Bios

Yung Chang, Writer, Director

Yung Chang, made his feature documentary, Up the Yangtze in 2007. The film used China’s highly contested Three Gorges Dam as a dramatic backdrop for a moving and richly detailed narrative of a peasant family negotiating unprecedented historic changes. Up The Yangtze played at numerous festivals and was one of the top-grossing documentary box office releases in 2008. China Heavyweight is Chang’s sophomore film. It had its World Premiere at Sundance 2012 and traveled the festival circuit extensively. The filmplayed in Canadian cinemas and opened in NYC.  He is  currently writing Eggplant, his first feature film, about a Chinese wedding photographer.

Daniel Cross, Executive Producer

Daniel is co-founder of EyeSteelFilm in Montreal, named by RealScreen Magazine as one of the top 100 non-fiction production companies in the world. He is also an Assistant Professor at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University. He is a multi-disciplined, award-winning documentary filmmaker whose projects are reflective of his artistic philosophy that film is a medium for affecting social and political change. Daniel has directed and produced the Gemini nominated Too Colourful for the League, Chairman George (CTV, BBC Storyville and TV2 Denmark) and Inuuvunga: I am Inuk I am Alive, and was Executive Producer of the internationally acclaimed Up the Yangtze, and producer on the Genie award winning film Last Train Home.

Bob Moore, Producer

Bob joined EyeSteelFilm in 2008 fresh out of law school to work on fair dealing arguments for Rip: A Remix Manifesto, a film about copyright law and mash-up music culture and has since produced feature docs such as Last Train Home, Taqwacore: the Birth of Punk Islam, Inside Lara Roxx, Fortunate Son, China Heavyweight and most recently, The Fruit Hunters.

Mila Aung-Thwin, Producer, Co-Writer and Co-Editor

Mila is co-founder of EyeSteelFilm. Aung-Thwin has produced the feature documentaries Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam, Rip: A Remix Manifesto (IDFA audience Choice Award Winner), Up the Yangtze (Genie award winner) and Last Train Home (winner of  EMMY awards). He has also directed several films, including Music For a Blue Train, Bone, as well co-directed (with Daniel Cross) Too Colourful for the League, Chairman George and Atanasoff. He currently serves as the president of board of directors of the Rencontres International du Documentaire (RIDM), Montreal’s international documentary festival.

Kat Baulu, Producer

Kat Baulu produces documentary, interactive media, 3D stereoscopic film and animation at the National Film Board of Canada. Her inspiration comes from raising underrepresented voices and communicating authentic stories with evidenced social impact. She is currently pursuing Interactive Media Studies at L’Institut national de l’image et du son. Her last co-production with EyeSteelFilm was the IDFA audience Choice Award Winner Rip: A Remix Manifesto. Kat’s favourite fruit is the banana – which is not surprising since she grew up on a monkey farm in Barbados.

Ravida Din, Executive producer

Ravida Din is the Executive Producer of the NFB’s Quebec and Atlantic Production Centres.  Her mandate is to envision and manage a varied program of theatrical and television documentaries, community-based media, interactive digital projects and alternative drama. Her uncompromising commitment to social justice and feminism is integral to her work and a strong guiding principle in her efforts to produce social documentary films that offer insightful, engaging analyses

Din’s latest credits include the theatrical documentary Payback, based on the book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood and directed by Jennifer Baichwal; the theatrical documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc. directed by Léa Pool as well as the upcoming film Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada, written and directed by Karen Cho.

In 2010, Din was chosen by Playback magazine as one of their “10 to Watch,” recognizing the best and brightest up-and-coming talent in Canadian film, TV and interactive media.

Adam Leith Gollner, Associate Producer

Adam Leith Gollner’s first book was The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession. He is the former editor of Vice Magazine, and has written for The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, the Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and Lucky Peach. His second book of non-fiction, The Book of Immortality, will be published in 2013.

Robin Smith, Executive Producer

Robin Smith has founded KINOSMITH INC. in 2007, it provides full distribution for independent projects made for theatrical, home video, broadcast and new media exhibition in Canada. Beyond from offering traditional distribution services, KinoSmith also provides an alternative option for filmmakers via service contracts. These services include (but are not limited to) navigating the film’s release, preparation and execution of detailed marketing plans, revenue projections, media buys, design and creation of marketing materials, targeted domestic promotions and publicity.

Mark Ó Fearghail, Director of Photography

Mark is a director and cinematographer who helped create The Take directed by Avi Lewis and written by Naomi Klein (AFI Best Feature Documentary), Big Sugar (Prix Gemeaux & Golden Sheaf Award for best documentary – going undercover to shoot Haitian plantation workers suffering under conditions of slavery), Empz 4 Life (Allan King’s final film on Black youth in a high-risk community – nominated for both Best Cinematography and the Donald Brittain Award – Gemini Awards of 2007), A Promise To The Dead (Peter Raymont’s film, winner of the Gemini/Donald Brittain award for Best Documentary and shortlisted for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary). Mark was associate director and cinematographer on RIP: A Remix Manifesto – winner of 2008’s Volkskrant Audience Award at IDFA and was the first open source documentary produced for theatrical release by the National Film Board of Canada, the Doc Channel and EYESTEELFILM. When not dreaming of durians, Mark can be found most recently on The Message: another Klein/Lewis project, produced by Louverture Films.

