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Telefilm Canada / Catalogues /
Feature films 2003
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Proud and independent, Mati, also known as Madame Brouette (“Mrs. Wheelbarrow”), makes a living by pushing her wheelbarrow through the marketplace in Sandaga, Senegal. Divorced, she dreams of one day opening her own diner so she can earn a living with dignity, together with her daughter, Ndèye, and her friend, Ndaxté, who has also escaped from a violent marriage. Mati has had enough of men, and doesn’t want anything more to do with them. Fate, however, comes calling, in the person of charming and smooth-talking Naago, a cop. Despite her misgivings, Mati falls in love once again. This time, it may be the real thing… One day, at dawn, the residents of the Niayes Thiokeert district are awakened by the sound of gunfire. In full view of the horrified neighbours, a wounded Naago emerges from Mati’s house and collapses. What pushed Madame Brouette to this extreme?… Was is it really she who pulled the trigger?
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Moussa Sene Absa
Director
 Actor, director, painter, writer for theatre and television, author and musician, Moussa Sene Absa is an exceptionally multi-talented artist. His screenplay for the feature Les Enfants de Dieu received an award at the Festival du film francophone de Fort-de-France, in Martinique, while his first film as director, the short Le Prix du mensonge (1988), received the Silver Tanit at the Journées cinématographiques de Carthage, Tunisia. He followed this up with three short films, Jaaraama (1992), Set setal (1992) and Entre vos mains (1992). His 1993 film, Ça twiste à Poponguine (a.k.a. Rocking Poponguine) received several international awards. His subsequent feature film, Tableau Ferraille (1996), also won several awards, including the prize for best cinematography (Bertrand Chatry) at the 1997 FESPACO in Burkina Faso.
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35 mm
104 minutes
Colour
Aspect ratio
1.85
Original version in French
Subtitled in English
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Producers – Canada
Rock Demers
Danielle Champoux
Producer – France
Claude Gilaizeau
Producers – Senegal
Moussa Sene Absa
Badou Bâ
Director
Moussa Sene Absa
Scriptwriters
Moussa Sene Absa
Gilles Desjardins
Director of Photography
Jean-Jacques Bouhon
Editing
Matthieu Roy-Décarie
Sound
Philippe Scultéty
Raymond Vermette
Art Director
Moustapha (Picasso) Ndiaye
Costume Designer
Fatou Kandé
Music
Majoly
Serge Fiori
Mamadou (Madou) Diabaté
Cast
Ousseynou Diop
Rokhaya Niang
Aboubakar Sadikh Bâ
Kadiatou Sy
Ndèye Sénéba Seck
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Production
Productions La Fête inc.
387, rue Saint-Paul Ouest
Montreal, Quebec
H2Y 2A7
 (514) 848-0417
 (514) 848-0064
info@lafete.com
www.lafete.com
Coproduction – France
Production La Lanterne
8, av. de la Porte de Montrouge
Paris
France
75014
1.45.39.47.39
1.45.39.02.96
prodlant@club-internet.fr
Coproduction – Senegal
MSA Production
Baie de Thioupoam
Popenguine
Senegal
221.8420752
221.8420752
seneabsa@hotmail.com
Distribution
Delphis Films
225, rue Roy Est
Bureau 201
Montreal, Quebec
H2W 1M5
(514) 843-3355
(514) 843-9574
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At the age of 27, Claude Fortin began a course of study on the impact of mass culture. For one of his classes he shot his first video, Le Déclin de l’idiot visuel (a take-off on the title of Denys Arcand’s celebrated Déclin de l’empire américain). He used this video as the starting-off point for his first feature, Le Voleur de caméra, which was warmly praised by the critics upon its release in 1993. In 1999, Fortin directed L’Autobiographe amateur. In this feature, Fortin played a character he first introduced in Le Voleur de caméra, and which several likened to the screen personas of Nanni Moretti and Woody Allen. 100% Bio is his third feature film.
Randall Cole studied filmmaking at Concordia University in Montréal, where he wrote and directed five short 16-mm films. Not long after graduating he directed the 35-mm short The Green Dart (1996). Randall moved to Toronto in 1997 and attended the 1998 Writer’s Lab at the Canadian Film Centre, where he wrote two feature-length screenplays and the short Anderson Unbound (1999). Since then, Randall Cole has written three more feature scripts, including 19 Months, which also marks his feature debut.
