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Telefilm Canada / Catalogues /
Feature films 2001
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Barbara James is a thirty-something, single, hip and opinionated pregnant Black woman. Her life takes an eventful twist of fate when, one particularly ordinary day, she wakes up and realizes that her unborn baby has stopped moving. On this particular day, Barbara James decides she must sort out her past, present and future. She must come to grips with 30 years of mistakes, miscalculations and misinterpretations, all bound up in a reality she has never faced before. Dealing with a judgmental mother, an irresponsible father who abandons her, an overly protective best friend, no money, no career, no place of her own and a ghost who haunts her, she must decide whether or not to keep her child. Barbara James represents and explores the transitions all of us must go through in our lives – always wondering where to go next and what to do when we get there.
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Winston Washington Moxam
Director
 Born in England and raised in Manitoba, Winston Washington Moxam attended the film production program at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where he explored his interest in the injustices and discrimination experienced by women and minorities. After moving to Toronto, where he worked for the CBC, he wrote, directed and produced his first documentary, From the Other Side (1991), which looked at minority street people in Toronto. In 1992, Winston returned to Winnipeg. As director, writer, producer and editor, he has made several short films and videos, including The Barbecue, Fall, Suntan 2020, Cecil Brown (a music video), The Welfare King, The Woman in Black, The Pendulum and Sand. Barbara James is his first feature.
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35 mm
Betacam SP
80 minutes
Colour
Aspect ratio
1.85
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Producer
Winston Washington Moxam
Executive Producer
André Benette
Director
Winston Washington Moxam
Scriptwriters
Gerry Atwell
Storma T. McDonald
Winston Washington Moxam
Director of Photography
Claude Savard
Editing
Jack Lauder
Stephen Falk
Art Director
Jackie Van-Winkle
Music
Derek McIntyre
Cast
Storma T. McDonald
Ross MacMillan
Ron Dini
Mariette Kiroual
Valentina Wilson
Miako Watson
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Production
Buggy Vaughan Films Inc.
308 - 512 London St.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2K 2Z5
 (204) 654-4631
Distribution
Cinema Esperanca
36 Charlotte St.
Suite 1106
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3P7
(416) 977-0123
 (416) 977-7890
andre.m.mbennett@sympatico.ca
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Filmmaker Pierre Falardeau has been a major figure in Quebec cinema for more than 25 years. Each of his films testifies to his unwavering political and social commitment. In 1977, he and Julien Poulin made À force de courage, a film about Algerian independence which earned a special jury citation at the Lille Film Festival in France. The two subsequently shot Pea Soup and Speak White, the latter based on a celebrated poem by Michèle Lalonde. In 1981, Falardeau and Poulin directed the feature Elvis Gratton, which was awarded the grand prize at Lille as well as the Genie Award for best short film. Working alone, Falardeau subsequently made a number of memorable films which were screened at several major international film festivals: Le Party, Le Steak, Le Temps des bouffons, Octobre and, more recently, Miracle à Memphis – Elvis Gratton II.
Denis Chouinard has several short films to his credit: On parlait pas Allemand (1985), Les 14 définitions de la pluie (1993), Le Feu sacré (1995) and Le Verbe incendié (1998). In 1997, he co-directed his first feature, Clandestins (Stowaways), with Nicolas Wadimoff; the film won an impressive number of awards: the Bayard d’Or and the Prix du public at the Namur Film Festival, the Prix Don Quichotte at the Locarno Film Festival, the Dauphin d’Argent at the Troia Film Festival in Portugal, the best actress award at the Bucharest Film Festival, the special jury prize at the Paris Film Festival, as well as the Prix SARDeC and the Prix Fuji at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in Montréal. Clandestins was screened at some 25 festivals around the world.
Rick Stevenson has worked extensively in both television and film as a writer, director and producer. He began his career in the early 1980s, producing several films directed by Michael Hoffman, including Privileged (1983; starring Hugh Grant and James Whilby); Promised Land (1987; starring Meg Ryan); and Some Girls (1989; starring Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Connelly and Andre Gregory). In 1998, he directed his first feature, Magic in the Water, and followed this up in 1999 with his second feature, The Dinosaur Hunter, starring Christopher Plummer. Rick Stevenson has directed numerous television series, including Madison, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, Mentors, Hope Island and Mysterious Ways. Anthrax is the third feature he has directed.
