Made By Youth

About

02 Student and Staff Bios

Maria Fernanda Baez

Maria Fernanda is a curious girl from Columbia who has lived in Vancouver, B.C. since 2003. “iQuit” and “What’s in it for you?” are her first steps into animation and video. She also loves listening to music and learning about the diversity of cultures she lives in.

Caroline Bergoin

Caroline comes from France and is currently an exchange student at Emily Carr institute in Vancouver, B.C. She studies video and digital visual arts and hopes to be famous one day.

Jori Bojm

Jori was born in Toronto and raised in Vancouver and was surprised to make it into this program. Having survived the wonders of Communications at SFU, she is grateful to gain some hands on experience.

Andrew Chang

Andrew had been editing for several hours straight before the administrators asked him to write the “biography thing”. “Can’t they see that I have no time to deal with this? That it’s wasting my precious brain juice?”. In the end we managed to get him to tell us he’s 19 years old, he is originally from Taiwan and he moved to Vancouver, BC 4 years ago. He is currently at SFU, is crazy about film and really wants to get into the film program there. (pick him, pick him)

YooJin Cho

Yoojin is of Korean and Chinese origin. She lived in Malaysia before her family immigrated to Canada about 3 years ago. This is the second time that she has made a commercial and she likes the process because she like to be part of a team.

Steven Gamez

Steven is a young man originally from Columbia. He is currently a student at David Thompson Secondary School, where he has taken several courses in drama and filmmaking. He is currently working on his first ads for television: “Bad Thing” and “Cost of Smoking”.

Brieanne Johl

Brieanne is a very talented woman with a penchant for the profound.

Alexandra Ko

Alexandra is originally from South Korea and now lives in Port Coquitlam. She immigrated to Canada in 1997. This is her first chance to experience filmmaking with professional staff. She’s learned a lot.

Diego MacLean

Diego grew up in Argentina and Brazil. He studied film in Sao Paulo and lived in the US for three years working as a graphic designer. Now he is an animation student at the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver.

Pirouz Nemati

Pirouz is a caring young man who wants everyone to be happy. He said he joined Smoke Screen “to prevent young teenagers from starting to smoke”. He’s really into 3D stuff and worked on 2 PSA’s with help from his team and the mentors at GIFTS. One of them is “Papa doesn’t always know best” which is a true story. The other PSA is “Smoking Sucks!” He especially loved working on this ad. He’s a big fan of European music and loves creating art with computers. ”It’s really inspiring to me to see other people’s work. Thank you for taking your time and looking at my work too.”

Frank Alexander Ospina

Frank is a rising star originally from Columbia who now lives in Vancouver, B.C. Frank also draws and writes poems, songs and has plans to become an entrepreneur.

James Perry

Working out of B.C., James is a young innovative filmmaker. Crossing multiple filmmaking categories, he has made two short documentaries, along with a number of short dramas, which are currently circulating through film festivals. Animation is a new medium he hopes to master and incorporate with live action films. It’s all a great learning experience to him and keep an eye out for him, he’s a winner!

Emily Ra

Emily Ra is 17. She moved to Canada from Korea on February 8th of 2000. She’s been here about 51/2 years. She loves all forms of art: music, fine arts, drama the media arts... it all provokes passion inside her. “This opportunity has given me a chance to learn about being with other people and to create a powerful PSA. Yeah!”

Jonas Salzberg

Jonas is very multicultural. He loves to be among many cultures. He is passionate about video, film, and wailing on his shiny saxophones. He has an incredible thirst and appetite for knowledge, and is always looking for opportunities to expand his brain. He aspires to do documentary film, and perhaps be a teacher of digital video.

Kyle Snyder

Kyle comes from Colorado Springs and is now living in Vancouver, B.C. He likes to “tell it like it is” (Paul Mooney style). With a degree in Sociology, Kyle is a gifted writer and about the only thing he hasn’t written is a bio.

Farhoud Tirgarian

Farhoud is an actor–to–be. He’s originally from Iran. He’s had acting experience for four years and he doesn’t smoke.

 

Staff Bios

Jenny Breukelman: Music

Jenny Breukelman has been working as a freelance multimedia artist for over 8 years. She trained in audio recording at Columbia Academy of Radio, Television and Recording Arts in 2000, and has since moved to Galiano Island where she is now working as a composer and animation/visual fx mentor at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School (GIFTS). She has worked on projects such as: an animated flash intro for Urban Ink’s “Women In Fish“ production website, being an animation mentor for Sierra Club/Gumboot Productions “One Tonne Challenge“ project, creating soundtracks for the National Film Board’s short clips on anti-racism, and for the “Smoke Screen“ project, anti–smoking ads created by teen girls, put on by the Access to Media Education Society, Health Canada and GIFTS. Jenny has two children, a cat and a chicken, and is happy to work in mutimedia and live in the forest at the same time.