Anthropologist Bernard Émond spent many years in Canada’s Far North, where he worked for Inuit television. Since 1972, he has worked on some 30 films or videos. His works include Ceux qui ont le pas léger meurent sans laisser de traces, which earned several awards on the film festival circuit, including the prize for best medium-length film at the 1992 Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois; L’Instant et la patience (1994); La Terre des autres (1995); L’Épreuve du feu (1997), which also received the prize for best medium-length film at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois; and Le Temps et le lieu (2000). His first feature, the award-winning La Femme qui boit (2001), was selected for the International Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival. 20 h 17, rue Darling is Bernard Émond’s second feature.
Denis Boivin has made several award-winning short films which were screened at numerous festivals. An audacious filmmaker, his work has taken him from inside prison walls to the heart of the Vatican, where he shot an extraordinary biography of Pope John Paul II. Today, Boivin’s documentaries are shown around the world. Born near the Huron village of Wendake, just outside Québec City, Denis Boivin has returned to his Native roots for inspiration as he offers an original look at an unknown aspect of life among Canada’s First Nations. Attache ta tuque ! is his first feature film.
Producer-writer-director Mort Ransen began his career as an actor after studying with the legendary American teacher Peggy Furey. He acted briefly and directed on stage before turning to film in 1961, when he joined the directing staff of the National Film Board of Canada. For the NFB he wrote and directed 17 films, winning 15 international awards. Since leaving the NFB in 1984, he has directed seven feature films, most notably the critically acclaimed Margaret’s Museum (1995). More recently, Ransen produced My Father’s Angel,(1999) the award-winning first feature by Davor Marjanovic. His most recent work as director was the Gemini-nominated documentary Ah… The Money, the Money, the Money, produced for the NFB, about the logging conflict on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, where Ransen makes his home.
Edoardo Ponti’s film credits include a starring role in the 1984 film Aurora, directed by Maurizio Ponzi, for which he was nominated for a Nastro d’Argento, Italy’s prestigious film critics’ prize. In 1997, Ponti wrote, produced and directed the short film Liv. Executive produced by Robert Altman and Michelangelo Antonioni, Liv premiered at the 1998 Venice International Film Festival. In 1995, Edoardo Ponti produced and directed Eugene Ionesco’s play The Lesson. In 1996, he then went on to adapt for the stage, produce and direct Nick Bantock’s best-selling epistolary trilogy Griffin and Sabine at the Spoleto Theatre Festival in Italy. In 1998, he wrote and directed an opera with renowned Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner entitled Requiem for My Friend. Edoardo Ponti was awarded a platinum record for the disc of the opera.
Anita McGee is a published writer, a scriptwriter, film director and producer. She has numerous short films to her credit, including Out on a Limb (1993), The Trunk (1994), New Neighbours (1999), an award-winning animated comedy, Clothesline Patch, a half-hour drama for CBC that won a Gemini Award for Best Short Dramatic Program in 2002, and Little Dickie (2002). She has directed two documentaries: Seven Brides for Uncle Sam, an award-winning NFB documentary, and Portrait of a 70 Foot Artist, a half-hour arts documentary for Bravo!. McGee is currently developing two feature-film scripts, Faith Hope & Love and 12-Steps. The BreadMaker is her debut feature film.
An acclaimed and celebrated playwright and television writer, as well as a successful and much sought-after stage director, Louis Saia has had an equally successful career in film. He scripted Francis Mankiewicz’s 1977 feature Une amie d’enfance, which he adapted from his own play. As a director, Saia has had a string of hits, including Le Sphynx (1994), Les Boys I (1997) and Les Boys II (1998) – until recently the biggest hit in Quebec cinema. Prior to Les Dangereux, Louis Saia directed Les Boys III (2002).
Matthew Hastings has worked as a writer, director and executive producer on a wide variety of feature films and television series. His recent projects include season seven of The Outer Limits, on which he served as an executive producer and director (Prism award winner); Higher Ground, a one-hour drama series produced by Fox Family in association with Paramount Television, for which he was creator, executive producer and writer; and All About Us, a youth-driven pilot which he created, directed, and executive produced for Alliance Atlantis Communications. He was also the creator of the dramedy series Out of the Blue, which aired in 1995-1996. In the feature-film world, Hastings produced The Unsaid, starring Andy Garcia, which is scheduled to be released by Universal in 2003. Decoys is the first feature he has directed.
