Adam Garnet Jones – Firesong
Adam Garnet Jones is a Canadian writer, editor and director of Cree and Métis heritage whose work includes over 20 short films that have been broadcast on television and the big screen, and have received positive international response. Jones grew up in Alberta and British Columbia before moving to Toronto, Ontario to study at Ryerson University, from which he received a B.F.A. in film studies. “Fire Song” was his feature length directorial debut.
Ainhoa Menéndez – Stella
Ainhoa Menéndez lusted for film at age 14, age at which began recording his first short films. After graduating in Audiovisual Communication, study screenwriting and direction at ECAM in San Antonio de los Baños (Cuba). Currently it combines the script, direction and interpretation. After finishing with Stela his award-winning trilogy of short films Dark Tales, now he is preparing ECO, a fantastic thriller, which will be his first feature.
Alex Williams – The Pass System
Alex Williams is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist, working in documentary and narrative film, theatre, and still photography. Alex holds a B.F.A. from Emily Carr University in Film, and is currently an MFA candidate in film production at York University. He is President of the artist-run centre Charles Street Video, and sits on the Boards of the Toronto Media Arts Centre and Indigenous Theatre Company Article 11. He is a member of Canadian Actor’s Equity Association and an instructor at the National Theatre School of Canada. Raised in Saskatoon in Treaty 6 territory, Alex began research on the pass system six years ago. He was recently a visiting scholar at the University of Saskatchewan through the Indigenous Studies Department to present The Pass System in communities throughout Treaty 4 and 6 to further research and engage in discussions about the film and its findings.
Alison Klayman – The Night Watch
The New York Times’ chief film critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis named Alison Klayman one of the “20 Directors to Watch” on 2013 list of rising international filmmaking talents under 40. Alison’s debut feature documentary, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”, was shortlisted for an Academy Award and earned Alison a Director’s Guild of America nomination. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize, and went on to win critical acclaim and many top honors, including an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, the highest accolade of broadcast journalism. “Never Sorry” has now been translated into over 26 languages and released theatrically around the world. It was also one of the highest grossing films of 2012 directed by a woman. Numerous foundations have supported Alison’s filmmaking, including the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Chicken & Egg Pictures and PUMA. She lived in China for four years working as a freelance journalist, and speaks Mandarin as well as Hebrew. She has made many media appearances to speak about her work, including on CNN, NPR and The Colbert Report.
Amber McBride – At Midnight
Amber McBride is an emerging documentary filmmaker from Australia. She aspires to make innovative documentaries to surprise, entertain and inspire audiences. Amber holds a Graduate Diploma in Documentary from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) and a Bachelor of Arts (Screen) from Flinders University. She has worked in a variety of production roles on fiction and non-fiction feature films and TV series.
Aniruddha Pande – Life in the Making
Aniruddha Pande worked as a Feature Film Editor in London, England before moving to Canada. He is a graduate of the Confederation College Film Program. Currently he works in Film and TV in Toronto. He found his love for story when his childhood music teacher read to his 2nd Grade class, the story of ‘Dracula.’ He aspires to recreate the profound effect of that afternoon. The entire class sat still all the way through the story and as the bell rang, nobody moved. He says end credit sequences in movies remind him of that day.
Brian McQuery – Intruder
Born and raised in Chicago, Brian has always loved movies. He wrote his first feature-length screenplay after graduating high school and has since written original screenplays in many genres. Brian skipped college and jumped into the workforce, with jobs in insurance, sales, customer service, and telemarketing. Brian left his job as Director of Telemarketing in 2000 because he wanted to direct motion pictures, not telemarketing. He built relationships in Chicago’s indie film scene, and in 2002, wrote and directed the short film, DEBT, which went on to screen at several film festivals. Over the next three years, Brian wrote, produced and directed the short films: COMMITMENT, SNARE, THREE COUPLES, EVERYBODY SINS, PROMISE, LET GO and VACANT, several of which played the film festival circuit and won awards in 2006 and 2007. Brian moved to Los Angeles in 2006 and has a well–rounded view of feature film production. He has worked as a 1st Assistant Director on over a dozen independent features and as a 2nd AD on half a dozen features. His strong organizational and management skills enable him to keep the crew moving efficiently to make the most of limited resources on independent films. He has also arranged for dozens of actors and filmmakers to do Q&A’s for their classic films at New Beverly Cinema and has moderated many times. Brian is currently developing a handful of features, some of which have actor attachments, and continues to learn and work on his craft.