Mark Slutsky, Screenwriter

Mark Slutsky is a filmmaker and journalist based in Montreal. He co-wrote and co-produced the comedy feature Peepers (2010), and wrote and directed the short Sorry, Rabbi, which premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, as well as the short The Decelerators, which is currently playing the festival circuit. His writing on food and film has appeared in Bon Appetit, EnRoute and GOOD.

Hannele Halm, Editor

Hannele Halm has edited some 50 documentaries, among them Paul Cowan’s Westray and Peacekeepers, Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal’s Discordia and Bombay Calling and Yung Chang’s Up The Yangtze and China Heavyweight.

Omar Majeed, Co-Editor

Omar Majeed is a filmmaker, a Gemini-Award winning editor, a motion graphics artist and celebrated raconteur par excellence. He is also a devoted husband, friend, armchair-therapist, bookbinder, soda-pop mixer, punk provocateur, sensitive poet, insufferable gadfly, cinephile snob, and can play three-chord rock very well on his accoustic guitar. Omar also excels in writing about himself in the third person. His latest film, produced by EyeSteelFilm is TaQWACORE : The Birth Of Punk Islam. Omar really wants you to see it.

Kyle Stanfield, Sound Design

Kyle Stanfield dove into sound recording and design while studying filmmaking at Concordia University in Montreal, and has since crafted sonic environments for many award-winning films including Up the Yangtze, RIP: A Remix Manifesto, and more recently China Heavyweight and The Fruit Hunters.

Susannah Heath-Eves, Line Producer

Susannah Heath-Eves is a filmmaker and fruit lover. She grew up in Calgary, Alberta, where she chomped on crabapples in her backyard and snacked on wild raspberries in the Rockies.

Ashley Duong, Production Coordinator

Ashley Duong is a filmmaker with a deep affection for fruit. She researched banana production in Panama, fetched jack fruits at grandparent’s rural orchard in Vietnam, and she makes pies with the ground cherries that grow in her Montreal backyard. Some of her non-fruit related but equally important work has taken her to Banff where she filmed, directed, and edited several short films and multimedia projects for Parks Canada, as well as the Huntsman Institute at the Bay of Fundy, and the Smithsonian Institute in Panama. Recently, Ashley went to Igloolik, in the northern Baffin Island region, to script supervise on the feature fiction, Uvanga (forthcoming 2013). She is currently developing a film about the soundscape in the West Sahara. Ashley studied environment and culture/film studies at McGill University.

Tod Van Dyk, Sound Recordist

Tod’s involvement with the local film and music community since graduating from Concordia’s film program has been constant.  New rare fruit addiction accomplished thanks to EyeSteel with whom he was so happy to work.   He continues to pursue music (has played with Montreal groups – Snailhouse, the Shamefuls, Orillia Opry), is now collaborating with local music groups for new film projects, and  is helping to produce a television comedic series.

Olivier Alary, Composer

A native of Toulouse, France, Olivier Alary is a Montreal-based musician and composer. After a degree in architecture, Alary moved to London to study composition. Olivier has released several albums and collaborated with numerous artists including Bjork, Catpower and Lou Barlow amongst others. Since 2007, he has also provided soundtrack for several feature-length films and documentaries, some of which have received prestigious awards and screenings worldwide (Up the Yangtze, Last train home, Jo for Jonathan). Olivier has also composed music for several exhibitions at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. He has also collaborated with several visual artists including Doug Aitken and Nick Knight.

Johannes Malfatti, Additional Composer

Johannes Malfatti is a Berlin-based composer and sound designer. He has studied at the Film- and Television school Konrad Wolf in Potsdam, Babelsberg. His work includes composing for film, dance and pop music as well as sound design.  His musical style ranges from experimental electronic music to orchestral arrangments. Films and albums he has worked on have won international awards and nominations at festivals such as Sundance Film Festival, Prix Ars Electronica or the german Grimme Award.

Brandon Blommaert, Animation and Visual Effects

Brandon was born in Edmonton Alberta and currently resides in Montreal Quebec. He graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2005, where he studied in the print media program. While in college he discovered animation through the Quickdraw Animation Society. He quickly became obsessed with this tedious art form and has been involved in the creation of short animation ever since. His enthusiasm for animation inspired him to create a festival devoted to the screening of short independent animation by artists from around the world. The festival, Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival will be going into it’s eight year and is now the biggest animation festival in western Canada. In 2008 Brandon took part in the National Film Board of Canada’s Hothouse program for young animators. During this time he created the short film Batmilk. Batmilk and his other films, have been exhibited throughout the world. In 2009 Brandon completed his first public art project for the Edmonton Arts Council. His latest film, Black Moon: One Thousand Beams Of Radial Light For Strata Advancement, premiered in October 2010 at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. He is also excited about making abstract animated gifs, music, drawing, etc…

Fred Casia, Animation and Visual Effects

Fred Casia is a graphic designer, animator and visual artist from Montréal. He was founding member of The Parnell Fine Art Collective, an active member of The YPF (Young Peoples Foundation), as well as a participating member of En Masse, through which he has exhibited artwork for several years, including outdoor art installations for the Osheaga music and arts Festival, and the Musée des beaux arts de Montreal. He has worked on documentary and  animated productions  with the NFB including the Oscar nominated animated film Wild Life, as well as his own stereoscopic 3D animated short film Marvin Parson’s Inner Wild Wilderness which was part of the 6th edition of Hothouse.