About

WIFT – Atlantic (Women in Film and Television – Atlantic)

FCTA (Les Femmes du Cinéma et de la Télévision en Atlantique)

Founders of the WIFT – Atlantic chapter have worked steadily since August 2008 to open an Atlantic Canadian chapter of the international group, Women in Film and Television.

“There is such vibrant talent among the women in Atlantic Canada – it makes complete sense to bring everyone together in one organization committed to ensuring that the talents and voices of these women are nurtured and celebrated. We’re so ready,” says founding Chair, Jan Miller.

WIFT is an international organization that was created in 1973 to give women who were struggling to have a voice in Television and in Film a network and support system.

There are now currently 35 chapters worldwide. WIFT continues to grow with a mandate to be a global network dedicated to advancement for women in professional development and achievement in film, video, and other screen-based media.

2011/2012 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ANN BERNIER, Nova Scotia

SARAH BYRNE, Nova Scotia

LARA CASSIDY, Nova Scotia

IRENE DUMA, Newfoundland and Labrador

PAM GALLANT, New Brunswick

JILL KNOX-GOSSE, Newfoundland and Labrador

ANDREA LEVESQUE, Nova Scotia

RUTH LAWRENCE, Newfoundland and Labrador

JESSICA MARSH, Nova Scotia

CHRISTINE MCLEAN, New Brunswick

JAN MILLER, Chair, Nova Scotia

SUSAN RODGERS, Prince Edward Island

BRITTANY SPARROW, New Brunswick

CHERYL WAGNER, Prince Edward Island

KAREN WENTZELL, Nova Scotia

VICTORIA MAINPRIZE, Nova Scotia (Legal Advisor)

ANNETT WOLF, Nova Scotia (Special Advisor, Founding Board Member WIFTI)

 

BIOS

ANN BERNIER, Director/Vice-Chair

Ann Bernier is an independent producer in Halifax for over 10 years and has been working in the film and television business since 1988 when she began working at Telefilm Canada’s Atlantic office. For 12 years, she spent much time nurturing new upcoming filmmakers and producers, overseeing much of the television and feature film development projects and later the new media fund. Ann was instrumental in establishing a new program for emerging filmmakers. One of the first projects to come out of the program was the critically acclaimed Parsley Days by Andrea Dorfman.

Ann left the public sector and joined the Atlantic Film Festival in 2000 and 2001 to produce the international co-production conference Strategic Partners (Canada and the UK in 2000 and Canada, Spain and Latin America in 2001).

For the past 10 years, Ann was the Director of Operations and Development at imX Communications, Inc. where she produced the feature film The Wild Dogs, written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald, Folle Embellie, a Canada/France coproduction and the documentary film Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey by Connie Littlefield which was invited numerous festivals including the United Nations Association Film Festival and the Festival du Nouveau Cinema a Montreal. She is currently developing a number of projects written by women.

 

SARAH BYRNE, Director

Sarah Byrne is a young TV editor best known for her work on the award-winning show Trailer Park Boys. Sarah studied printmaking at Concordia University and film at Thunder Bay’s Confederation College, from which she graduated with honours. After finishing her studies, Sarah moved to the East coast and edited a range of projects from industrial videos to dramatic television before moving into the world of documentaries. She is currently editing Cubers, a one-hour documentary for CBC, as well as concentrating on bringing her own ideas to the screen.

 

LARA CASSIDY, Director

Lara Cassidy is considered one of the local pioneers whose dedication to the industry laid the groundwork for production in Nova Scotia, helping it to grow into the viable industry that it is today.  In 1991 she created The Cassidy Group Talent Agency, which soon became Atlantic Canada’s leading talent agency. Under Lara’s tutelage, performers found themselves cast in television commercials, print campaigns, television series and even roles for many large feature films such as The Scarlet Letter, Two If by Sea, Dolores Claiborne, Titanic, The Shipping News and K19: The Widowmaker.

In 1996, one of Lara’s producer clients requested that she direct a cast-heavy music video for Bravo! Television. The video quickly soared to number one on the charts and Cassidy’s directing career was born. She moonlighted heavily as a music video director until 2002, when she left The Cassidy Group to expand her skills and commit to a full time career as a filmmaker. Since then she has produced, directed, edited and / or written projects in almost every format and genre. Many of the projects created by Lara have been recognized for awards regionally, nationally and internationally.

