!
Stephanie Young - Limitless (NS)
Stephanie Young is an award-winning artist, filmmaker, photographer, and activist. In 2013, She received her BFA in Film from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. Her work is heavily influenced by issues facing her as an active member of both the queer and mental health communities. She currently works as a research videographer with McGill University creating documentaries on mental illness. When not creating visual art, she performs drag at various venues, fundraisers, and events as her male alter-ego, Felix Static. Stephanie currently resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Leslie Emerson Randall - I Would (BC)
Leslie Emerson Randall is a video artist living in Vancouver. Her films explore the nature of social connectivity and the personal rifts it is comprised of, as they ebb and flow through the river of time.
Nancy Lee - Let It Go (BC)
Born in Taiwan and raised in Canada, Nancy’s versatility and fluency in a wide range of perspectives comes naturally. From producing a documentary series on the Chinese-Canadian experience, to highlighting social issues in PSAs, and directing music videos for musicians such as Joshua Hyslop, WILLA, Sundays, Young Liars, #XI, Kline, and Friends with the Help, Nancy’s diverse portfolio is a testament to her passion for telling stories and building visual narratives about the fascinating and diverse world that she lives in. Never having to compromise between a wide scope and a deep perspective, Nancy has a refined talent for producing beauty at the moment her camera captures it. If there is a story to be told, Nancy will make sure that it is worth retelling.
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Ben Dextraze - Noise of Silence (BC)
Ben Dextraze loves filmmaking in his own way. Growing up in Kamloops, BC he would take his camcorder out to capture adventures with his friends, but decided not to pursue filmmaking until only a few years ago. He then bought himself a camera and ignited a passion that's driven him to be able to produce work single-highhandedly from start to finish. Soon Ben found himself shooting promotional videos, webseries, and short films by paying attention to his surroundings and utilizing the power of the audio-visual medium. In 2013 Ben founded his own new-media production company Iconochasm Media with the hopes of making longer more complex projects come to life and is currently producing a multi-part documentary which examines Vancouver’s surging craft beer scene. When not producing his own work, Ben also finds time to be in others - either behind the scenes, or as an actor. Among other things, he’s also a journalist, father, husband, and human being who holds a BA in English and a BFA in Acting.
James Penco - Networking with James (BC)
James Penco is a film director and screenwriter who lives and works in Vancouver, BC. His work strives to articulate a comic panorama of social absurdities and human foibles. James is a graduate of the film program at Simon Fraser University, and his short films have screened and won awards at film festivals throughout North America. He does not enjoy networking.
Maxime Gilbert - Dime (QC)
Maxime Gilbert is a bilingual French-Canadian writer, producer and director. Born in the multi-cultural suburbs of Montreal in the early 80s, he has developed a deep passion for movies and knew, at a very early age, that he wanted to be a filmmaker. He directed his first short film at the age of seventeen using a camcorder and two VCRs and wrote his first feature length screenplay at the age of eighteen. After graduating in 2006 with a Film Production Certificate from Concordia University, he directed, under the banner of Be Realistik Productions, a number of award-winning short films before directing his first feature film, “The desolation of Henri Desmarais”, with a modest budget of $6000 USD, at the age of 29. In 2015, he created a new company, Two Poles Films, whose first film, “Dime”, won the New York 2015 Twenty-Four Hour Film Race and has been showcased in a number of festivals around the world.
Françoise Doherty - The Girl Bunnies. Rocketship. (ON)
Françoise Doherty is a Canadian Filmmaker-Songwriter and Queer Activist for children. Her musical shorts have been shown worldwide and have gathered distinctions such as: the Audience Choice Award for Cinéffable in Paris France and Montreal Canada’s Festival Image + Nation. She is a trailblazer in Queer Activism with her animated series "The Girl Bunnies" for young children. The series is set in a world of queer rabbits, where love between girl bunnies is the norm. The 4th instalment, "The Girl Bunnies. ROCKETSHIP" introduces a transgender character. Equally a songwriter and a filmmaker, Françoise Doherty's indie-style music lays the groundwork for her animated stories. She is a filmmaker who creates work for social change and child/youth-protection. Her goal of the Girl Bunnies series is to show that being queer is about the heart. All parts of the film were created by Françoise Doherty (director, animator, editor, actor, musician, composer, writer, photographer).