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 Investigation (2002), Suddenly Naked (2001), 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 Diviners (1991), 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).
Emile is the third installment in Carl Bessai's identity trilogy. His first feature, Johnny, premiered at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Award. The second feature, Lola, also premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, in 2001, and then went on to screen internationally at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival (2002) and the Berlin International Film Festival (2002). Other recent work includes the documentaries Indie Truth, for the Independent Film Channel, and Out of Orbit, a biography of media guru Marshall McLuhan.
Stefan Pleszczynski studied film in Vancouver and Montréal. He began his career with three short films, including The Dragon, which won the Best Film Award at the Canadian Student Film Festival and was screened at several international festivals. He then went on to write, direct and coproduce the medium-length film L’Homme perché (1997), which screened to enthusiastic audiences at the Festival du Cinéma International en Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in Montréal. The film also played in theatres, where it was warmly greeted by critics and audiences. Stefan Pleszczynski has also worked on a number of successful TV shows. L'Espérance is his first feature film.
Chris Philpott’s films have earned him the respect of his critics and peers. While writing Fairytales & Pornography, Chris also penned and directed The Happy Couple (2001), a black romantic comedy based on a story by Boccaccio the medieval Italian poet Giovanni. Prior to that, he wrote, directed and co-produced his first feature, The Eternal Husband (1997). Chris has also directed several well-received short films, including Silent DNA (1993) and Scenes From Macbeth (1989), as well as several rock videos. In addition, he has been commissioned to write a number of screenplays, and is currently in development on The Madwoman's Diary, written with Kathleen Breedyk, and Glass Houses.
Dominique Cabrera began her career as a director of documentaries for French television. Her films include Chronique d’une banlieue ordinaire (1992), Rester là-bas (1992) and Un Poste à Courneuve (1994). Her first feature, L’autre côté de la mer (1997), was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Cinéma en France section. Also in 1997, her feature documentary Demain et demain encore was screened in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival. Her second feature, Nadia et les hippopotames (1999), was also presented at Cannes, this time in the Un certain regard section. Her third feature, Le Lait de la tendresse humaine (2001), was screened in official competition at the Locarno Film Festival.
Foolproof is writer/director William Phillips’s second feature-length film. Treed Murray (2001), his first feature, was nominated for five Genie Awards and went on to win two awards. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1986, Phillips entered the Film Studies Program at Ryerson University. From 1991 through 1995 he operated Grandview Productions, an independent film and video production company. He then went on to write and direct the award-winning short drama Milkman. In 1998, he completed the director’s residency at the Canadian Film Centre, where he wrote and directed the short film Deep Cut. This film toured international film festivals and was broadcast in Canada, the United States, Denmark, Spain and on Air Canada flights.
François Aubry began his career as an indie film animator. Using the technique of drawing directly on film stock, he made several shorts, including Cadence (1978) and Les Expériences sonores de Buster Keaton (1981), which combined animation and live action. For the National Film Board of Canada, he subsequently made the shorts Concerto Grosso Modo (1985) and Nocturnes (1988), which featured a variety of special effects. In 1991, he completed the short L’Empire des lumières, an ambitious film inspired by the paintings of Georges Seurat. His expertise in creating special effects led him to work with other filmmakers, including Denys Arcand (Jesus of Montréal, 1989) and Robert Lepage (Polygraph, 1996).
In partnership with Denis Chouinard, Louis Bélanger co-directed three short films: Dogmatisme ou le songe d’Adrien (1987), which received an honourable mention at the Monbéliard Film Festival and a prize at the Festival international du jeune cinéma de Montréal; Le Soleil et ses traces (1990); and Les 14 définitions de la pluie (1992). With Bruno Baillargeon, he co-directed Les Galeries Wilderton (1991). In 1998 and 1999, he co-scripted Nicolas Wadimoff’s 15, rue des Bains and Mondialito, and shot videos for Télévision Suisse Romande. In 1999, he directed his first feature, Post Mortem, which received no fewer than 14 prizes in Canada and abroad. In 2000 he and Isabelle Hébert co-directed Lauzon Lauzone, a documentary about the late Quebec filmmaker Jean-Claude Lauzon.