To date, Lara is most famous for her creation of the Dave Carroll consumer protest video series “United Breaks Guitars” – 3 videos that created a world-wide media frenzy as YouTube hits, but she is hoping that her latest film “Fridge Magnet Poetry” produced by Shauna Hatt, will be the next project worthy of the worlds attention!

 

IRENE DUMA, Director

Irene Duma has written and produced three short films based on books for BookShorts Inc, and produces and edits their video blog series. Irene is also the creator and director of several original series for the web, including cult fave “Madame Borshka’s European Beauty Secrets” for the multi-award winning site parody site “Happy Woman Magazine’. She has also written and directed the cross-media series “World Radio Webisope,” which was unveiled at E3 in Los Angeles, and the short animated film “One day.” Her short story “How Prozac Saved my Marriage” has been published in two How-to-write US college text books.

Active in the New Media and screen-based industries, Irene has taught New Media Design and online writing through The Design Exchanges’s re:design program and at Centennial College in Toronto. She is also a member of the Interactive Ontario, the Association of Internet Marketers and is a Silver Sponsor of WIFT – Women in Film and Television Toronto.

Irene was recently awarded the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s bursary to attend the Banff Arts Centre’s Interactive Screen 0.3 program, and re-invited to attend the BNMI 10 year anniversary. Other OMDC awards include market mentorship bursaries to New York and to attend E3: The Electronic Entertainment Exposition in LA.

Irene founded Strange Duck Media, a TV and digital media production company, in 2001. She is currently writing and developing wireless games and properties, documentary series and features, as well as a comedy feature and a cross-platform comedy serial. Irene continues to act for film and TV, and has recently completed a principal role in a feature for Guerrilla films, and can be seen performing comedy in and around Toronto, and with her improv troupe, The Patio Set.

 

PAM GALLANT, Director

This Prince Edward Island native has been working in the film and television industry for more than 25 years. Pam studied film at the CEGEP de St-Jérôme and at York University. She has directed and edited numerous documentary series episodes as well as short films of fiction. In 2007, her half-hour fiction, La voisine, won Best Atlantic Short at the Atlantic Film Festival. Pamela is currently directing the French-language documentary series “Petites vues de chez nous” out of Moncton, New Brunswick.

 

JILL KNOX-GOSSE, Director/Treasurer

Jill Knox-Gosse operates her own production company, Odd Sock Films Inc. and owns Opportunity Knox Inc. Her First feature film “GROWN UP MOVIE STAR” with Paul Pope (Pope Productions) was an Official Selection at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a special Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance for Tatiana Maslany.  Jill has been working in the Film Industry since 2000.

In 2007, Knox-Gosse directed her first film through the NIFCO First Time Filmmakers Program, along with the support of the NFB.  “The Great Sock Escape” is a live action/animated short film and is currently in post production.  Also in 2007, Knox-Gosse produced her first short film “Furs” with award winning director Sabah Hadi.  In 2009, along with Grown Up Movie Star, Jill also produced a short through the NIFCO Picture Start Program, “MUM’s the Word”.

Jill is a member of the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Cooperative (NIFCO), a Board Member of Producer’s Association of Newfoundland (PAN), a Board Member of Women in Film and Television-Atlantic Region (WIFT-AT) and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA).

 

RUTH LAWRENCE, Director

Ruth Lawrence is an actor/writer/director native of St. Jacques, Fortune Bay who has worked on over 100 original theatre, film and television productions.  Her short film & video projects as writer and director (Bark, Less Than Zero and Jelly Beans) have screened at festivals across Canada.   Sweet Pickle, a short she wrote and performed in, has screened across North America, was chosen for NSI’s Online Film Festival, and won two honourable mentions at the Baltimore Women’s Film Festival.  She is the past Executive Director of the Nickel Film Festival and Artistic Associate at RCA Theatre.  As co-Artistic Director of White Rooster Theatre, she is currently producing and performing in the critically acclaimed show, MonaRita, named by NOW Magazine as Outstanding Ensemble in Toronto Fringe July 2011.  Ruth is a past recipient of the NLAC’s Rhonda Payne Award.  She is the 2011 winner of the Michelle Jackson Award from the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival for her upcoming short film, Two Square Feet.

