crew
shelagh carter
director / producer
Shelagh Carter is a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio as an Actress and Director, a Professor of Theatre and Film at the University of Winnipeg and a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors Lab in Toronto. As a director, Shelagh has created work for over ten years. Night Travellers, her third short film, was a National Screen Institute Drama Prize winner in 2007. Her award winning 35 mm short, One Night, filmed as part of the Canadian Film Centre’s Short Dramatic Film 2009 series, screened at several international film festivals. She has also won world festival recognition with her experimental narrative short films Canoe, Rifting/Blue and Is It My Turn.
Shelagh’s first feature film called Passionflower, the story of Sarah, an 11-year- old girl, forcing her family to come to terms with her mother’s increasing mental instability, has earned film festival attention and honors. Her latest indie feature, Before Anything You Say, an innovative drama based on a true story, has been completed. Additional feature film projects, a psychological thriller called The Woman Who Swallowed West Hawk Lake, a Noir inspired screenplay called Skinner, and a Chekhovian based drama called Into Invisible Light, are in various stages of development. She is a recipient of the award, Women In the Director’s Chair Career Advancement Module 2010, in collaboration with Women in Film Festival Vancouver.
“I am very happy for an opportunity to show my work. If I stood back from my films, some words to describe what I am interested in are ‘transitions and delicate and dangerous transformations.’ I hope you enjoy them.”
deborah schnitzer
writer
Deborah Schnitzer is Professor Emerita at the University of Winnipeg and 3M National Teaching Fellow. Her critical and creative work includes the award-winning collection The Madwoman in the Academy: 43 Women Boldly Take on the Ivory Tower and the novel An unexpected Break in the Weather, recipient of the 2010 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. With her colleague Shelagh Carter, Deborah has developed a number of experimental short films which have screened internationally, including Canoe, inspired by her most recent novel, jane dying again, as well as Rifting/Blue and Is It My Turn. Deborah composed the screenplay for Before Anything You Say. Her next novel, the woman who swallowed west hawk lake, which exposes the desire for reckoning, reconciliation, and truth telling to pervasive fascist forces in old and new world landscapes, is being adapted for the screen by Carter.
ousama rawi, bsc, csc
cinematographer
Ousama Rawi started his career in the film business in the U.K.
After many years shooting Commercials and Feature Films, he moved to Canada. He now divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles when he is not on location somewhere else in the world on a filming assignment.
Some of his credits include: Killing Jesus (National Geographic), Dracula (NBC), Ben Hur (Muse Entertainment/CBC/ABC), Borgia (Canal+), The Tudors (Showtime), Pirates of Silicon Valley (TNT), Zulu Dawn (Allied Artists), Black Windmill (Universal Pictures), and Pulp (United Artists).
He is an Emmy winner for Outstanding Cinematography for his work on The Tudors, and another seven wins, including two Gemini Awards, four CSC Awards, and in 2012 he received the Kodak New Century Award for Outstanding contribution to the Art of Cinematography.
He has also had seven other nominations for: another Emmy Award, another Gemini Award, two ASC Awards and three other CSC Awards.
taavo soodor
production designer
Taavo Soodor earned Genie nominations for Best Achievement in Art Direction for Jeremy Podeswa’s feature The Five Senses; Thom Fitzgerald’s award-winning The Hanging Garden; and John Fawcett’s The Boy’s Club as well as a Gemini nomination for Best Production Design or Art Direction in a Dramatic Program or Series for the CBS television drama Haven, directed by John Gray. In 2008 he won the award for Best Art Direction at the 28th Atlantic Film Festival for the feature Growing Op. He designed for the features The Big Hit produced by John Woo starring Mark Wahlberg, Paramount’s Steppin’ Up/Save the Last Dance II, Aurora Borealis, starring Donald Sutherland, Spinning Boris, directed by Roger Spottiswoode, and the multi-award winning feature Owning Mahowny, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as Narc, starring Ray Liotta.
He has served as Production Designer for the television movies The Phantoms, Open House, A Very Married Christmas, Blessings, and The Man Who Saved Christmas; A&E’s The Big Heist, starring Donald Sutherland, and the remake of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, starring Mira Sorvino; Craig Zadan and Neil Meron’s Flowers For Algernon for CBS; ABC’s Trump Unauthorized, and Labor of Love; USA Network’s Silent Echoes; the pilot Total Recall 2070; and Turner Broadcasting’s Anatomy of Love. In 2007, Taavo earned a Gemini and DGC nomination for his work on In God’s Country.
keri latimer
composer
Keri Latimer is a musician and visual artist living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
She has been writing, recording and performing with the band Nathan Music Co. since 1999. People say her songs confound description. Acoustic Guitar Magazine called them “…infectious alt-country noir, fractured folk-swing and surreal…”; The Globe and Mail described them with “…something mysterious at the core … as if to remind you that home is just another word for the place where you keep your darkest secrets.”
Music awards include Juno, Western Canadian Music, and Canadian Folk Music. In 2008 she collaborated with Peter Golub and Shahzad Ismaily on the musical score for the film Frozen River, which was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
As a visual communications graduate of ACAD, she has been freelance designing and illustrating since 1993.
chad tremblay
editor
As a young adult, Chad Tremblay spent way too much time at the University of Winnipeg, eventually leaving with a B.A. in filmmaking and history. He has been involved in film for more than a decade, and has written and directed many short films and documentaries, while working on several other independent and full budget projects.
In this time, Chad filled roles ranging from director of photography and camera operator to sound mixer and picture editor. He has worked in the camera department on big budget hollywood features, produced and directed independent music videos, and even worked as a camera operator and assistant producer on the National Geographic/Discovery Channel series Monster Moves for three seasons.
Chad also spent six years working at the University of Winnipeg, instructing students on topics ranging from lighting and exposing film, to in-depth use of industry standard editing software.
A passionate musician, Chad spent several years playing and touring with the Winnipeg noise rock band KEN mode, culminating in a Juno Award for Best Metal / Hard Music Album of the year in 2012 (album Venerable).
melanie wesley
costume designer
At an early age, Melanie began working as a seamstress. This is where she developed strong technical skills and began exploring her own creative potential. She’s inspired to create pieces based on her study of archetypes found in fairy-tales. She focuses on the concepts of fear, play, and beauty woven within each story.
Melanie has developed her own tangled vocabulary with textiles in order to create pieces that are transformational, bringing magical attributes to the mundane world. She has a strong desire to connect people with stories and see them come to life through the simple act of dressing.
“Creating wearable art is at the foundation of my art practice.”