Brett Sullivan has edited numerous features and over 100 hours of television, receiving respective Genie and Gemini nominations in 2001 for Ginger Snaps and Lucky Girl. He won a Gemini Award in 1998 for Best Picture Editing in a Dramatic Program or Series, for Psi Factor. That same year he wrote and directed his first short film, Shudder, followed by 6IX (1999) and The Promise (2001), starring Gordon and Leah Pinsent. He also attended the Director’s Resident Programme at the Canadian Film Centre in 2001. Ginger Snaps: The Sequel is his feature directorial debut.
Writer, director, producer Sandra Sawatzky has made her mark with dialogue-less films. Her three shorts, Passing Lane, The Water Cooler and Belly Boat Hustle, as well as her first feature film, The Girl Who Married a Ghost, all forego traditional dialogue and utilize action in its place. Her distinctive, award-winning films are observations of human comedy and error. Belly Boat Hustle was on many festival “Best of” lists and inspired the Dance on Camera festival in New York to hold a Canadian dance film perspective. The short was also included in the show Workspheres at the Museum of Modern Art.
Toronto filmmaker Paula Tiberius has a BA in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto. She has written and directed three short films, Oxanna, Killing Time and Busk, which have screened at film festivals across North America and have been broadcast in the United States, Canada and Finland. An active member of the music community, Paula has also co-directed and edited three music videos that received airplay on MuchMusic. A rock and roller to the core, Paula plays guitar and sings in the garage band Sticky Rice. Goldirocks is her first feature film.
An internationally award-winning filmmaker, Nicholas Kendall’s feature-film credits include Mr. Rice’s Secret, starring David Bowie and Bill Switzer; Kayla, starring Henry Czerny, Tod Fennel and Meredith Henderson; and Cadillac Girls, starring Gregory Harrison, Jennifer Dale and Mia Kirshner. His television directing credits include the movie pilot for Caitlin’s Way and episodes of Beyond Belief, Mythquest, Just Deal, Caitlins’s Way, Mentors, The New Addams Family, Madison, Liberty Street, Neon Rider and Black Stallion. His documentary credits include The Lost Pharaoh, an award-winning television special shot on location in Egypt, and Rape: Face to Face, which won both a CPB award for Best Social Documentary and an Alfred I. Dupont–Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast journalism.
After graduating with a degree in communications from Concordia University, Jean-François Pouliot began working as an assistant cameraman, most notably on Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America and Tony Richardson’s The Hotel New Hampshire. In 1982, he joined Cossette Communications Marketing, Canada’s largest advertising agency. As Creative Head, he won the Grand Prix du Mondial de la Publicité for L’Italienne, a commercial for McDonald’s Restaurants which was shown in several countries. In 1988, he became a director at La Fabrique d’images, one of Canada’s leading TV-commercial production companies. La grande séduction is his first feature film.
Phil Price studied film and English literature at McGill University in Montréal. After graduating, Phil founded, Philms, his Montréal-based production company. His first feature, Summer, premiered at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois. Hatley High is Phil’s second feature. He will be shooting Prom Wars, his latest comedy, in the fall of 2003.
In 1989, Paul Thinel made his first short film, Des choses qui arrivent..., which screened to much acclaim at some 20 international film festivals. His second film, Second Souffle, won the Grand Prix de la Relève Québécoise in 1994. He followed this up with the medium-length film Remue-ménage, which offered a tender look at childhood. In 1998, he made the whimsical Le Mégalographe before going on to script the feature Pin-Pon, le film. Les Immortels is his first feature.
For more than 30 years, Denys Arcand has cast an incisive and poetic eye on contemporary society. His body of work, comprising several feature films as well as documentaries, has earned him acclaim in Canada as well as on the international scene. The recipient of numerous awards, Arcand was, most notably, twice nominated for an Academy Award (for Jesus of Montréal and The Decline of the American Empire). He has also won more than 20 Genie Awards in Canada. In 2000, his feature Stardom was selected as the closing-night film of the Cannes Film Festival. In all of his films, Denys Arcand reveals a love of storytelling and a passion for characters drawn from all levels of society.