Cathleen Ashworth – Iroquois Creation Story
Cat is a Professor in the School of Film and Animation at Rochester Institute of Technology. Many of the animation artists who worked on this project were students or recent graduates of the school. Cat’s previous films have been documentary or experimental video installations. While pursuing her Master’s degree in Ethnographic Film, Cat studied with John Mohawk, the Seneca Scholar who translated the original 1880 story The Myth of the Earth Grasper. This film is based on John’s 2006 translation.
Damien Gilbert – Iceland
Damien Gilbert is one of the most idiotically committed cinematographers you’ll ever meet. He began his visual journey in Thunder Bay where he risked his life several times, getting many injuries doing pranks – action stunts (Tom Green and Jackass inspired) for comic and dramatic effect. Since 2004, Damien invested in professional equipment, primarily cameras, He has donated his time for any number of projects to help out local filmmakers and artists. His paid professional work, artistic and commercial, has taken him all over the world. Damien has expanded into photography more in the last few years. He feels he has a particular style that is derived from his cinematography background!!
Daniel Roher – Survivors Rowe
Through his company, Loud Roar Productions, Daniel Roher strives to create content that entertains, engages and educates audiences all over the world. His films have programmed at festivals around the globe including Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival where his new film, Survivors Rowe, premiered to great acclaim.
Doug LeConte – Fire of the Final Days
Dustin Grella – Animation Hotline 2013 & Animation Hotline 2015
Dustin Grella is an animator and documentary filmmaker whose work attempts to glean glimpses of colorful insight into the seemingly mundane. His work has screened at the Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and won the Walt Disney Award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. His film “Prayers for Peace” screened at almost two hundred festivals worldwide and won over forty awards. He has written and mailed himself a letter every day for the past thirteen years and has over 4840 sealed letters neatly filed and categorized. He is currently in production of the Animation Hotline, a series of micro-animations where he uses crowd-sourced voicemail messages for content. If you’ve got a story give him a call at 212-683-2490.
Fabio Montanari – The Grill Man
Fabio Montanari is a Brazilian filmmaker and Fulbright scholar based in New York City, and holds an MFA in Film from Columbia University. Fabio began his career as an actor back in Brazil and after starring in television shows and theater plays, he moved towards writing and directing documentaries and television series that have been broadcasted to millions of people across Latin America. After moving to the United States in 2012, Fabio directed four short films, the latest, Chapa , has won multiple awards and has been screened in over 40 film festivals around the world. Fabio was also awarded the Katharina Otto-Bernstein Grant and is currently working on his first feature.
Fernando Franco & Begoña Arostegui – The Right Place
“The right place” is the first film to do together Fernando Franco and Begoña Arostegui. Fernando Franco has been riding for over 15 years and, at the same time developing their own projects as director (short films, video clips, etc.) leading to the production of his first feature film “The wound” in 2013. Begoña Arostegui has been working for more than 12 years in the field of animation, as an animator and background artist for several companies in cartoon production, developing, while their own projects as an artist. “The right place” is his first short film as a director.
Frederick Kroetsch & Kurt Spenrath – Beneath the Surface
Directors Frederick and Kurt have been working together for the last 3 years. They began by making a television series about disability starring Daniel Ennet. They filmed adventures like disabled sailing, painting, skiing, and curling. And then Daniel Decided it was time push the envelope and make history. Scuba diving with sharks. Frederick and Kurt have also made documentaries for CBC, NFB and Bravo. They are stoked to be a part of Bay Street.