A graduate of the National Screen Institute’s Director’s Studio, Robert Cuffley has directed more than 35 music videos. His awards include best independent video at the 1996 MuchMusic Awards and best music video at the 1998 Alberta Motion Picture (AMPIA) Awards. Robert’s short films include the award-winning Eyes for You (Local Heroes International Film Festival, 1996), Game Seven, which he produced (1998 Toronto Short Film Festival and winner at the 1998 Chicago International Film Festival), and Soother (Local Heroes International Film Festival, 2000). At Shepherd Park is his first feature film.
Arenowned filmmaker, Claude Miller began his career as an assistant to some of France’s greatest directors, including Marcel Carné, Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Since 1971, he has directed a dozen features, including Garde à vue (1981), which won three Prix Césars in France as well as the award for best screenplay at the Montréal World Film Festival; Mortelle Randonnée (1982); La Petite Voleuse (1988), based on a screenplay by François Truffaut; and L’Accompagnatrice (1992). In 1998, Miller’s La Classe de neige won the jury prize at Cannes and the Ange d’Or at the Florence Film Festival. His most recent film, La Chambre des magiciennes, won the international critics’ prize at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival.
After graduating from film school, Jeff Beesley began shooting his first professional film, a road documentary titled Percy, Me and Bobby McGee… (1996). The film won the best documentary award at the 1996 Saskatchewan Showcase Awards, three National Media Excellence Awards and a Golden Sheaf Award at the 1997 Yorkton Film Festival. In 1997, Beesley’s documentary The Last Word From Moosejaw premiered nationally on CBC Newsworld. In 1998, his debut feature, Sparkle, premiered at the Montréal World Film Festival. The film also swept the 1998 Saskatchewan Showcase Awards. In 1999, Beesley served as Associate Producer on the feature Skipped Parts, produced by Trimark Pictures. Borderline Normal is the second feature Jeff Beesley has directed.
Thirty-six-year old Alain DesRochers has made some 70 music videos for such well-known performers as Céline Dion, Luc de la Rochelière, Mitsou, Nicolas and Soul Attorneys. He has also directed five films: Hommage au cinéma, Ave Verum Corpus, which he co-directed with Louise-Marie Beauchamps, Le Lièvre et la Tortue, L’Oreille de Joé and, most recently, La Bouteille. In addition, he has some 30 commercials to his credit as well as several promotional films, including ones in honour of the 25th anniversary of Telefilm Canada and the Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. His work has been awarded several prestigious prizes, including MuchMusic’s Hall of Fame award, in recognition of his body of work, the André Cézar prize from Belgium’s Festival Mondial de Huy, and the Coq d’Or from the Publicité Club of Montréal.
A master of comedy, Louis Saia is a well-known and versatile writer who has worked in the theatre, television and film. For the theatre, he has co-written a number of very successful comedies, notably Broue and Les Voisins. Also a sought-after stage director, Saia has worked with several leading Quebec comics, including Rock et Belles oreilles, Ding et Dong, Claudine Mercier and Jici Lauzon. His television writing credits include the popular comedy series Histoires de filles. Saia’s film credits include the feature Le Sphynx, which he scripted and directed, Voyage par la lune and Polar, which he co-scripted, and Les Boys and Les Boys II, which he scripted and directed. Both installments of Les Boys were huge box-office hits.
Before turning to feature film, Richard Roy made three short films, the last of which, Transit (1986), won the Prix Normande-Juneau for best Quebec short film at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois. Transit was presented at several film festivals, including those in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Mannheim, Germany, and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Quebec. After Transit, Richard Roy directed two successful features, Moody Beach (1989) and Caboose (1996). In 1997, he directed the popular television series Le Masque, written by Réjean Tremblay. Café Olé is his first English-language feature.
André Melançon’s talents as a filmmaker were revealed with his very first feature, La Guerre des tuques (1984), which had a profound impact on Quebec cinema. His follow-up film, Bach et Bottine (1985) was also successful, as was Fiero, l’été des secrets, which he made several years later. Over the last few years, André Melançon has directed several television dramas, including Cher Olivier, a biography of the great Québécois comic Olivier Guimond. André Melançon also directed the series Ces enfants d’ailleurs, la suite, based on the best-selling book by Arlette Cousture.
