Daniel Cross
Daniel Cross is a multi-disciplined award winning documentary filmmaker who has made his mark with films concerning the issues of homelessness in Canada. His feature length films, THE STREET: a film with the homeless and S.P.I.T: Squegee Punks In Traffic received theatrical distribution and critical acclaim. Along with the groundbreaking website HomelessNation.Org, these projects are reflective of his artistic philosophy that film is a medium for affecting social and political change. Daniel also has experience in TV broadcast, having directed and produced the Gemini nominated Too Colourful for the League and Chairman George (CTV, BBC Storyville and TV2 Denmark). He was the Executive Producer of the internationally acclaimed Up the Yangtze, about a pleasure cruise through the devastation of the world's largest hydro-electric dam. In addition to making films, Daniel is active in the film community, having won a TRAILBLAZER award at MIPDOC in France, MENTOR OF THE YEAR from the CFTPA and serving as board member of HOT DOCS and the Documentary Organization of Canada. He also teaches film production at Concordia University.
Mila Aung-Thwin
Mila Aung‐Thwin is Vice President and co-founder of EyeSteelFilm. After completing his studies at McGill University in 1998, he began working with maverick filmmaker Daniel Cross on the feature documentary S.P.I.T: Squeegee Punks in Traffic, learning the ins and outs of documentary filmmaking on the streets of Montreal with a squeegee punk named Roach. In order to take advantage of Canadian tax incentives, they founded a production company and called it "EyeSteelFilm" because it seemed like a good idea at the time. After flirting with other titles such as "cinematographer" (TOO COLOURFUL FOR THE LEAGUE), "co-director" (CHAIRMAN GEORGE), "director" (BONE, MUSIC FOR A BLUE TRAIN) and "Office Drywall Consultant" (various walls), he has decided to just go with "Producer" and stop worrying about it. Most recently, Aung-Thwin 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 (IDFA Feature Documentary Winner). In addition, he serves as the Vice-President of the Rencontres International du Documentaire (RIDM), Montreal's international documentary festival.
Brett Gaylor
Brett Gaylor grew up with 800 other people on Galiano Island, BC. His neighbor started a film school called the Gulf Islands Film and Television School, and he formed their computer animation department at 18 years old. After a series of odd jobs in Vancouver he decided to attend the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, where he met Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin, who had 300 hours of Roach to sort through in the edit suite. He was given the responsibility of buying a used PC, and given a desk near the bathroom in the 200 square foot office. He became the assistant editor on what would become SPIT: Squeegee Punks In Traffic, and the editor and Associate Producer on Roach's subsequent film, RoachTrip. Somewhere around this time Daniel asked him to help produce Homelessnation.org, and he began writing grants for an undefined film about copyright. Meanwhile, he co-directed and edited Inuuvunga: I am Inuk, I am Alive, and pitched in on the editing of Chairman George. He finally got around to making the undefined film about Copyright, which became Rip! A Remix Manifesto. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the prestigious International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) which launched it on a journey to more than 50 film festivals, broadcast in more than 15 countries, and a theatrical release in Canada, US, Australia and Poland. As the world's first Open Source Documentary, the project was a catalyst for OpenSourceCinema.org, a social network to help documentary filmmakers create collaborative films. Brett is the Head of New Media at EyeSteelFilm.
Bob Moore
Bob Moore is a producer and the head of business and legal affairs. He joined the company in 2008 as a rights and legal consultant on the multi-platform Rip: A Remix Manifesto, and hasn’t looked back since. He now oversees films from development through delivery, specializing in financing, rights, distribution and co-production agreements. Recent completed projects include Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (premiere, VIFF 2009) and Last Train Home (Premiere RIDM, IDFA 2009). He currently serves on the board of DOC Quebec. Bob came to EyeSteelFilm specifically to work in social-interest documentary film production. Prior to his tenure at the company, he ran an international music marketing campaign, managed and consulted for a number of musicians and record labels, and founded a design collective. He holds degrees in civil and common law from McGill University, and a BA from Concordia University in Montreal. His choice in profile photos has charitably been described as uneven.