 

ANDREA LEVESQUE, Director

Andrea Levesque is currently the Operations Coordinator at the Directors Guild of Canada, Atlantic Regional Council. Previous industry experience includes: Researcher and associate producer with the CBC TV/Web series “ZeD”, field producer, AD and production coordinator for various lifestyle series, and segment producer for a Vancouver area entertainment talk show. She also recently participated in the creation of her first Super 8 film (through AFCOOP). Andrea has a BA in Communications (with distinction) from Royal Roads University, and a Diploma of Technology in Television Production (with honours) from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.  Andrea is very excited to be involved with WIFT-AT, and with the Atlantic Film and Television community.

 

CHRISTINE MCLEAN, Director

Christine McLean is an award-winning documentary maker, broadcaster and educator based in Fredericton. Presently teaching television at the Kings journalism school in Halifax, she has also taught broadcasting and documentary making at St. Thomas University in Fredericton and at the New Brunswick Film Co-op.  Before gaining her Masters from the graduate school of Journalism at Columbia University in New York, Christine was also an expert panellist on the CBC series, Short Film Face-Off.  She was written and directed documentaries for CBC’s Opening Night as well as Discovery Canada series Stones of Fate and Fortune and Frontiers of Construction.  Christine has hosted a number of CBC radio shows including Information Morning from Fredericton this summer.  She is about to launch a new column on contemporary language on CBC’s Shift this fall.

 

JESSICA MARSH, Director

Jessica Marsh wrote the feature film script House of Matches that was a finalist twice in the Atlantic Film Festival’s Script Development Program. She also wrote and directed a one man play, Maelstrom which was staged at the Atlantic Fringe Festival and Festival Antigonish. In Boston, Massachusetts, she directed Eleemosynary, Impassioned Embraces and This Is It with My House Theatre Company, and adapted and directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for New Theatre of Boston. Her short film script ‘Wake’ is being filmed at the end of October by Off the Leash, directed by Jeremy Webb. She lives in Halifax and works as a massage therapist. Jessica is WIFT- AT’s new Membership Coordinator.

 

JAN MILLER, Director/Co-Chair

Jan was instrumental in starting and running the Local Heroes International Screen Festival and the National Screen Institute, and its Features First and Drama Prize programs. She also designed and presented Telefilm Canada’s first SPARK PLUG training program for diverse television producers. Her world renowned pitching workshops are in demand across Canada, the Berlin Talent Campus, Cannes, China, South Africa, Cuba and Guadalajara. 12 years ago Jan presented the first Strategic Partners and continues to direct this globally popular coproduction market, including introducing a new international co-production training program in partnership with the Eric Pommer Institut, Trans Atlantic Partners. Jan has also been the recipient of several awards including the Women of Vision Award and WIFT-T’s Crystal Award for her commitment to training and development.

 

SUSAN RODGERS, Director

Susan Rodgers is a 2008 Honours Graduate of Vancouver Film School. Recent projects include the  web series, A Time To Drum; period short film Dreamers (CBC Download); award-winning WW II film Bobby’s Peace, (CBC, Bravo); short comedy The New Neighbours (vimeo.com) ; and extended music video for the haunting song Silence, Bloodhound (soon to be released).  Susan was a Finalist in the 2011 Atlantic Writing Awards for her first novel, A Certain Kind of Freedom. She has also written a number of feature scripts, and has been a participant twice in the PEI Screenwriters’ Bootcamp. Her latest writing project is Drummerboyz, a Feature Screenplay. She plans to produce her first Feature length drama within the next few years. Susan is a camera operator, producer, director, writer and editor who loves to shoot her own projects as well as hire out on various camera teams.

 

BRITANY SPARROW, Director

Britany Sparrow was born and raised in Vernon, British Columbia. After high school, she moved to New Brunswick on a whim and completed her Bachelor’s degree in English, focusing on creative writing. It was here that she began studying film, and soon after she graduated from university she joined the New Brunswick Filmmaker’s Co-operative as a volunteer. After working on a low-budget feature and several shorts, and after much persuading, she directed her first short film. After that, she was hooked. Although she continues to work on other projects, mostly as script supervisor, production manager, and first assistant director, she loves nothing more than telling her stories through film. In 2008 she received New Brunswick Film’s Short Film Venture Grant for her second film, The Morning After, which enjoyed some success on the festival circuit.