A seasoned author and screenwriter, Geneviève Lefebvre co-scripted the 1999 feature Ladies Room. She has also written extensively for television, notably for the series Diva and Haute surveillance. She was the head writer on the series Georges and Du cœur au ventre, and wrote the screenplay for the series Asbestos. Geneviève Lefebvre also wrote and directed the short film Mauvais coups. Le Ciel sur la tête is her first feature film.
Julie Hivon enjoys a multi-faceted career as a novelist, short-story writer and filmmaker. She directed Baiser d’enfants (1995), which won the Golden Sheaf Award for best dramatic short at the Yorkton Film Festival in Saskatchewan, as well as the National Film Board prize for best screenplay at the National Screen Institute in Edmonton. The film was subsequently screened at two dozen film festivals around the world. In 1997, her short film Dans le parc avec toi was screened at the Montréal World Film Festival and the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, where it was awarded an honourable mention by the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma. Dans le parc avec toi was also broadcast on the CBC’s English television network, and was screened at several other Canadian and international film festivals, including ones in Winnipeg, Ottawa, Italy, Portugal and Australia.
Born and raised in Ottawa, Renny Bartlett began his innovative approach to filmmaking with two experimental short films, Between Heaven and Earth (1981) and Dula (1984). He then developed a unique hybrid of archive film and storytelling in his film essay Arktikos (1991), shot in Russia, Canada and Italy. He has also had a distinguished career as a documentary filmmaker for Britain’s Channel 4. Both his two-part series The Cold War Game (1988), made with Noam Chomsky, and his ten-part series on photography, Moving Stills (1989), were nominated as best documentary series for the British Film Institute’s Grierson Award. Eisenstein marks Renny Bartlett’s feature-film directorial debut.
An anthropologist by training, Bernard Émond lived for many years in Canada’s North, working for Inuit television. Since 1972, he has worked on more than 30 films and videos as a director, scriptwriter or editor. His recent work includes Ceux qui ont le pas léger meurent sans laisser de traces, which was screened at several festivals, including the 1992 Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, where it won the award for best medium-length film; L’Instant et la patience (1994); La Terre des autres (1995), which was shot on location in Israel, in the Palestinian territories and in Canada’s North on the occasion of the United Nations Year for Tolerance; L’Épreuve du feu (1997), winner of the award for best medium-length documentary at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois; and Le Temps et le lieu (2000). La Femme qui boit is his first feature film.
During the mid 1960s, Roger Cantin – then passionate about 8mm cinema – quickly became a prolific independent filmmaker, working as a writer, director, editor or producer on some 30 short films. He became known for his experiments with special effects and many of his films won awards and other distinctions. In 1985, he co-scripted André Melançon’s La Guerre des Tuques, and, beginning in 1989, directed a number of features tinged with fantasy and comedy: Simon les nuages, L’Assassin jouait du trombone, Le Grand Zèle, Matusalem, La Vengeance de la femme en noir and Matusalem II.
Noam Gonick’s film, television and new-media projects include Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight, narrated by Tom Waits, which went on to win top awards at festivals worldwide (including Hot Docs! and the Blizzard Awards). This film, along with Gonick’s award-winning 1919 (which won the best Canadian film award at the 1998 Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival), continues to screen in festivals, on television, and at major museums that have purchased Gonick’s work for their permanent collections. Hey, Happy! is Noam Gonick’s first feature.
Jorge Manzano was born in Santiago de Chile in 1968 and immigrated with his parents to Canada following the military coup of 1973. While a student, he realized he had a passion for filmmaking, and saw film as a medium that allowed him to tell stories about struggle, identity and pride. Shortly after graduating from the University of Toronto in 1994, Jorge formed Nepantla Films for the production of City of Dreams. City of Dreams screened at Sundance in 1999, and has received several awards: best actor at Dreamspeakers, 1997, best drama at the Native Indian and Inuit Photographer’s Association’s Video Binge, 1997, and best documentary at New Frontiers Film, 1995. Five years in the making, Johnny Greyeyes premiered at Sundance 2000 and is the recipient of the Bulloch Award for best Canadian film at insideOut in Toronto, the Freedom Award at Outfest in L.A., and the award for best director at the American Indian Film Festival.