Claude Fournier is behind some of the biggest hits of Quebec cinema. He has also worked in the United States, France, Italy and Australia. His award-winning films include the documentary Wrestling (1961), recipient of the American Society of Cinematographer's Blue Ribbon; Deux femmes en or, winner of the award for Best Canadian Feature of 1970; Alien Thunder, selected for the 1974 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; The Tin Flute(1982), winner of the award for Best Supporting Actress at the Moscow Film Festival and the Prix du public at the 1982 Montréal World Film Festival. Claude Fournier is also a novelist and essayist whose work has been published in Canada and France.
B. de Burgh's youth was spent travelling through Portugal, Greece and Austria. She ended up in France for a while but, realizing that school did not agree with her, continued her education on the road, travelling around the world and eventually settling in Montréal. A filmmaker, scriptwriter, editor and translator, she has worked on the conception of a number of theatrical pieces that featured the use of moving images, including Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Paul Claudel’s L’Annonce faite à Marie. She coproduced, wrote, directed and edited her two previous short films: Combien je t’aime and Dossier sans titre/Untitled Folder. Katryn’s Place is her feature-film debut.
Andrea Dorfman is a highly sought after cinematographer and director. After making two award-winning short films, Nine (1998) and Swerve (1998), both screened at several international film festivals, Dorfman went on to write and direct her first full-length feature, Parsley Days (2000). Parsley Days premiered at the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival to much critical acclaim. It went on to win Best First Feature at the Sudbury Film Festival, and Best Cinematography and Best Actress at the Atlantic Film Festival. It also screened at numerous other international film festivals.
Toronto-based Sudz Sutherland directed the shorts I’m a Big Girl (1998), Win/Loss/Tie (1998) and My Father’s Hands (1999), and co-directed the documentary Speakers for the Dead (2001). Love, Sex and Eating the Bones is his first feature film.
Peter Wellington is an accomplished writer/director whose First Feature, Joe’s So Mean to Josephine, won the Claude Jutra Award for Best Feature Film at the 1996 Genie Awards and was an audience favourite at the Sundance Film Festival as well as numerous other festivals around the world. Wellington is currently directing the six-hour series Final Curtain for Rhombus Media. He also wrote two screenplays for the CTV/Alliance Atlantis series The Eleventh Hour. Wellington wrote the short film Scratch Ticket, which won Best Short Film at the 1994 Montréal World Film Festival. He has also directed episodes of the acclaimed series Traders, The City, Blue Murder and Exhibit A.
A graduate of Niagara College’s Film and Television Program, John Vatcher has produced countless television commercials across North America since 1989 for such clients as General Motors, Sheraton Casinos and Ford. John furthered his directorial education by becoming a director’s observer on the television series Due South and FX - The Series, as well as an episode of NYPD Blue. His music videos to date include the acts Kim Stockwood, The Punters, Rawlins Cross and RASA’s recent hit, Sumo. In 2001, he worked as Assistant Director on Lasse Hallstrom’s The Shipping News. Making Love in St. Pierre is his first feature film.
After pursuing studies in art and technology, Émile Gaudreault began working as a performer and writer with the comedy group Le Groupe Sanguin. He then went on to work on the stand-up act of comic Marie-Lise Pilote, a former member of the troupe. His film career took off in 1994 when he co-scripted Michel Poulette’s feature Louis 19, le roi des ondes (1994). Louis 19 won the Golden Reel Award as the most successful Canadian film of 1994 and the best screenplay award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2001, he directed and co-scripted his first feature, Nuit de Noces. This feature was a huge hit in Quebec, winning the Golden Reel Award at the Genie Awards. Mambo Italiano is the second feature Émile Gaudreault has directed.
Wiebke von Carolsfeld was born, raised and educated (University of Cologne) in Germany. Since coming to Canada, she has worked as picture editor for such filmmakers as Tim Southam (The Bay of Love and Sorrows), Jeremy Podeswa (The Five Senses, After the Harvest), Renny Bartlett (Eisenstein, Genie nomination for Best Editing), Daniel MacIvor (Permission, Until I Hear From You) and many others. She has made two award-winning short films as a director, From Morning On I Waited Yesterday and Spiral Bound, which have screened at festivals across Canada, the United States and Europe. Last year, she was the Director Observer on Atom Egoyan’s feature Ararat. Marion Bridge is her first feature.