 

CHERYL WAGNER, Director

Writer and producer Cheryl Wagner, the creator and show-runner of the Emmy and Gemini award-winning preschool series The Big Comfy Couch, began her career in children’s entertainment on PEI as a puppeteer back in the ’70’s.  She moved on to work in film and television as a puppeteer for all 5 seasons on Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock and on CBC’s Mr Dressup performing as the chatterbox blondie Annie. Cheryl also performed as the interfering Miss Finch in the CTW feature film Follow That Bird. 

After 100 episodes of The Big Comfy Couch, Cheryl continued to create other award-winning preschool series POKO and BO on the GO with Halifax Film and since moving back to Charlottetown, her company Periscope Pictures produced the preschool web series Bunny Bop!  launched in February 2011. Cheryl was very honoured to be a recipient of a 2010 WAVE Award from WIFT-Atlantic.

 

KAREN WENTZELL, Director

Karen Wentzell is best known for her work as Producer of the successful hit television series Trailer Park Boys. Trailer Park Boys won the 2004 Gemini Award for Best Comedy Series and is widely considered a show that changed the landscape of Canadian television.

Wentzell joined Trailer Park Boys in Season 2 and guided it through every special, season series, and feature since. She served as Line Producer on the second Trailer Park Boys feature film, which was successfully released in September 2009. The first feature, Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, released in October 2006 to critical acclaim and Canadian box office records, was labeled, by Globe and Mail columnist John Doyle, “vitally important as a cultural event”.

Karen also produced the 2007 Trailer Park Boys Showcase special “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys”. Additionally, she produced and co-wrote the Showcase documentary Hearts of Dartmouth, a behind the scenes look at Trailer Park Boys.

She is actively developing several features and television series, including a new comedy (with no swearing!).  She is a busy volunteer in the Halifax community and is delighted to be part of an important organization like WIFT-AT. She commits to projects she feels passionate about.

 

ANNETT WOLF, Special Advisor

Born in Denmark, Annett Wolf is a critically acclaimed producer, director, writer, interviewer, and environmental advocate with international accomplishments in North American and European television, film and theatre. Her earlier track record includes her award-winning documentaries and in-depth profiles of icons such as Elvis Presley, Jack Lemmon, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman and Peter Sellers. She shaped the “making of” documentary film genre, featured in many movies such as “48 Hrs,” “Jaws 2, and “Star Trek: The Movie.” One of her greatest achievements was “Peace in the Crossfire.” This musical drama, featuring 23 members of the feared Bloods gang, helped broker an unprecedented truce in Los Angeles’s violent gang wars which in 1988 had claimed 10.000 young lives. “Peace in the Crossfire” was credited by the Los Angeles Times as being the first serious effort by the LA Gangs to stop the needless bloodshed between the Bloods and the Crips.

One of the original founders of Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI), Annett was WIFTI’s first President and, later, Vice-President of WIFT Los Angeles.  Annett pioneered women in film and television with her production company under contract with Universal Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, MGM and Warner Brothers. Annett continues to believe in the importance of promoting and supporting young talent so they may gain a well-deserved opportunity to shape tomorrow’s world of film and television.

Known for her strong environmental commitment, Annett founded the Wolf Foundation, a non-profit organization providing support to help maintain the natural balance of the wolf population in North America’s Arctic and subarctic territories. In 2004 and 2006, Annett spent several months in the Northwest Territories, chronicling the status of the wolf. This initiative resulted in a comprehensive report on “The Future of the Tundra Wolves of the Thelon Basin.” In 2007 Annett was chosen as one of fifty national and international personalities profiled in the Canada Goose Corporation’s anniversary book Goose People celebrating 50 years of its Arctic program.

Since coming to Cape Breton, she has presented lectures and workshops on the evolution and state of western media and has appeared as a keynote speaker at a number of events, sharing her concern for the future of not only the Arctic wolf but the entire North Canadian landscape.

Annett firmly believes in promoting and supporting young talent in the Atlantic region so they may gain a well-deserved opportunity to shape tomorrow’s world of film and television.

 

VICTORIA MAINPRIZE, Legal Advisor

Victoria is a Halifax-based lawyer who has been involved with the film and television industry for over a decade in a variety of roles. Although she now practices primarily corporate and commercial law, she practiced entertainment law and intellectual property law for several years and brings to WIFT-AT a love of the industry combined with experience working in film production, business affairs, entertainment law, intellectual property law, and corporate/societies law and governance.