Executive
Aside from an Executive Board, DOC-Québec also has several active committees that other DOC members are encouraged to join. For a list of our committees, with contact info, please visit our About section.
Doc-Quebec also has an invaluable administrator who comes to Exec meetings, answers emails, writes cheques, books venues, organizes 2880 and more. To contact him, please email info@docquebec.ca.
The 2008 – 2010 DOC-Québec Executive (in alphabetical order):
SYLVIE VAN BRABANT
Originally from Alberta, director producer Sylvie Van Brabant completed her studies in psychology. Approached by the National Film Board, who saw her potential as a young director, she made her directorial debut with an ethnographic film on French culture in Alberta. She moved to Quebec in 1977 and quickly became a very committed producer/director. In 1981 she released Depuis que le monde est monde, an in depth study of birthing practices in Quebec. The social impact of this film, a definite factor in the establishment of midwives and birthing rooms in Quebec, proved to Sylvie that her work could effect real changes.
In 1984 Sylvie founded her own company Les Productions du Rapide-Blanc with partners director/D.O.P. Serge Giguère and television writer Francine Tougas. What followed was a steady stream of award-winning films that defined Rapide-Blanc’s style of very cinematic Point of View documentaries. Their films, deeply rooted in Quebec culture and society, break boundaries and several become classics in a genre for which Quebec has made a name for itself – cinéma vérité. In the 1990’s, Sylvie started to work in English and directed for the CBC The Last Trip (1995) bringing viewers into the heart of a teenage suicide pact. She produced for TV Ontario, Judy Jackson’s Baby Business (1995), an investigative documentary on international adoption that won several prizes in the United States.
Several documentaries from Rapide-Blanc have become strong educational tools touring schools and institutions. Her award-winning feature Seul dans mon putain d’univers (1997) a poignant exposé of the social conditions that are often the roots of youth violence and drug addiction. Eve Lamont’s Squat! (2002) which won both Best direction for a feature documentary and the Humanitarian award at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto. Their latest production, Driven by Dreams, played theatrically for ten weeks in Quebec, has already garnered several important awards and will now become an important educational tool for institutions and universities. As president of Les Productions du Rapide-Blanc for the past 22 years, Sylvie remains committed to the production of high quality documentaries that serve society on many levels.
DANIEL CROSS
Daniel Cross is a multi-disciplined, award-winning documentary filmmaker who has made his mark with films concerning the issue of homelessness in Canada. His feature length projects THE STREET: a film with the homeless and S.P.I.T: SQUEEGEE PUNKS IN TRAFFIC received theatrical distribution and critical acclaim. He is currently in production on www.homelessnation.org, a multi-media documentary project. These projects are reflective of his artistic philosophy that film is a medium for affecting social and political change. Daniel had directed and produced the international co-production CHAIRMAN GEORGE (CTV, BBC, TV-2 Denmark), Inuuvunga: I am Inuk, I am alive and the Gemini-nominated Too Colourful for the League.
In addition to making films, Daniel serves on the National Boards of: Documentary Organisation of Canada (DOC); Canadian Film and Television Producers Association (CFTPA) and L’Observatoire du Documentaire. He is also the chair of the National Mentorship Program, the largest film and TV mentoring program in the country. Daniel teaches film production at Concordia University
CARMEN GARCIA
After having worked in the field of journalism and publishing, Carmen Garcia started work as a producer at Ciné-Contact. In 1988, along with associate German Gutierrez, they create “les productions du Système D” that will become “Argus Films Inc”.
Meanwhile, she still collaborates with other companies such as Pixcom and Gala Films as well as the National Film Board. Since 2003, after a two year contract as analyst at Téléfilm Canada, she gives new life to Argus Films where she now concentrates all her professional activities. Recent titles include: Who shot my brother? (scriptwriting and producing) – Prize of the Audience at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma and nominated at the Jutra as best documentary ; Nadia’s Journey, (co-directing and producing) Caméra au point Prize at Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal ; L’École symphonique (directing and producing) and The Coca-Cola Case (in post-production), (scriptwriting, co-directing and producing).
KARINA GARCIA CASANOVA
Karina Garcia Casanova is a filmmaker based in Montreal. She has a graduate degree in Communications from Concordia and a B.A. in Philosophy from McGill. Her latest film Une bonne élève won the jury prize for best documentary in Radio Canada International’s Digital Diversity competition. Her short films have been shown in numerous films festivals and institutions (Edinburgh International Film Festival, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal World Film Festival, etc.) She has worked as a producer trainee at EyeSteelFilm and for the past 3 years has been producing and directing documentaries about the visuals arts for CBC Artspots and OBORO Gallery. She is currently in development on her debut feature length documentary titled Crossing Borders with the support of SODEC and Canada Council for the Arts.
ANDREA FEDER
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Andrea Feder has lived in Canada since 1990. She volunteered for the Toronto International Film Festival while still in high school, and since apprenticed in film production companies in Toronto, Hollywood and even Panama City. After graduating from the Ryerson University Film Production program Andrea has been with Picture This Productions, where she coordinates, budgets and manages their various projects from inception to completion. Andrea also produced the short documentary BUND: Work and Revolution as well as the short fiction Plan Ahead.