After studying at Concordia University in Montréal and at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television in Los Angeles, Gabriel Pelletier began working in various capacities on several television series in Montréal and Toronto. These included Meurtre en musique, Sirens and Emily of New Moon. He subsequently directed five installments of Réseaux, as well as two installments of The Adventures of Jules Verne. In 1992, he directed his first feature, L’Automne sauvage, which he followed up with the hit comedy-fantasy Karmina, recipient of numerous awards. His comedy La Vie après l’amour was also a big hit during the summer of 2000.
Karmen Geï is Joseph Gaï Ramaka’s first feature film. Ramaka also directed several short films, including Portrait d’une mannequin, Baby Sister and Ainsi soit-il, which won the Silver Bear at the Venice Film Festival in 1998. He has also written or coproduced more than a dozen feature films. Ramaka is one of the prime movers of Senegal’s – indeed Africa’s – film industry. In 1999, he founded the Espace Bel’Arte, a repertory movie theatre, and the Studios de l’Arche, which will become the first film studio in West and Central Africa to feature a computerized lighting system.
Bruce Sweeney received an MFA with an emphasis on film production in 1996 from the University of British Columbia. His first film, Live Bait, won the best Canadian feature award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1995. His second feature, Dirty, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and went on to screenings at Sundance and Berlin. Bruce won the Telefilm Canada Award for best emerging filmmaker at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 1998. Last Wedding is his third feature film.
Érik Canuel began his career by making music videos for such artists as Paul Piché, Vilain Pingouin and Sylvain Cossette. After shooting a number of TV commercials, several of them award-winners, he worked as a director on the television series Big Wolf on Campus, for the Fox network, and The Hunger, broadcast on Showtime and The Movie Network. In 2000, his Imax film Hemingway: A Portrait won a Genie for best short documentary, as well as the Maximum Image Award for best 2D film at the Miami Aventura Imax Days.
Lola is Carl Bessai’s second feature film, a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Johnny, which premiered at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival (Special Jury Citation) and went on to festivals in Vancouver, Thessalonika and Calcutta before its theatrical release in Canada. Previous work includes the documentary Out of Orbit, a biography of media guru Marshall McLuhan, which won the Silver Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and Bang!, a Vancouver digital trilogy.
Matthew Bissonnette was born and raised in Montréal, where he studied English and film at Concordia University. After a fun-filled, disastrous ride in a local punk-rock band, he left for Japan to pursue a bartending career. Returning to the West, he studied law at Queen’s University and was called to the bar in February 1997. Two weeks later he retired to write books and make movies. Looking for Leonard is his first feature film.
Steven Clark was born and raised in Montréal. He studied political science and theatre at Dalhousie University in Halifax before returning to Montréal, where he attended Concordia in communication studies. Following college, he traveled extensively around the world, ending up in Japan where he lived for two years teaching English and DJing in low-rent nightclubs. Back in Montréal, Steven tried every job he could get that was remotely associated with moving pictures, before deciding that the only thing possibly harder would be to make his own. Looking for Leonard is his first feature film.
Lost and Delirious, the seventh feature by award-winning director Léa Pool, marks her English-language directorial debut. Léa Pool’s previous feature, Emporte-moi, was selected for official competition at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Special Ecumenical Jury Prize. Her other films include Mouvements du désir (1992), which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival; La Demoiselle sauvage (1991); À corps perdu (1988), which was screened in official competition at the Venice and Chicago film festivals; Anne Trister (1986), included in the official competition at the Berlin Film Festival; and La Femme de l’hôtel (1984), which won the best Canadian feature award at the Toronto Film Festival. All of Léa Pool’s films have been screened at numerous international film festivals.
Blaine Thurier was toiling as an underground cartoonist when he turned his attention to film. After a self-taught crash course in filmmaking and months of writing, he gathered friends and began work on Low Self Esteem Girl. The film premiered at The Blinding Light in Vancouver and was selected for the Toronto International Film Festival. It recently won top prize at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Blaine is currently writing his next screenplay and also plays keyboards for The New Pornographers.