Goh Iromoto – The Path of Grey Owl
Goh’s curiosity with stories of the human spirit led him to a career in documentary photography and filmmaking. Everything he learned working in these genres continue to have a huge influence on his commercial work, where he is known for carefully executed cinematography and the authentic feel of documentary.
To look at his work is to see a filmmaker shaped by the very things he’s captured through a camera lens. From a bone chilling dogsled adventure in Vermillion Bay to an underwater shoot in the remote islands of Indonesia, from meeting amazing new people to exploring some of the planet’s most incredible locations; Goh is able to draw upon a lifetime of unique experiences and his passion for storytelling.
Hasan Najmabadi – Copper Wire
Ivan Ruiz Flores
Ivan Ruiz Flores – Theatre
In 2008 Ivan Ruiz Flores created the company AniuR Creative Audiovisual (www.aniur.es) in order to produce their own films. He wrote and directed the short films The fault of the other (2009), MIE2 (2010) and Sweet (2011), works totalling more than 170 international awards. The last one was also recognized by prestigious International Juries among which are the names of Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, Rutger Hauer and Vladimir Cruz, among others. Lesson premieres due in 2012, its first foray into the field of the film, with which gets 5 international awards and was a finalist in the Opuzen Film Festival with Love (2012), by Michael Haneke;To Rome with Love (2012), Woody Allen; and Caesar Must Die (2012), by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.
John McPhail – Where Do We Go From Here
John McPhail graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2007 with a BA Honours degree in Digital Film and Television Production. John is a multi-award winning and proven auteur who works extremely well with others and a love for onset problem solving. John also created ‘Worrying Drake Productions’ in 2012 and wrote, edited and directed their first feature film ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ in 2014.
Jon Wesselink – The Weagamow Project
At just 17 years of age, Jon was contracted to produce and film a documentary based on a community project in Round Lake First Nation in Ontario, The Weagamow Project . Jon also works for Dan Garrity Media as a photographer and videographer. “ At such a young age, my true life’s passion has allowed me to be graced by opportunities I could only dream of and I will be constantly seeking for more to come.”
Juan Beiro – Vanilla
Juan Beiro graduated in Audiovisual Communication from the Complutense University of Madrid and Diploma in Filmmaking at the Madrid Film School (ECAM). He has directed 8 short (I want you to come soon spring – 1998; Cluedo 5.0 – 2002; Drive in – 2003, Monday – 2004; Gwendolyne, my first friend in the city – 2004; Dinosaurs 3D – 2012 (finalist in the XXVII edition Goya Awards), Helsinki -2013- and Vanilla – 2015. audiovisual works as director for advertising and television.
Kevin Maxwell – Cora
Kevin Maxwell is an American Filmmaker and Multinational Serial Entrepreneur specializing in content creation, brand development & marketing services catered to individual and corporate clients seeking to enhance the overall image/brand of their businesses.
Lisa Lightbourne-Lay – 8% No Limit
Lisa is an award winning documentary director, editor, cinematographer with over 20 years experience working in live television, web and documentary production. As an independent filmmaker her passion lies in telling stories that effect social change and give focus to issues and people that strive to make a difference in this world. 8% No Limit follows blind ultra runner, Rhonda-Marie Avery as she attempts to run Canada’s Bruce Trail end to end in the summer of 2014.
Luke Grandmont – The Maltese Guinea Pig
Born and raised in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Luke Grandmont would first pursue filmmaking by attending Confederation College’s Film Production program in Thunder Bay, Ontario. After working on independent narrative and documentary work there, Luke relocated once again to Toronto, Ontario where he works as a camera assistant in film and television, pursuing personal film projects on the side. Luke’s previous film, ‘ The Last Straw’ , has screened in various festivals worldwide, winning the Best Animation award in Cinefest International Film Festival’s ‘Best in Shorts ’ competition. Luke’s current film, ‘ The Maltese Guinea Pig’ – a family film about a young detective on the search for the missing class pet – is currently touring the festival circuit.