Since 1990, Érik Canuel has directed numerous commercials, many of them winning awards in Canada and abroad. He has directed several television series, including Seriously Weird (2002) for YTV, Big Wolf on Campus II (2000) and Big Wolf on Campus III (2001), for Fox, and Fortier I (1999), which received a Prix Gémeaux nomination for best director in 2000. His film work includes Hemingway, a Portrait (2000), which won the Genie award for best short documentary as well as the award for best 2D film at the Miami Aventura Imax Days, and La Loi du cochon (2000), his first feature film.
Vincenzo Natali spent five years honing his skills as a storyboard artist at Toronto’s Nelvana Animation Studios. In 1992, he filmed the short Mouth, followed by Playground, in 1993. Both shorts were broadcast on the CBC in Canada and played in film festivals around the world. Natali was soon after accepted into the prestigious Director's Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. There he completed the award-winning short, Elevated (1996), and through the Feature Film Project he directed his first feature-length film, Cube (1997). To date, Cube has played in more than 20 international festivals and has garnered over 12 awards and six Genie nominations. Following the success of Cube, Natali helmed the Miramax conspiracy thriller Cypher, starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. Nothing is his third feature film.
Nathaniel Geary graduated from Concordia University with a degree in film production in 1994. In 1995, he produced and directed The Community Responds, a documentary about the gentrification of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a socio-economically disadvantaged district. This experience nurtured his interest in the Downtown Eastside, and he started working at the Portland Hotel, a government-funded project to shelter and care for some of the district’s “hardest to house.” In 1998, Nathaniel directed keys to kingdoms, a short film he adapted from a poem by Downtown Eastside poet and activist Bud Osborn. keys to kingdoms went on to screen at over 25 film festivals around the world, including the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. On the Corner is his first feature film.
Upon graduating in 1984 from the University of Québec with a Bachelor in Graphic Design, Daniel Robichaud headed the graphic design department at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). During that time, he taught digital animation at the renowned National Animation and Design Centre in Montréal. After nine years at the CBC, Daniel took up a position as director of animation at The Film & Tape Works in Chicago, where he built an animation department, directed commercials and developed several independent animation projects. In 1994, Daniel started to work for Digital Domain as an animation supervisor. He contributed to such projects as Apollo 13, T2 - 3D, The Fifth Element, Titanic and The Scorpion King. He also created, wrote and directed the award-winning short animated film, Tightrope.
Léa Pool has directed eight feature films and several documentaries, all of which have won prizes from some of the world’s most prestigious festivals. Lost and Delirious (2001) was presented at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals. Her previous film, Set Me Free (1999), was awarded the Special Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. She wrote and directed Mouvements du désir (1993); La Demoiselle sauvage (1991); À corps perdu (1988), chosen for official competition at the Venice and Chicago film festivals; Anne Trister (1986), screened in official competition at the Berlin Film Festival; and La Femme de l’hôtel (1984), winner of the Best Canadian Feature Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
A graduate of the film programs at Concordia University and the University of Southern California, Daniel Roby began his career by working as director of photography on several shorts and as a cameraman on the feature Hochelaga (dir. Michel Jetté, 2000). In 1995, he launched the production company La Mafia, where he developed several short-film projects. Roby served as line producer on Robin Aubert’s Lila (winner of the prize for best medium-length fiction film from the Association des critiques de cinéma du Québec in 2001). In 2000, La Mafia became Zone Films. For Zone, Daniel Roby produced a series of four shorts, including Nos bras meurtris vous tendent le flambeau, the first Canadian fiction film to be shot entirely in high definition (24 P), which was screened in theatres in 35mm. In 2001, he worked as director of photography on Trick or Treat, and directed his first fiction short, Quelques instants dans la vie d'une fraise. White Skin is the first feature he has directed.
Born in Tunis, Michel Boujenah moved to France at the age of 11. After completing his studies, he decided to become an actor and launch his own theatre company. With six years of theatre activity under his belt, he wrote his first one-man comedy show. While pursuing a career as a comic Boujenah also began working in feature film. His film career took off in 1984 when he appeared in Coline Serreau’s Trois hommes et un couffin (Three Men and a Cradle), which garnered him a César award for best supporting actor. Since then, Michel Boujenah has worked as a writer and actor in theatre and film. With Père et fils, he can now add “film director” to his list of credits.
