Five BC-based filmmakers selected for WIDC career advancement during Vancouver International Women In Film Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – On March 7, 2016 five BC-based female filmmakers will have a jump start to the 11th annual Vancouver International Women In Film Festival (March 8 to 13, 2016) as they begin the Women In the Director’s Chair Career Advancement Module (WIDC CAM) at the Sandman Hotel and Suites on Davie. These directors are offered the rare opportunity to focus in on their career plans with mentorship support from Canada’s acclaimed WIDC program. Director participants selected for this session of the CAM include, Kate Green, Julia Hutchings, Fumiko Kiyooka, Sara McIntyre, and Adelina Suvagau. See Directors’ Bios below.

“The CAM usually begins the day before each host festival to offer strategic orientation to participants,” says WIDC producer Carol Whiteman. ” The value of face time with potential funders and collaborators in a festival setting cannot be under-estimated. There is not a moment to waste!”

As part of a community collaboration with Women In Film and Television Vancouver, WIDC participants also receive passes to attend the Vancouver International Women In Film Festival. In return festival industry forum attendees have the opportunity to book face time for pitches with CAM mentors Marina Cordoni (MCE) and Carol Whiteman (WIDC Feature Film Award). In addition to master class sessions with Whiteman and Cordoni covering topics from market-place analysis and brand identification, to career planning strategies, CAM participants will meet with Telefilm Canada’s John Dippong to discuss the industry landscape and navigating funding at Telefilm. The CAM schedule dove-tails with the festival so that participants also have the option to attend festival industry sessions. Following the festival, CAM participants receive three months follow up coaching towards the career plans they developed during the program.

Previous CAM participants have included Siobhan Devine (The Birdwatcher), Melanie M. Jones (FSM) Karen Lam (Chiral) and Brianne Nord-Stewart (Beat Around the Bush) whose films screen at this year’s festival. Tickets are available online at VIFF.org.

The next WIDC Career Advancement Module will take place in collaboration with the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto, June 13 to 19, 2016. Next Application Deadline: April 15, 2016.

Telefilm Canada has been a major sponsor of the WIDC program since 1997.

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WIDC CAM 2016 – Vancouver Director Participants
(in alphabetical order by last name)

KATE GREEN – Vancouver based Kate Green has a passion for producing and directing fiction, non-fiction and high action reality. From directing to producing, Kate has worked on numerous television programs including W Network’s Shannon & Sophie, CBC’s Keeping Canada Alive, W Network’s Game of Homes, CBC’s Still Standing, HGTV’s Urban Suburban, and Strangers in Danger for Fuel TV, a subsidiary of FOX TV in the USA. In 2012, Kate produced a short drama thriller Shadowplay, which received a nomination for Best Short Drama at the 2013 Yorkton Film Festival and Leo Awards. Kate’s most recent film, a short documentary called, Not A Stranger, is making the festival rounds to great success and recently won Audience Choice Award at the Vancouver Short Film Festival. Today, Kate’s independent production company KGP Films produces provocative and innovative factual and dramatic television series, documentaries, and feature films.
WEB SITE: www.kgpfilms.com TWITTER: @KGPFilms

JULIA HUTCHINGS – is a filmmaker based in Vancouver, Canada. Her work explores themes of identity, subjective vs. objective narrative, and experiments with the collaborative relationship between story and audience. Julia studied Film Production at Simon Fraser School for the Contemporary Arts and obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours in 2010. Originally working in experimental cinema, Julia’s directorial ambitions transitioned to narrative fiction with her graduate film Irradiate (2010), which garnered her awards as a director, writer, and sound designer. Julia currently works as a producer, writer, director, assistant director, and editor. Her selected professional credits include working as an associate producer for The Amazing Race Canada: Season 1 & 2; creating interactive video installation works for the Fernie Museum; directing educational content for Alberta Health Services and Gaia Collaborative Medicine; as well as collaborating on numerous award winning independent film productions across Canada and the Pacific North West. Julia sat on the ShortWork Competition jury for the 2011 Whistler Film Festival and has contributed to the selection committees for the Banff Mountain Film Festival, Reel Canadian Film Festival, and the Fernie Mountain Film Festival. Julia’s most recent film, Here Nor There (2016), was one of nine films selected for the Telefilm Canada Not Short on Talent: Clermont-Ferrand 2016 and is currently in consideration at film festivals around the world.
WEB SITE: www.julia-hutchings.com