Manish Raghunath – In Two Worlds
An ardent lover of all forms of artistic expressions. Manish has been involved with Filmmaking and Music creation for the past 5 years. Manish founded Pario Vita Productions in 2012 . A digital media arts company committed to producing soul stirring music, films and documentaries. He graduated from Capilano University, Canada, in Motion picture production in 2010. Manish is a recipient of “Remi award” at the Worldfest Houston Intl Film Fest 2015. He also won the “Rising star” at the Canada Intl. Film Fest 2015. Manish is an Indi film and documentary maker. He has a deep interest in writing stories from real life and bringing them to screen. He is also a published songwriter, composer and a vocalist.
Marko Albrecht – SISU
Marko Albrecht began shooting videos in Chicago in 1993 at age 13 with his mother’s shoulder mount VHS camera. His love of video and film, along with a soccer and a media scholarship, brought him to LIU Brooklyn where he graduated a D1 Academic All American in 2003. Albrecht has worked the cable and film ranks, from multiple internships while still in college, to an Associate Producer at TRIO, to Andy Cohen’s assistant at Bravo, to being a Location Assistant on Spiderman 3. In 2007 Albrecht founded Essential Creative an award-winning video and social media marketing company that produces and consults for clients including the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, Victor Cruz, Havas, IBM, Muscle Maker Grill, American Cancer Society and Finland’s national broadcasting company YLE. In 2008 he created ESNTL TV a YouTube channel focused on nightlife, travel and EDM that shot with Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, DeadMau5 and the late DJ AM. From 2011 -2015, Albrecht produced then on profit documentary, “ SISU: Family , Love and Perseverance from Finland to America , a moving and powerful 4 year profile of his Finnish-American family as they use the ancient mindset of SISU to overcome tragedy. He also produced the short film SHOWTIME a satire about the fashion industry. The Albrecht’s support the Finland Center Foundation, NYC Arts Cypher, America Scores and Reel Works Teen Filmmaking. Albrecht is a member of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council and the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group and a proud father, husband and dual citizen of the USA and Finland.
Matthew Jacobs Morgan – Gracie
Matthew is an award-winning writer/director from London, and ‘Gracie’ is his festival debut. His first, self-funded short film ‘Happy Birthday’ received a Leicester Square premiere by the BFI. In 2013, he was selected for the National Theatre’s New Views Young Writer’s programme, and in 2014, took part in B3 Media’s TalentLab programme, getting through to the third phase, and receiving production funding. In 2015, Matthew received funding from Creative Skillset to attend EICAR International Film School in Paris to write his feature film ‘Grit + Sass’.
Michelle Derosier – The Grandfather Drum
Michelle Derosier (Anishinaabe) is from Migisi Sahgaigan, (Eagle Lake First Nation) in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. She is co-owner of Thunderstone Pictures Inc. and co-founder and past Festival Director of the Biindigaate Indigenous Film Festival in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She is the mother of four beautiful daughters and has three grandchildren. Michelle executive produced the feature film “Fire Song” and directed the award-winning documentaries “Return To Manomin” and “The Healing Lens”. This is her first foray into animated storytelling. Michelle is currently in development of the first dramatic feature film.
Mika Ronkainen – Finnish Blood Swedish Heart
Mika is a filmmaker and theatre director based in Oulu, Northern Finland. His prize-winning and acclaimed documentaries have screened at several international film festivals including Sundance, IDFA, Karlovy Vary, Toronto Hot Docs, and Tribeca Film Festival, and art museums like MoMA PS1 in New York, Taidehalli in Helsinki, and Oulu Museum of Art. His latest film, Finnish Blood Swedish Heart ( Laulu koti-ikävästä, Ingen riktig finne ), was awarded with several awards – including two Finnish Oscars (Jussi Awards) for Best Documentary and Best Music, and Dragon Award for Best Nordic Documentary at Göteborg International Film Festival 2013. Recently Ronkainen has ventured into theatre, adapting and directing his award-winning documentary film Finnish Blood Swedish Heart for his hometown city theatre in Oulu. Ronkainen is currently working his first feature fiction film, Mother’s Day , planned for release in 2018, and produced by MRP Matila Röhr Productions.Selected for Variety’s Ten European Directors to Watch in 2013. Co-founder of Air Guitar World Championships . Graduated from Oulu Institute of Arts and Design in 1997. Ronkainen has also worked as a producer, editor, and editing consultant.