Claude Miller began his film career in 1965 by working as assistant director for such French New Wave directors as Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Bresson. Miller has always considered François Truffaut to be his mentor, however, and his work can be seen as a tribute to Truffaut’s. Indeed, after Truffaut’s death in 1984, Miller took over the film he had been working on, The Little Thief, which was released in 1989. With more than a dozen films to his credit, including L’Effrontée, The Accompanist and La Classe de neige, Claude Miller is one of the most honoured French directors on the international scene.
Gary Burns's first feature, The Suburbanators (1995), was deemed one of the top 10 Canadian films of 1996 by the Toronto Film Critics Association and was invited to the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Kitchen Party (1997) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was invited to numerous international festivals, including Turin, where it won a special mention FIPRESCI Award, and Atlanta, where it won Best Feature. In 2000, Burns's waydowntown captured numerous awards, including the CityTV Best Canadian Feature award at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Toronto Film Critic Association’s Best Canadian Feature award and the Vancouver Film Festival’s Most Popular Canadian Film and Best Screenplay awards. waydowntown was invited to the Sundance Festival in 2001, prior to the film’s U.S. release.
Toronto film/video artist John Greyson has made several award-winning shorts and features. These include: Urinal (1988 – Teddy Award for Best Feature at the Berlin Film Festival); The Making of Monsters (1991 – Best Canadian Short, Toronto International Film Festival, Teddy Award for Best Short Film, Berlin Film Festival); Zero Patience (1993 – Best Canadian Film, Sudbury Film Festival); Lilies (1996 – Genie Award, Best Film; best film awards at festivals in Montréal, Johannesburg, Los Angeles and San Francisco); Uncut (1997, Honourable Mention, Berlin Film Festival); and The Law of Enclosures (2000, Genie Award for Best Actor). He also received the Toronto Arts Award for Film/Video in 2000. In addition, John Greyson is co-editor of Queer Looks, a critical anthology of gay/lesbian media theory (Routledge, 1993), and the author of Urinal and Other Stories (Power Plant/Art Metropole, 1993).
A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Director's Lab program, writer/director/producer Kris Lefcoe has made a name for herself with a series of short films and music videos. These include Can I Get a Witness, which was screened at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival’s Perspective Canada program, and 1994’s Symptomology of a Rock Band, which featured the Canadian band Crash Test Dummies. Lefcoe’s screenwriting credits include an episode of the series Drop the Beat, broadcast on the CBC in 2000, and an episode of the series Straight Up, broadcast on the CBC in 1998. Public Domain is Kris Lefcoe’s first feature.
Vancouver-based writer/director Guy Bennett has several short films to his credit, including Beau, Dirty Work, Nathan (executive produced by the Canadian Film Centre) and Ocean Boy. Bennet is also executive director of the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters, as well as a film instructor at Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr College, Cineworks, and the Vancouver Film School. In addition, he is the best-selling author of Guy’s Guide to the Flipside, published by Arsenal Press, and a weekly columnist with the Westender, where he writes about politics, human interest, social issues, and sport. Punch is Guy Bennett’s first feature film.
Writer, director, producer Deepa Mehta released her debut film, Sam and Me, in 1991. The film went on to win honourable mention at the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or competition. Her second film, Camilla, starred Jessica Tandy and Bridget Fonda. The controversial and much-loved Fire, the first film in her India trilogy, earned her an enormous amount of critical acclaim. Her next film, Earth, the second in the trilogy, won numerous international awards and was India’s entry for the 1999 Academy Awards. In 2002, Mehta wrote and directed the box-office smash Bollywood/Hollywood. The final film in the India trilogy, Water, is slated for production in fall 2003.
Guy Maddin has carved an international reputation and earned high acclaim for his unique films. Maddin is a two-time winner of the U.S. National Society of Critics Award for Best Experimental Film, most recently for The Heart of the World in 2000. His most recent work, Dracula: Pages From a Virgin’s Diary, was awarded an International Emmy and the Golden Prague in 2002. In 1995, Maddin was the recipient of the Telluride Medal for Life Time Achievement at the Telluride Film Festival, the youngest person ever to have been awarded this honour. Maddin’s other feature works include: Cowards Bend the Knee (2003), Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997), and Careful (1995). Retrospectives of Maddin's work have been shown in Paris, Spain, Buenos Aires, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, and New York.
