About

WIFT – ATLANTIC (WOMEN IN FILM & TELEVISON)

FCT – ATLANTIQUE (FEMMES DANS LE CINÉMA ET LA TÉLÉVISION)

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. Film Nova Scotia has come on board to sponsor the March 9th event, which will introduce the film and television community to the founding board members and raise awareness of the new organization.

“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.

2010/2011 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ANN BERNIER

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.

JESSICA BROWN, Director/Communications

Jessica Brown is an emerging producer in Nova Scotia. She has been working in the film and television industry since 2003, and is currently producing a documentary special for Vision TV entitled “On the Trail of the Templars” through Arcadia Entertainment Inc. Last year she completed her first feature length high definition documentary “Chasing Wild Horses”, which has screened around the world, and has won awards at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (Best International Documentary), and Worldfest Houston (Platinum Remy Award). In 2007 she produced her first film on film, “You Can’t Do That On Film Anymore”, through AFCOOP’s Film5 program. Her professional background includes Producer and Production Management positions on projects such as I Prophesy, Supernatural Investigators, Go Deep (Seasons 1&2), Freemasonry Revealed, Dreamwrecks, Generation XXL, Cohen’s War, One Hit Wonder, Come On Down: Searching for the American Dream, Cohen’s War, and One Hit Wonder.

MARTHA COOLEY, Director

Born and raised in London Ontario, Martha Cooley moved to Halifax to attend Dalhousie University and just never went back. She has a degree in Comparative Religions from Dalhousie, a diploma in Screen Arts from the Nova Scotia Community College and has held in various positions in the film industry from working for local Producer/Director, John Houston on his northern documentaries, to Content Coordinator for the now defunct Halifax office of the Independent Film Channel. She is currently employed as the Programs and Membership Coordinator at the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative, where she runs the One Minute Film Program, a scholarship for beginner filmmakers, First Fl!cks an introduction to filmmaking for youth from under-served communities and FILM 5, a training program for emerging level filmmakers. Through FILM 5, Martha acted as supervising producer for four 5min films shot and finished on 35mm. Martha continues to make her own film work, receiving a scholarship from the Centre for Art Tapes in 2008 to produce a stop-motion underwater short and attending the Screenwriter’s Bootcamp in PEI with a feature film project.

IRENE DUMA, Director/Newfoundland and Labrador Rep

Irene Duma is a filmmaker, new media designer/producer and cross-media storyteller with an effective combination of creativity and contagious good humour. She has over 15 years experience in various entertainment fields, including theatre and comedy, film production, acting, writing, directing, editing and teaching.  Her short films have screened at The World Wide Short Film Festival, St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival, One Minute Film & Video Festival and Darryl Gold’s Hard Liquor and Porn Festival, as well as on Movieola and Bravo TV channels.

In 2001 Irene founded Strange Duck Media which specializes in friendly and affordable web sites for artists, filmmakers and other entrepreneurs as well as video production, graphic design and marketing services. Before moving to St. John’s Irene was an active member of the filmmaking and new media communities in Toronto  and served as internet consultant and sponsor of WIFT Toronto. She is currently working on several documentary projects as well as comedy screenplays.

GRETCHEN KELBAUGH, Director/New Brunswick Rep

Filmmaker, teacher and author, Gretchen Kelbaugh twice won the AFF– CBC Script Development Award. One of these, 106 Fire Hydrants, was produced for national CBC-TV. Gretchen directed her feature, Margaret and Deirdre, nominated for Best Feature Drama and Best Foreign Film at the Trail Dance Film Festival in 2008, and won Best Screenplay. It played at the AFF, Silver Wave and deReel International festival. The screenplay won the national CBC Producers’ Showcase in 1999.  80/20; The Developing World is distributed by the Canadian Learning Co. Gretchen and Connell Smith directed the series, which won Excellence in Music at the Silver Wave in 2006.

Gretchen’s short, Piece o’ Cake, won Best No Budget Short at the Broad Humor Film Festival in California, screened in Australia, Italy and NB, and was bought for CBC’s Download program. Gretchen is negotiating with distributors over Menocracy, a feature doc about women and politics.

Jill Knox-Gosse lives in Newfoundland and started her producing career in 2006.  She operates her own production company, Odd Sock Films Inc. and owns Opportunity Knox Inc.

Knox-Gosse is currently in development on a number of projects.  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.  “FURS” is currently in post production.

She is also a member of the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Cooperative (NIFCO) and the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association (CFTPA).

ANGIE KOKIC, Director/Treasurer

Angie has worked in the local film & television community since 1995. She has worked on numerous local and international independent productions (feature & tv) as a production account and as an Executive Assistant to the producer.  She’s also worked for a number of industry non profit organizations including the Atlantic Film Festival, (the former) Nova Scotia Film & Television Producers Association and Moving Images Group.  Angie currently freelances as a corporate bookkeeper for a number of local film & television companies.

LOUISE LALONDE, Director

Louise graduated from the Trebas Institute in Film and Television Production in 2001.  Since then she has initiated and managed training and mentoring programs for the Island Media Arts Coop beginning with a six-month full time training program Running With Scissors that saw eight participants work as a production team on several video shorts.