Mona Moradi – Breath
Mona Moradi graduated of Film-Directing from Tehran,University of Applied Scince and Technology. Breath is her first short film 2016
Mosha Folger – The Called Her Sam
Mosha Folger (aka M.O.) is a multi-disciplinary artist, an award-winning stop-motion filmmaker, a writer, director and performer. An Inuk originally from Iqaluit, Nunavut, he now lives in Ottawa with his partner, two year old daughter, and a terrier named Finch.
Nadine Arpin – Anna Lisa
Nadine Arpin is a Métis filmmaker whose family is originally from Manitoba. After completing the New Media program at OCAD she has been based in Sioux Lookout, Ontario where she worked for over 15 years producing videos for local and regional NGOs. Since 2011 she has returned to her own personal art practice of making independent short films in a variety of genres.
Nikki Richardson – We’re Here Now
Nikki hails from country Victoria, Australia. She has a background in film theory and fine art and is interested in stories that follow complex female characters and present an honest reflection of female perspective and experience. “We’re Here Now” is her first film.
Oscar Rodriguez Gorriz – Doris
Oscar is a Mexican filmmaker known for his short films “Tu Día” (2013), “Love” (2014), “Eternal Vendetta” (2014) and “Doris” (2015); that were screened in many international film festivals and won several awards. Back in 2010 he had to find a creative and cheap way to make his first feature film. He organized a screenplay contest where the winners would have their stories produced. After one year of raising funds and six months of shooting, Oscar and the contest winners finished their feature film “Amor Del Regio” (2011), a series of shorts stories directed by 10 directors including Oscar. Right now he is working on his next feature film: “Whiskey 25”.
Robin Ferrand – Rather Than Locked
Robin Ferrand is a young photographer and filmmaker based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ferrand was born nearby Versailles in France. Passionate by visual arts, Ferrand flew to Thunder Bay to study Film Production at Confederation College.
Ron Harpelle – A.K.A.
Ronald N. Harpelle is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who makes films that focus on history, development issues and human rights. A.K.A. is the fourth long documentary he has directed and he has a number of other credits as producer, sound recordist, writer and researcher. He has also produced a variety of new media that combines his interest in film with his interest in history.
Ryan La Via – Dan’s Magic Hands
Ryan La Via is an award-winning filmmaker living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He donates much of his spare time sitting on the Board of Directors of two not-for-profit film festivals that show independent films that would otherwise go unseen in Thunder Bay. In 2014 Ryan became part of the Guinness Book of World Records under the category of “Most Screenwriters on a Theatrically Distributed Film.” His script was chosen as 1 of 50 winners of the ‘Create 50’ screenwriting competition based out of London, England. Nearly 3,000 scripts were entered with Ryan being the ONLY Canadian to win the competition.
Salem Salavati – Pale Mirrors
Salem Salavati is an Iranian film director, writer and cinematographer. In 1989, he began his career in cinematography. Salavati has directed up to 11 short films, 3 documentaries and 2 fictions: The Departure Time (2011) and The Last Winter (2012). His films were awarded over 50 foreign and Iranian prizes for direction, script and photography and also as best films. He is also known for recent for My Beautiful Son Will Be the King (2007), East Kurdistan (2008).
Sari Kuronen – Dress Up
Born in Finland, raised in Australia, with an empty nest, the urge for adventure and new beginnings led to enrolment in the Film Program at Confederation College. Graduated with the Academic Award of Excellence. Worked on a feature film “The Pineville Heist” during summer break between first and second year film school. Currently loving life in Thunder Bay.