FUMIKO KIYOOKA – did her undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University where her film Clouds made in collaboration with Scott Haynes won an award at Festival des Film du Monde and Chicago Intl. Film Festival. Later she went on to do her MFA at the University of British Columbia where her short film Creation also won awards. Fumiko’s films have been in many festivals and have struck audiences with their tendency to question beliefs and poetically redefine ways of seeing the world. Her latest film, a documentary about her father, a Japanese Canadian artist and poet, called REED: The Life and Works of Roy Kiyooka has the opportunity to be screened recently at Harlem Intl. Film Festival and LA Femme in the USA. It was interesting how the film connected with different people and the perspectives this brought to the film and to audiences. Additional dramatic films are feature Says, and Oh Baby! Fumiko’s films are intense and personal. They deal with art, culture, history and social issues.
LINK TO PREVIOUS WORK: Turn Me Loose, BravoFACT!

SARA MCINTYRE – Canadian director, writer, story editor, Sara McIntyre is a graduate of the Women In the Director’s Chair program in Banff, Praxis Story Editor Internship, and an instructor of acting techniques and story structure at Seacoast Studios in West Vancouver. In 2010, she directed the award-winning feature film Two Indians Talking. She is currently developing the short story, “Six Degrees of Altered Sensation” by BC author Kim Clark into a feature film script called The Last Six and into a stage play called “Chicken in Mourning”. In 2015 Sara returned to her theatre roots to direct a successful debut of Ramon Esquivel’s short play “Aroura” for the UBC Brave New Play Rites Festival in Vancouver. Sara’s creative career has included producing the Alibi Unplugged Script Reading Series; serving as president of Women In Film and Television Vancouver; casting award-winning films and a television series; coaching creative professionals; new media journalism; and producing short films and independent media projects. Her directing career began with the award-winning comedic short film My Father’s an Actor (2004) produced through the Director’s Guild of Canada program, Crazy 8’s. In 2015, she embarked on a Graduate Liberal Arts degree program through SFU that is taking her deeper into history of stories and mythology.
WEB SITE: www.kissdustpictures.com/ TWITTER: @smcintyre

ADELINA SUVAGAU – is an award-winning documentary and TV Producer and Director with more than 25 years experience in television and documentary production. In 1995 Adelina moved to Vancouver from Romania, with her husband and daughter Sonia, and founded Sonia Productions Inc in 1998. Adelina Suvagau produced since 2004 over 574-television episodes for Channel M and Omni Television, cable 8, four feature documentaries and two television series. Adelina received in 2012 for “Return to Byzantium-The Art and Life of Lilian Broca” documentary the award for Best Documentary at San Pedro International Film Festival, Los Angeles, California. The documentary was acquired by CBC and was broadcasted across Canada. Between 2008-2015, Adelina acted as a Director in the Board of Directors of Documentary Organization of Canada, BC chapter and organized the monthly workshops for the industry. Recently, she was appointed the President of Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society.
WEB SITE: www.soniaproductions.com TWITTER: @RompostTV

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BACKGROUNDER

About WIDC

Founded in 1997 by an initial collaboration among ACTRA, The Banff Centre and Women In Film & Television Vancouver, the Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) program is an internationally respected Canadian professional development offering, specially designed to advance the skills, careers and screen projects of women directors. In 1998, the national non-profit Creative Women Workshops Association was formed to oversee WIDC operations the design and delivery of hands-on workshops, mentorships, fiction project development, feature film production awards, and ongoing outreach initiatives with and for the screen community and alumnae. With over 200 director alumnae all across Canada, WIDC is presented with major support from Telefilm Canada, Harold Greenberg Fund, William F. White Intl., and appreciates the participation of the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada, SIM Digital, Tattersall Sound & Picture, Panavision Canada, Clairmont Camera Film and Digital, Deluxe Entertainment Group / Encore, North Shore Studios, The Bridge Studios, Vancouver Film Studios, Front Row Insurance, The Research House, TELUS Optik Local, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society, UBCP/ACTRA, ACTRA Alberta, IATSE 669, Creative BC, BC Arts Council, WIFT Vancouver, Vancouver International Women In Film Festival, Female Eye Film Festival, St John’s International Women’s Film Festival and Whistler Film Festival.