Yung Chang
Yung Chang has been working as a film director since 1999. Most of his ideas can be attributed to his magnanimous mother and father who live in Whitby, Ontario. His first adventure was a medium-length film, Earth To Mouth, that followed Chinese and Mexican migrant workers on a farm in eastern Ontario. It was inspired by his favourite childhood Cantonese restaurant, Magic Wok. For his first feature film, the award-winning, Up The Yangtze, Yung joined his parents on a trip where they journeyed on an apocalyptic cruise ship to the Three Gorges Dam. Ali Shan is based on a childhood memory climbing a mythical mountain in Taiwan. And so on and so forth. So mom and dad, what is Yung's next film?
Omar Majeed
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.
Lixin Fan
Lixin Fan worked as a producer/journalist at China’s state broadcaster CCTV before he became a filmmaker to live in Montreal, Canada. Born and raised in the period of China’s integration into the world, Lixin had engaged himself in social political filmmaking to document and interpret the vast changes took place in a time of changes. Lixin recently finished his debut feature documentary Last Train Home, which is the opening film at RIDM. The film deals with the world’s largest human migration in the ear of globalization. The film is also in the feature length documentary competition at IDFA 09. Lixin worked as associate producer on the acclaimed feature documentary Up the Yangtze, a film about the world’s largest hydroelectric project, the Three Gorges Dam. The film was a best Canadian documentary film at TIFF in 2007, a finalist at IDFA and Sundance 2007. In 2003, Lixin edited the Peabody and Grierson award-wining documentary To Live Is Better Than To Die. The film, recognized as one of the most shocking documentary on the topic, reveals China’s AIDS epidemic and was featured in Sundance Film Festival and was broadcasted on BBC, CBC and PBS.
Genevieve Danforth
Geneviève is head of Educational Distribution at Eyesteelfilm. Since graduating from McGill University in Cultural Studies, she has continuously worked in the world of film as a multi-talented freelancer for several production companies. Recently, she finished a stint as an enthusiastic science teacher at the elementary and high school levels. Geneviève is also the official in-house screen printer of promotional items for Eyesteelfilm and homelessnation.org.
Halima Ouardiri
Halima Ouardiri is a producer and the head of distribution with EyeSteelFilm. She grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, moving to Montreal in 1998 where she completed studies in Political Science and Film Production at Concordia University. Upon graduation, Halima worked in Switzerland with an International Human Rights Film Festival. She launched her career with EyeSteelFilm in 2005 through a CFTPA National Mentorship Producer Trainee Program. She coordinated the grass roots theatrical release of the Up the Yangtze, which screened all across Canada and internationally. She is currently producing the latest ‘Roach’ film, Les Tickets, a documentary about homeless criminalization in Montreal. Halima took part in Sprint for your script!, a unique screenwriter’s workshops series led by industry professionals. At the end of the process, she won the Grand Prix & Public Prize for her script Mokhtar. The production starts in April 2010 in Morocco.
Eric Roach Denis
Eric Roach Denis, 30 ans, a eu un parcours pour le moins chaotique. À 14 ans, il s'enfuie d'un centre d'accueil et vit dans la rue pendant 5 ans. Punk engagé, il a trouvé dans le cinéma une nouvelle manière de s'exprimer. Depuis le tournage de S.P.I.T.: Squeegee Punks in Traffic, sa vie a changé, avoue-t-il. Le réalisateur et mentor Daniel Cross lui a appris à se servir d'une caméra. Pendant trois ans de tournage, le film nous montre l'évolution de Eric Roach Denis qui surmonte sa dépendance à la drogue et qui devient cinéaste. Cette passion pour le cinéma qui l'anime désormais a redonné un sens à son existence. Aujourd'hui, c'est avec sa caméra qu'il donne une voix à ceux qui sont encore dans la rue. Nous sommes fiers d'annoncer que le cinéaste socialement engagé Eric Roach Denis a déjà réalisé trois longs métrages documentaires avec EyeSteelFilm, la maison de production montréalaise qui a produit et distribué Sur Le Yangzi, un film épique acclamé par le public et la critique. L!itinérance est un grave problème de société. Les jeunes qui la vivent ne veulent pas se retrouver dans cette situation. Au contraire, la plupart veulent s'en sortir. Le parcours d'Eric Roach Denis est et restera toujours un exemple pour ceux qui ont envie de s'en sortir. Parmi ses anciens amis de la rue, le cinéaste en compte désormais plusieurs qui ne sont plus dans la rue grâce à une passion qui les anime profondément. Il sortira prochainement le documentaire "Les Tickets" qui nous parles des itinérants qui reçoivent pour des milliers de dollars de contraventions et qui sont sont par la suite emprisonnés pour non-paiement d'amendes.