Sean McNear – The Littledeers
Sean McNear was born up in the bush and eventually made his way down with his family to Sioux Lookout Ontario. McNear has always been fascinated with film, so he decided to go and pursue an education in it. “The LittleDeers” was his first step into the world of filmmaking, and based off of this experience, he is very keen on getting further into the creative and powerful atmosphere of filmmaking. “Film has a way of bringing people and ideas together that i have not come close to seeing anywhere else in the world.”
Sean Stiller – Through The Gaze
Sean Stiller is an emerging Canadian-Secwepemc filmmaker based in Toronto, Ontario. His work largely centers on Indigenous and social justice issues in Canada, as well as experimental and transmedia documentary practice. His short films have been screened at the ReFrame Film Festival, Women in Film and Television, Cordoba International Film Festival, and First Nations Film and Video Festival. Sean is also regularly commissioned for commercial film work. His past clients include Lakehead University, Magnet.today, The Vancouver School Board, The BC Provincial Government, National Aboriginal Day, The Gerstein Crises Centre, and numerous not-for- profit and for-profit clients. He is currently completing his MFA in the Documentary Media program at Ryerson University. His thesis is focused on the crises of Secwepemctsín language loss and the transformative potential for Indigenous language revival. Sean’s work can be found online at seanstiller.com.
Selma Nayebi – Where Is My Mother’s House & I Want to Be Afsaneh
Selma Nayebi was born in 1980, in Tehran. She has a Master of Arts, department of art studies, Azad University of Yazd. her thesis: Silence representation analysis in the Kieślowski’s cinema in the framework of tensive function of discourse.
Tanner Beard – 6 Bullets to Hell
Working in the industry as a writer, director, producer and actor, Tanner Beard created Silver Sail Entertainment, an all media based production company. “SSE”, established during the industry strike in 2008 as a source to create professional media content, has since produced projects including: a travel show, award winning short films, award winning documentaries, commercials, music videos, two seasons of a web-based television series and feature films such as the critically acclaimed ‘HELLION’ starring Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis, ‘THE LEGEND OF HELL’S GATE’, starring Eric Balfour, Henry Thomas, Jenna Dewan Tatum, Summer Glau, Kevin Alejandro and Lou Taylor Pucci and others.
Tony McGuire – Now and Forever
Tony McGuire was born in Thunder Bay and has travelled extensively all over Canada for his work in photography and video. He is reaching the midpoint of his career meaning that he is finally doing projects that are mostly his creatively whether writing and/or directing them. He has worked with youth in multiple communities from First Nations to mainstream and hopes to inspire in them the idea that the full control of your stories and how they are being told is the most powerful weapon for social change available to cultural communities. He is a self taught lover of film and scours technical manuals for knowledge of cameras and lighting. It is this researched background in production that is at the foundation of Theymedia. His experience with these workflows have led him to prefer RED One cameras over ARRIs with a professional portfolio of about 50 projects ranging from photography and video to feature films. He is currently working with three different groups on projects ranging from TV pilots to feature films and is shooting his first full length written and directed film this winter. He more importantly has a black cat named Dr. Bruce that tries to kill him on a regular basis by sleeping on the stairs.
Tracy Harris – Luggage
Tracy is born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. She graduated from Grant MacEwan University in 2006 and worked with business taxes for several years. In 2011 she made a change of career and decided to pursue her love of animation. ‘Luggage’ is Tracy’s 2015 graduate thesis project for Sheridan College’s Bachelor of Animation program.
Victoria Lean – After the Last River
After the Last River is Victoria’s first feature documentary. Her work explores notions of time and national identity, and the complex interrelationships that define them. Beyond her filmmaking practice, Victoria is also a consultant for the creative industries, with a focus on Northern Canada. She has led managed several projects for the Governments of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, including conducting strategic planning for screen-based media and the visual arts sectors. She holds an MFA in Film Production and MBA in Arts and Media Management from York University.
Vuk Dragojevic – Taxidermy Is Goodbye
Vuk Dragojevic is a Serbian born, interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker currently based in Toronto, Canada. He holds a BFA from OCAD University and has shown work in festivals and exhibitions in Canada, Italy, England and France.