Michael Parker is a first-generation Irish-Canadian with an extensive background in production, writing and directing for film and television. In 1988, Michael and his wife, Shan Tam, formed Maple Ridge Films, a line-producing company catering to Asian producers. The company was involved in the production of six features, including the Jackie Chan action blockbuster Rumble in the Bronx. In 1992, Michael and Shan formed Holiday Pictures, an independent production company with a mandate to develop and produce original feature films and television series. In 1997 Michael directed the television comedy-drama Chief Plays Basketball, and in 2000 he executive-produced the TV documentary Made in China. Lunch With Charles marks Michael Parker’s feature-film directorial debut.
After pursuing studies in film and photography, Catherine Martin began working as a film editor. At the same time, she wrote and directed several short- and medium-length films, including Odile ou réminiscences d’un voyage (1985) and Nuits d’Afrique (1990). Nuits d’Afrique won the Télébec prize at the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Film Festival, the André-Leroux Prize for best medium-length film, awarded by the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma (AQCC), and the Golden Sheaf awards for best drama and best director at the Yorkton Film Festival. These were followed by two shorts, L’Ombre (1992) and Les Fins de semaine (1995). In 1998, Catherine Martin received the AQCC-Telefilm Canada Award for best medium-length documentary for Les Dames du 9e. Mariages is her first feature film.
Mario Chabot, who graduated from the film program at the St-Hyacinthe junior college and the École nationale de l’Humour in Montréal, has earned a solid reputation as a writer and director in comedy as well as film. As creator and writer, he has worked on shows for comedian Patrick Huard, as well as the Lundis Juste pour rire and the popular TV series Surprise sur prise. In 1996, his first short, Le Feu au cœur, was broadcast on Radio-Canada and was screened at several festivals, including the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois and the Festival international du court métrage, both in Montréal, as well as festivals in Québec City, Winnipeg and Paris. Méchant Party, which he scripted, is Martin Chabot’s first feature film.
Andrew Currie has written and directed several short films, including Persistence of Memory, The Sudden Walk and Night of the Living, which received the Telefilm Canada Award for best director at the 1997 Vancouver International Film Festival. All three films have screened at film festivals around the world and have been shown on television by such broadcasters as Canal Plus in France, Channel 4 in the U.K., and Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting in North America. A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Director Resident Program, Andrew was recently nominated for a Gemini Award for his direction of Twisteeria, a half-hour children’s comedy made for YTV. Mile Zero is Andrew Currie’s feature film directorial debut.
Simon Lacombe directed the short film The Grace Hour in 1993. He has also worked as a director of photography and director of various corporate multimedia productions for major companies. While writing the screenplay for his first feature, Ne dis rien, Simon Lacombe also made several public-service announcements for television, including La Marche mondiale des Femmes in 2000 and L’Ostéoporose and 35e Mondial des Métiers in 1999. He has also directed a number of multimedia productions, including Raconte-moi les sœurs, a documentary which was shown on five screens controlled by a single computer.
Originally from County Wicklow, Ireland, David Caffrey studied film at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in England. While completing his degree, he made a short 16mm film entitled The Connivers, based on some of his childhood experiences in Wicklow. This film gained some recognition by being shown on Channel 4. After several failed attempts to get work in the film business, David left London, returned to Galway in the west of Ireland and began working at the newly formed Concorde Studios, set up by Roger Corman. After serving as a trainee locations assistant on two feature films, Caffrey directed two short films: Bantams, which won a Channel 4 Critic’s Choice Award, and Bolt. Caffrey then directed his first feature, Divorcing Jack. He was subsequently hired by the BBC to direct the 18th-century mini-series Aristocrats, based on the biography by Stella Tillyard. On the Nose is David Caffrey’s second feature film.
Born in 1968, Bertrand Bonello divides his time between Montréal and Paris. After pursuing studies in classical music (piano, percussion and conducting), he began working on albums and shows for several well-known artists, such as Françoise Hardy and Carole Laure. Starting in 1993, he turned his attention to cinema and directed several documentaries and short films. In 1998, his first feature, Quelque chose d’organique, starring Romane Bohringer and Laurent Lucas, was released. In 1999, Quelque chose d’organique was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in official competition and at the Mostra di Pesaro festival in Italy, where it won the award for best film.