Edmund Duff
Edmund’s circuitous route into documentary film came via cutting sheet metal, driving tractors and creating the perfect caffe latte. Upon completing an Environmental Planning degree in his hometown of Melbourne, he departed the sunny shores of Oz for Montreal. One of the newest additions to the Eyesteel team, Edmund works in production/post-production, and helps move heavy objects around the office. He is passionate about documentary as a tool for cultural and inter-generational exchange.
Marie-Eve Tremblay
Née au Lac-St-Jean, Marie-Eve Tremblay est une cinéaste documentaire indépendante. Diplômée en Film Production de la Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema ou elle a réalisé plusieurs courts-métrages qui ont participé a plusieurs festivals, elle est maintenant en train de produire et réalisé son premier long métrage documentaire intitulé El Viaje Silencioso, un film sur la frontière Mexique-Etats-Unis. Ce film aborde la notion de territoire et d'identité, préoccupation constante chez Marie-Eve. Acceuillie par EyeSteelFilm en 2008, elle développe en ce moment un film avec Daniel Cross et travaille également sur ses projets futurs...
Bachir Boumediene
Born and raised in small town Mohammedia Morocco, Bash (Bachir Boumediene) lives in Montreal. He holds a Bcom of Concordia University, a Film Production Degree of the INIS institute and is completing a graduate certificate in Internet Business at McGill University. He started his career in the murky waters of agricultural commodity trading. He than switched to his true passion, documentary filmmaking, as he realized that there is more to life than corporate extravaganza. Bash has produced several short films, most of which were screened in prestigious festivals. He has also collaborated with prominent journalist Stéphan Bureau on the TV series “Contact TV: The Encyclopedia of the Arts” (www.contacttv.net). He is currently completing a CFTPA Producer Mentorship program with multiple awards winning creative EyeSteelFilm.
MK Siu
MK Siu has rarely been seen outside the EyeSteelFilm office (or, outside at all). He is known to stripe RAID drives, configure networks, conduct international chat discussions and review products all at the same time, while sleeping. Joining the team to manage the technical challenges of Up The Yangtze, one of the first feature documentaries to be shot on the all-digital Panasonic HVX-100, MK has since saved Rip, Taqwacore, Last Train Home and Just a Click Away from being lost to the ravages of technology.
Chris Aung-Thwin
Chris Aung-Thwin is passionate about social change. He helps run HomelessNation.org – the EyeSteelFilm produced project that fights to reduce the digital divide and bring knowledge, confidence and friendship to our most marginalized citizens. Working in collaboration with the street community, HomelessNation.org has won 4 major ICT awards, including the brag-inducing UN World Summit Award (for which they only had to beat over 20 000 other projects from 157 participating countries). Chris studied Psychology, History and English Literature at McGill University. He coaches youth soccer, blogs about his hometown Montreal Canadiens and ponders about man’s place in the Universe.
Marco Luna
Born in Lima – Peru, Marco Luna is an independent documentary filmmaker who has dedicated his work to human right topics by filming and teaching the power of the camera as social tool. He participated on the first Independent Peruvian Documentary Film Festival and the Documentary Film Caravan, projects that give a different approach to social documentary film making in Peru. Now he is doing a M.F.A. with a concentration in Film Production in Concordia University. He is also working for HomelessNation.org, a web resource for homeless people in Canada and preparing his new documentary film project: STATUS
Anjet Blinde
Anjet is an intern from the Netherlands. Grew up close to Rotterdam and is now studying International Media and Entertainment Management in Breda. Not many projects on her resume yet but hopes lot to come. Therefore she's grateful for this great opportunity to work at EyeSteelFilm.
Cody Skinner
Cody is in awe of the power of media to expose issues of social justice and encourage debate among the greater public. Originally from small-town Ontario, he has worked in South East Asia shooting and editing video for a non-profit production house and, more recently, producing print and web content for a human rights advocacy organization. A jack of all trades, Cody is now focusing on becoming a master of new media and its potential for advocacy work. Cody works part-time as a web developer for EyeSteelFilm while residing in Ontario.