Through his production company Couzin Films, Ziad Touma produced, directed and co-wrote his feature film debut, Saved by the Belles, nominated for three 2004 Genie Awards. An award-winning director of short films (Line Up, Dinner at Bubby’s), his work has been featured in prestigious international film festivals. After covering pop culture around the world as videographer for music television station MusiquePlus and as columnist for different publications, Ziad Touma’s trans-disciplinary vision brought him to direct various television series, documentaries, music videos and theatre.
Before turning to filmmaking, Federico Hidalgo worked as a performer, writer and theatre director. He studied film production at Concordia University, in Montréal, where he wrote and directed three fiction films and won several awards and scholarships. His films Lotería (documentary, 1997) and Gesture (1999) were shot in Mexico City in collaboration with Toronto-based filmmaker Roberto Ariganello. A Silent Love is Federico Hidalgo's first feature.
Emerging as one of the stars of George Lucas’s American Graffiti, Charles Martin Smith has starred in such films as Starman, The Buddy Holly Story, Never Cry Wolf, and The Untouchables. After shifting between writing, directing, and acting, in 1996 Smith directed the premiere that launched the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. He followed that success with the 1997 feature Air Bud. Produced in Canada, Air Bud won the Golden Reel at the 1997 Genie Awards, and was a huge critical success. Smith continues writing, directing, and developing film projects.
Bernd Neuburger est membre de ExtraFilms depuis sa fondation en 1980 par une demi-douzaine de réalisateurs désireux de produire leurs propres films. Comme directeur photo, il a travaillé avec Lukas Stepanik, Werner Grusch, Magaretha Heinrich et Nadja Seelich. Comme réalisateur, on lui doit plusieurs documentaires dont The 8 day-Vienna Art Orchestra (1980), There is a House in Gumpendorf (1984) et, en collaboration avec Nadja Seelich, She Sat in a Glass house Throwing Stones (1992), Theresienstadt Looks like a SPA Resort (1997) et When Love Goes Down the Drain (1999). Bernd Neuburger a également réalisé plusieurs longs métrages pour enfants qui ont remporté de nombreux prix internationaux, dont Jonathana et la sorcière (1986), Vacances avec Sylvestre (1990) et Lisa et le Tigre aux dents de sabre (1995).
A graduate of the Concordia University film program in Montréal, Éric Tessier began making fiction films and documentaries in 1980. In 1998, he directed the well-received short film Viens dehors, which was screened at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in 1999 as well as more than 35 other festivals around the world. In 2000, he directed four instalments of the TV series Deux frères. In 2001, he directed a big-budget documentary on the Cirque du Soleil. During these years, Éric Tessier also shot numerous ads and music videos. In 2002, he directed two features, Vendus and Sur le seuil.
Born in 1968, Bertrand Bonello divides his time between Paris and Montréal. After completing studies in classical music, he worked on tours and albums with such well-known artists as Françoise Hardy and Carole Laure. He turned to film in 1993, making several documentaries and short films. In 1998, he directed his first feature, Quelque chose d’organique, which starred Romane Bohringer and Laurent Lucas. His second feature, Le Pornographe, was screened during the International Critics’ Week at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI prize, awarded by the international press.
This is the first film for 23-year-old Montréal writer/director Jacob Tierney, who has been working as an actor for more than 15 years. Tierney has starred in such films as Terence Davies’ The Neon Bible (Official Competition, Cannes Film Festival, 1997), Paul Quinn’s This Is My Father (Official Selection, Sundance, 1999; National Board of Review Award for Best First Film), and Jerry Ciccoritti’s The Life Before This (1999; Official Selection, Berlin Film Festival). His short film, Dad, has won prizes at both the Atlantic Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival and was selected for competition at the Pike Film Festival in Portugal and the Alaska Film Festival.
Ori Kowarsky is a Vancouver filmmaker, lawyer and writer. An alumnus of the University of British Columbia Department of Film, he spent a year on exchange at the University of California's Producer Program in Los Angeles. Ori stayed in L.A. for two more years and worked as a writer for Avenue Pictures and also did development work for James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, as well as for Red Wagon and Galaxy Pictures. His short film Riding the Bus has played in festivals in the United States and Canada. Ori Kowarsky is also an alumnus of the UBC School of Law and currently practices at the family firm, Kowarsky & Co. Various Positions is his debut as a feature-film director.