Bruce Spangler received a BA in art and communications from Andrews University in Michigan in 1985, and a BFA in film production from Simon Fraser University in 1995. He has produced and directed four short films: Tele-Geist (1990), Head Lights Fade (1991), New World Murder (1992), and Warm Gun (1994). New World Murder, an experimental documentary de-construction of the Gulf War, has played at numerous international festivals, winning two awards for best experimental short. Prior to his career as a filmmaker, Bruce spent five years as a social worker in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. Protection, his first feature, is based on his real-life experiences as a front-line child-abuse investigator. In addition to filmmaking, Bruce has written music for film and television and has also exhibited his fine-art photography in a number of galleries in both Vancouver and Seattle.
After spending 14 years working at major ad agencies in Brussels, Chris Vander Stappen wrote the screenplay for the award-winning feature Ma vie en rose, directed by Alain Berliner. Ma vie en rose won some 20 international awards, including best screenwriter of the year at the 1997 European Film Academy Awards in Berlin and the Prix du public Soleil d’enfance at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. Chris Vander Stappen has also worked on several series and movies for television, including Aventures Caraïbes, Tous les papas ne font pas pipi debout and La Dame de cœur.
Genie, Gemini and Emmy-award winning filmmaker Sturla Gunnarsson has directed numerous and diverse feature films, documentaries and television movies, including Scorn, Such a Long Journey and Gerrie & Louise. Gunnarsson lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.
Dwayne Beaver has directed short films, music videos and television programs. He made his network television directorial debut on Shadow Raiders, produced by Alliance Atlantis. In 1998, he worked in collaboration with Atom Egoyan, co-directing a full-length video version of the opera Salome. Dwayne is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre and the Cinema, Television, Stage and Radio Arts Program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). He is also a winner of the drama prize awarded by the National Screen Institute of Canada. The Rhino Brothers is his first feature film.
David C. Hansen has been active as a creator, director, writer and producer of documentaries since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Video from the University of Regina in 1996. As a writer-director, his documentaries include the eight-part series English Teachers (2002); Check Yourself at the Door (2001), Which Way to the Gig (1999), nominated for best documentary at the Yorkton Film Festival; and Hello Africa Calling (1999). He also worked on the series Canadian Women of Courage (2000) as cameraman and editor. In addition, David has been very active as a music-video director, winning several awards for his work in this field. Shot in the Face is the first feature film he has directed.
Since 1987, Nathalie Saint-Pierre
has devoted all her energies studying film directing and production, first at university and then by working on movie sets. Her debut film, L’Abîme appelle l’abîme, was screened at several festivals, including the 1997 Rendez-Vous du cinéma québécois, where it was nominated as Best Short Film. She is a member of the independent film collective Les Films de l’Autre, with whom, in 2001, she directed and produced the short Quand j’ai eu trente ans ou comment j’ai viré su’ l’top. Le silence nous guette is her first feature film.
Sister Blue is a first feature for writer/director Doug Greenall. A former actor, Doug appeared on stages across Canada and in numerous film and TV roles. He is the author of the hit stage thriller Dead Serious, a commercial and critical success for the Arts Club Theatre in Vancouver, which was widely performed across Canada. Doug also directed Dead Serious for the White Rock Playhouse in British Columbia. His short film, The Accusation, aired on the Comedy Network. He has also written several screenplays.
Roy hails from Yorkton, Saskatchewan where he grew up snacking on the lumi-nescent morsels of that city’s film festival and sipping sweet, sorrowful Springsteen tunes. He has been writing, producing and directing short films for the past 13 years. Roy recently received his Master’s degree in cinema from Concordia University. Cheryl and Flynn are family, Montréal is home. So Faraway and Blue is his first feature.
Robin Schlaht graduated in 1992 with a degree in film from the University of Regina, where he made several short films. His first non-student production, The People in Black, a lyrical documentary about the Hutterites, has been screened at many international festivals. This was followed by Sons and Daughters, which won awards for best experimental film, best cinematography and best original music at the 1995 Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival. Robin’s third film, the feature-length documentary Moscow Summer (1995), was named best foreign film at the 1996 WorldFest International Film Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1999, Robin coproduced and co-directed (with David Christensen) the documentary The Heart Becomes Quiet, about the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. Solitude is Robin Schlaht’s first feature film.