Samonte Cruz: Video Mentor

Samonte Cruz is a fierce, mixed–raced Filipino educator interested in using music, audio engineering, media, & video editing as both forms of resistance and education. He is currently co–curating Dirty Gender Secrets, a multi-media art show brought forth to unearth the gender dirt we’re afraid to say, not allowed to mention – but are going to do it anyway. Runs October 21–23 2005 at Video In Studios, in co–production with LIVE biennial of performance art.

Kenna Fair: Video Mentor

Independent film & video maker. Works in all facets of filmmaking world from directing to editing. A GIFTS founding member, mentor, and program coordinator.

Heather Frise: Video Mentor

Heather Frise has been making films and videos for the last ten years. She has received numerous awards, including a Genie award for “Bones of the Forest ”, a feature length documentary. Her work has screened in festivals around the world. In this last year, her short experimental film “Objects are larger than they appear” won the Jury Prize at the New York Short Film Exposition, and her dance film, “Yard”, received an Honourable Mention for Best Canadian Dance Film at the Moving Images Festival. She has extensive experience as a documentary film editor, working with innovative directors such as Mina Shum, Fumiko Kiyooka, and Velcrow Ripper. Parallel to her film practice, she continues to work as a mentor in video production programs for marginalized youth, through the organization Access to Media Education (AMES). She has also taught Super 8 workshops in Vancouver, Toronto and the Yukon.

Deblekha Guin: Project Manager

Since completing her Master’s in Communication at Simon Fraser University, Deblekha has been the driving force behind AMES and its development and implementation of a ground– breaking series of fully– subsidized intensive video programs delivered to over 350 “multi-barriered” youth. She has overseen AMES since its inception 8 years ago.

Dmitry Kazak: Project Documentation

Dmitry Kazak is an actor/writer, who teaches part time at GIFTS and sometimes builds houses. He recently wrote and was featured in a sketch comedy, TV pilot for the CBC, played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and helped build a 1600 sq. foot oceanview house on beautiful Galiano Island where Dmitry lives.

Michael A. Mann: Animation mentor

When Michael grows up, he wants to do exactly what he does now: being an animator, illustrator, and graphic designer for web and print media.

David Ozier: Video Mentor

As a filmmaker, David Ozier has created work that has been seen at numerous festivals and sold internationally to both public and commercial broadcasters. As a Television Director, he has worked on over 175 episodes of various programs, and has been recognized with a number of awards, including recently winning a Gemini Award for his work with CBC ZeD.

Zsolt Sándor: Video Mentor

Zsolt is a filmmaker who was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. After studying theatre and film at the University of Victoria and Concordia University in Montreal, he spent 3 years exploring the Canadian film industry in Toronto, coming to some unpleasant conclusions. Fast forward to the West Coast, where Zsolt is now happily working as a director, DOP and editor in Victoria, involved in docs, shorts, television and corporate productions. Zsolt has been an instructor at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School for 6 years and has recently led a group of filmmaking students to the Caribbean. When not playing with film and video cameras, he can be found on local stages strumming his signature brand of “acousto-ska”, serving on the board of directors for MediaNet, Victoria’, s video artists’ cooperative, as well as Open Cinema, an organization dedicated to nurturing community discussion by screening socially relevant documentaries.

Ken Stauffer: Sound Engineer, Technical Genius

Ken is a musician and general jack of all technical trades who lives on Galiano.

Alex Taylor: Animation mentor

Alex Taylor is an independent filmmaker and graphic designer living in Vancouver, B.C. He is currently finishing a BFA in Film at Simon Fraser University, and upon graduation plans to jump ship from his current job as a graphic and web designer to pursue a career in cinematography. During the summer, Alex mentors at the Gulf Islands Film & Television School.

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Marcus Youssef: Script Writer Mentor

Chalmer’s award winner for “A Line in the Sand”, Marcus’s work has been produced across the country (Playwrights Theatre Centre, du Maurier World Stage, Rumble Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Popular Theatre Alliance of Manitoba, CBC, and UBC). Marcus has led workshops in dozens of BC schools and guided literally hundreds of youth through the scriptwriting process.