Louise initiated and manages the PEI Screenwriters’ Bootcamp that to date has offered forty-four emerging writers from Atlantic Canada the opportunity to develop their skills as screenwriters and learn about the industry.  The Screenwriters’ Bootcamp is a week-long retreat style workshop that has attracted mentors such as Tom Shoebridge founder of the Canadian Screen Training Centre; Alex Epstein, television producer and author of writing guides for both film and television; and Jennifer Podemski, actor, screenwriter, and producer for Redcloud Studios Inc. Louise is also a writer in her own right with several feature-length scripts and television series in development and has written, directed, and produced several shorts on film and video.  She is presently developing a bible for a reality show. Louise sits on the Board of Directors for Women in Film and Television – Atlantic and the PEI Council of the Arts.

EVA MADDEN-HAGEN

Eva Madden-Hagen is a versatile filmmaker, working in both drama and documentary. In 2009 her comedy mockumentary, Sunnyvale Stories, was released on DVD with the final Trailer Park Boys feature film, Countdown to Liquor Day. In early 2010, she wrote and directed an episode of the nationally broadcast CBC documentary series, Land and Sea, entitled Winter Wave Riders, telling the story of winter surfing in Nova Scotia’s frigid ocean. Her latest dramatic film, What Remains with producer Rebecca Sharratt, was the recipient of the CBC / Film Nova Scotia Bridge Award and will be premiering at Canadian Film festivals this summer. Eva’s first feature film script Sweet Nothing was part of the Atlantic Film Festival’s 2006 “Inspired Scripts Program” and went on to win the “Astral Media Harold Greenberg/Telefilm Inspired Scripts Pitch”. Sweet Nothing is currently in development with Halifax’s Idlewild Films. To keep things interesting, Eva also works as a freelance sound designer, creating soundscapes for film, television and animation.

CHRISTINE MCLEAN

Christine McLean is an award-winning Canadian journalist specializing in arts and culture.  She was CBC Television’s first dedicated arts journalist in New Brunswick, hosting the “artspak” for ten years. She later wrote and directed two nationally televised documentaries for CBC’s flagship performing arts show “Opening Night”, one on internationally renowned pianist Ludmila Kneskova-Hussey; another, on the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra’s journey to Carnegie Hall.  Her other credits include seven episodes of Discovery Canada’s “Frontiers of Construction” and “Stones of Fate and Fortune” series.

Christine has written a feature-length screenplay “Unravelled” and has attended the screenwriting workshop at the Summer Institute of Film and Television.  She has appeared as a panelist for three seasons on CBC TV’s Short Film Face-Off.  She has been a frequent judge at the Silver Wave Film Festival in Fredericton as well as a jury member for the
Canadian Screenwriting Awards.

After completing a Masters degree in the arts and culture concentration at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism last year, she joined the journalism programme at St. Thomas University in Fredericton where she teaches television and journalistic writing.  She was the host this summer of CBC’s Information Morning radio show and CBC New Brunswick First on television and online.

VICTORIA MAINPRIZE

A new WIFT-AT member, 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.

JESSICA MARSH, Director/Membership Coordinator

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.

CHERYL WAGNER, Director

Cheryl Wagner is an award-winning Canadian producer of children’s television. Credits include  – the creator and show runner of the highly successful 100 episode THE BIG COMFY COUCH with Toronto’s Radical Sheep Productions. [ yes . . totally recouped and awarded both an Emmy and a Gemini!] Cheryl also worked as creative producer on the Gemini winner POKO [ stop motion], and was co-creator of BO on the GO [CG]  both preschool series with Halifax Film. Her career in children’s entertainment began in theatre as a puppeteer and clown and she is damned proud of her years working in television with Jim Henson on Fraggle Rock and Ernie Coombs on Mr. Dressup. Ms Wagner has also been involved in the writing and creation of adult dramatic series with Moncton’s Dream Street. And is still working on her screenplay Blooming Point, set in PEI.

Cheryl is currently the PEI Creative Representative for Super Channel and resides in Charlottetown where she is working at developing and supporting the fledgling PEI film and television community. One outreach project: forming a Facebook group called PEIPs which stands for Professional Entertainment Industry Persons to find out who is here, their skill set, their aspirations.  Goal? To lobby the PEI government to reestablish an Equity Investment program which has been superceded by the provincial commitment to gaming and other new media.  Both can, should and must work hand-in-hand.

ANNETT WOLF

Born in Denmark, Annett Wolf is a critically acclaimed producer, director, writer and interviewer, with international accomplishments in the North American and European television and film industries. Her track record includes her award-winning documentaries and in-depth profiles of such icons as Elvis Presley, Jack Lemmon, Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman and Peter Sellers. She shaped the “making of” documentary film genre, with features on many movies such as “48 Hrs.” and “Jaws 2.” 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 1988 truce in Los Angeles’s violent gang wars which had claimed 10,000 lives.
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 own production company under contract with Universal Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers.

Known for her strong environmental commitment, Annett founded the Wolf Foundation. It is a non-profit organization providing support to help maintain the natural balance of the wolf population in North America’s Arctic and subarctic territories.
Since coming to Cape Breton, Annett started her new production company The Wise Wolf and Friends Company, Inc.  Projects in development include “A Band of Two” (a film on Annett’s planned northern trek to find the Arctic wolf, an animal deeply meaningful to her); “Amazing Renegades” (six living icons are featured in her completely new take on the in-depth profile), and “Arctic Quest” (a team of committed grade 8 students will accompany Annett to the Arctic to do their utmost to save that vital environment). Right now, Annett is also working on the English translation of her autobiography, “The Wolf and the Glass Eye”, first published in Danish five years ago.

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.

This page has the following sub pages.

• Founding Board of Directors for WIFT-Atlantic
• 2009/2010 BOARD OF DIRECTORS