Anne Wheeler is one of Canada’s most distinguished filmmakers, with numerous award-winning features, television programs and documentaries to her credit. Her feature and television films include The Orkney Lad: The Story of Isabel Gunn (2001), Marine Life (2000), Better Than Chocolate (1999), The Sleep Room (1998), Mother Trucker: The Diana Kilmury Story (1996), The War Between (1995), Other Women’s Children (1995), The Diviners (1991), Angel Square (1989), Bye Bye Blues (1988), Cowboys Don’t Cry (1987) and Loyalties (1986). For television, she has also directed several short dramas as well as episodes of some of Canada’s most successful series, including Da Vinci’s Inquest, Beggars and Choosers, Mysterious Ways, Cold Squad, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, Jake and the Kid and North of 60. Her documentaries include A War Story (1981).
A well-known creator of comic strips, Sylvain Chomet directed his first animated short, Ça va, ça va !, in 1990. While pursuing his career in comic strips, he and partner Nicolas de Crécy made La Vieille Dame et les pigeons (1995), a medium-length film which won several international awards, including the Grand Prize at the World Animation Celebration in Los Angeles, the BAFTA Award for best animated film, in London, and the Cartoon d’Or for best European animated film. Belleville Rendez-Vous is his first feature film.
André Turpin, one of his generation’s most gifted filmmakers, served as writer, director and director of photography on Un crabe dans la tête, his latest feature. His previous work includes the anthology feature Cosmos, for which he directed one of the segments, and the critically acclaimed Zigrail, his first feature as solo director. Turpin has also worked as director of photography on many features, including Denis Villeneuve’s award-winning Maelström. Turpin’s work on Maelström earned him a Genie Award and a Prix Jutra for best cinematography, and a prize for artistic achievement, awarded at the 2000 Montréal World Film Festival.
A native of Venezuela, film director, writer and playwright Alberto Arvelo’s most recent film, One Life and Two Trails, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1997 in the best foreign film category. One Life and Two Trails was screened at numerous film festivals in North and South America, Europe and the Middle East. It won several prizes, including the award for best screenplay at the 1998 New York Film Festival. Arvelo’s previous features include: Song of the Mountain, his first full-length film, which he directed at the age of 17, and the historical epic Flames on the Snow (1986). Alberto Arvelo has also directed extensively for television and theatre. He is currently head of the Film Director Workshop at the Venezuelan National Cinema School and is President of Cinema Sur.
After studying at New York University and graduating in 1989 with a BFA in film production, Jim Allodi began to write and direct short films. He has also worked as a film editor, cinematographer and actor, appearing in more than 20 film and television productions including The Five Senses (Jeremy Podeswa), Dead Aviators (David Wellington), The Herd (Peter Lynch), American Whiskey Bar (Bruce McDonald) and The Newsroom (Ken Finkleman). In 1997, he was a director resident in the Canadian Film Centre’s Director’s Lab, where he made his most recent short film, Cold Feet (1998). Cold Feet played to critical acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, among others, and won a Golden Sheaf Award for best screenplay at the Yorkton Film Festival in 1999. The Uncles is Jim Allodi’s first feature film.
Francis Leclerc was born in Québec City in 1971. While studying communication arts, he developed an interest in filmmaking. During the 1990s, he directed more than 20 short- and medium-length films, including Bientôt novembre (1995), L’Angle mort d’une hirondelle (1996), Les sept branches de la rivière Ota (1997) and Avec ou sans Marie (1997). Since 1995, he has been working in Montréal, directing many music videos for well-known Quebec artists. Une jeune fille à la fenêtre is his first feature.
Before becoming a director, Jacques Dorfmann was a successful film producer. Between 1969 and 1975, he produced a dozen features, among them Jean-Pierre Melville’s L’Armée des ombres and Le Cercle rouge, Jean Yanne’s Tout le monde il est beau, tout le monde il est gentil, and Jacques Rouffio’s Sept morts sur ordonnance. In 1987, he directed his first feature, Palanquin des larmes. He followed this with Agaguk, which was based on Yves Thériault’s well-known novel. Vercingétorix is Jacques Dorfmann’s third feature.