PEPITA FERRARI
Pepita Ferrari’s career in the film industry spans twenty-five years. Following a ten year career in animation she has been a writer/director/producer of one-off documentaries for Films Piché Ferrari which she co-founded in 1989. Her films such as Joseph Giunta: A Silent Triumph and Karen Young’s Canticum Canticorum (film still at left) have received recognition both in Canada as well as abroad. She is presently in post-production on a feature documentary entitled Capturing Reality: the art of documentary she directed for the National Film Board of Canada. In addition to her role as vice-president of internal affairs at DOC-Québec, Pepita has devoted a lot of her time to working as a mentor, project analyst and jury member with various institutions and festivals in Québec.
YANICK LÉTOURNEAU
Yanick Létourneau, Producer and Filmmaker, Peripheria Productions Inc.
Yanick is a producer and filmmaker of independent films and documentaries. After directing and producing short dramas, hip hop music videos and short documentaries, Yanick wrote, produced and directed his first documentary feature, CHRONIQUE URBAINE (Urban Chronicle), in 2003. The film, made in the tradition of cinema verité, documented the story of under represented Hip Hop artists in Quebec, Canada. He has been since actively developing documentaries & drama projects about popular culture, urban music and social change. In 2005, he produced SOUVENIR KIDS, a documentary by Diego Briceño-Orduz that denounced the sexual exploitation of street kids by Americans and Canadians in Mexico. In 2007, he produced TERRITORIES by Mary Ellen Davis. The documentary about Magnum photographer Larry Towell explores, through his lense, the impact of war and borders on displaced communities. He produced the same year MIDNIGHT BALLADS, by Diego Briceño-Orduz, a documentary about Latino immigrants working on the night shift as janitors in Montreal. He is currently producing and co-directing with Natasha Ivisic I WEAR THE VEIL, an intimate documentary about Islamic women and their relationship to the Muslim scarf. He is currently producing his second feature, THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA, which deals with the political and social impact of the Hip Hop generation in North America and Africa.
Caroline Martel is a documentary artist who was born in Montréal the year the cellular phone was created (1973). She has been synthesising documentary theory and practice in a variety of projects since 1998, with a special interest in archival materials, cinema history, women and communication technologies.
Hold the line (Dernier Appel, 52 min, National Film Board of Canada, 2001) was her début in professional filmmaking. Sound artist and radio practitioner, she received the MIX96 Prize for a documentary series : Radio dans l’air (1994). Caroline has authored online pieces for the International Festival of new Cinema and new Media of Montréal (FCMM, 1998) and for the Inter-Society for Electronic Arts (1999).
BA in Communications and M.A. in Media Studies from Concordia University, Caroline received the Québec Government’s FCAR Master’s Degree Scholarship. She has worked as researcher and as research assistant, notably with filmmakers Marilù Mallet and Sophie Bissonnette and with scholars Chantal Nadeau, Kim Sawchuk and Martin Allor.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR is Caroline Martel’s first feature-length production as an independent producer-director and she’s preparing a documentary about the ondes Martenot.
KATARINA SOUKUP
Katarina Soukup is an independent producer with over ten years of experience working with award-winning, internationally acclaimed Inuit filmmakers Igloolik Isuma Productions, the creative team behind the Canadian cinema classic ATANARJUAT THE FAST RUNNER (2000), winner of the Camera d’or at Cannes 2001. Among her award-winning producing credits with Isuma is URBAN INUK (2005) directed by Nunavik writer Jobie Weetaluktuk. URBAN INU, winner of the GRAND PRIX – Rigoberta Menchu Community Award at the Land-in-sights First People’s Festival in Montreal in 2006. Soukup’s last film for Isuma as producer, KIVIAQ VERSUS CANADA (2006), was directed by Atanarjuat director Zacharias Kunuk and co-written by both Soukup and Kunuk. This documentary traces the extraordinary life story of Canada’s first Inuit lawyer and examines the reasons why he is suing the Canadian government for Inuit rights. The GLOBE AND MAIL described KIVIAQ as a “powerful documentary…. Beautifully made and angry, it is a startling and cogent story”.
Soukup founded Catbird Productions Inc in spring 2006 with a desire to produce exciting, socially relevant independent documentaries that push the boundaries of the genre. As a producer, she seeks out film projects that tell powerful human stories and reveal the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. She is particularly interested in films about music, art, culture, and human rights. To that end, she has just completed the short documentary UMIAQ SKIN BOAT by Urban Inuk director Jobie Weetaluktuk, and is developing several other projects with innovative directors. She holds an MA in Media Studies from Concordia University and resides in Montreal.
EZRA WINTON
As Director and Programmer of Cinema Politica, Ezra Winton has brought thousands of people to the theater to watch documentary films on the big screen. Ezra is the founder of the Cinema Politica Network, a grassroots network for the distribution and exhibition of independent documentaries in Canada. He has made four short documentary films, two of which have aired on CBC, and is a main subject in the feature Doc WAL-TOWN: THE FILM (2006) by Sergeo Kirby. Ezra is currently pursuing a PhD in Communication Studies at Carleton University.
He has a nifty blog at www.ezrawinton.com.