Robert Valley - Pear Cider and Cigarettes (BC)
Robert graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and design in 1992 with a major in film animation. He moved to San Francisco in 1993 and worked in advertising for several years, directed commercials for Nike, Coke,Levis etc. In 1994 Worked as a storyboard artist on Aeon Flux (directed by Peter Chung) directed an Episode of Aeon Flux called “Ether Drift Theory”. In 1997 he founded an animation studio in San Francisco called Maverick Studios, more adverting ensued. In 1999 Robert moved to London where he worked on the Gorillaz music videos with Pete Candeland and Jamie Hewlett. This London gig went on for several years and culminated in the Beatles Rock Band cinematics and Dance Central cinematics in 2008. Next came Los Angeles and Disney, where Robert worked as character designer and story supervisor on the Tron Uprising TV series directed by Charlie Bean. He won an Annie award for his character designs on Tron in 2012. Next was a stint of work over at Warner Brothers directing some Wonder Woman shorts for DC nation. His next job was directing and animating a series of animated shorts called Shinjuku. In nov 2015 Robert completed a 35 minute animated film called Pear Cider and cigarettes.
Mike McKinlay - The Perfect State (BC)
Mike McKinlay was born in North Vancouver and raised in the interior of British Columbia. During his 15 years as a Director of Photography, Mike's film subjects have varied; from non-fictional narrative to wildlife and Environmental Awareness films, Mike has had the opportunity to work within the genres of both the commercial and documentary world. Some of his most recent clients have included National Geographic, the National Film Board of Canada, Knowledge Network, Wilderness Committee, and Greenpeace.
Brendan Prost - Sensitive Parts (BC)
Brendan Prost is a DIY filmmaker and a recent graduate of Simon Fraser University. He is best known as the unabashedly personal young auteur behind four micro-budget feature films: Choch (“one of the intriguing and involving low-budget indies to cross my desk in 2011” – The Independent Critic); Generation Why (Rising Star Award Winner at the Canada International Film Festival - 2010); Spaces and Reservations (“a grounded and thought provoking look at modern love” - FilmPulse.net); and most recently Sensitive Parts, which is being released in the fall of 2016. Brendan’s directing credits also include a diverse set of short films on a variety of formats, including an improvised act of self-interrogation entitled Best Friends For Life (Official Selection - Montreal World Film Festival) and his SFU grad film Getting There (Official Selection - Calgary International Film Festival).Originally from Calgary, Brendan relocated to Vancouver, where he has continued to pursue his interest in performance-intensive, personal narrative filmmaking while working odd-jobs and collaborating with peers in a myriad of ways.
Guillaume Collin - Everything Will be Alright (QC)
Guillaume Collin is a Montreal filmmaker.He graduated from Concordia University in Film Production and founded his production company Arpent Films.He has directed the feature film Soft Gun and has produced many short films.
Daniel Jeffrey - Sad Hill with Sad Hill (BC)
In some form or another, Daniel has been shooting and editing short documentaries since he was 15-years-old. Armed, oftentimes, with just a handycam and pirated editing software, he has covered a wide variety of subjects. From adult circumcision, broken relationships, the corruption of youth, to the underground sport of “Hedge Jumping”, he tends to focus on stories near and dear to him.Last year, with co-directors Devan Scott and Will Ross, he completed his first feature-length documentary, We Three Heathens. In short, the film was: “A first-person documentary account of spirituality, culture, and the physical toil of an 800 km walk on the world's most famous pilgrimage.”Currently, Daniel is editing for the feature-length mockumentary, Marrying The Family, which is expected to premiere this Fall.