EditCon 2019 in Review
EditCon 2019 took place on Saturday February 2, 2019 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto.
Panel #1: Making a difference - Cutting content with an important social message
Unarmed Verses and Sgaaway K’uuna (Edge of the Knife) are films that have intertwined themes of social justice into compelling stories, bringing important social messages to the screen in their respective genres of narrative and documentary film. Meet the Editor / Director / Producer duos behind both of these films to discuss the process of collaboration, sensitivity approaching the subject matter, and what each role contributes to the crafting of a powerful narrative.
Emmy-nominated and Gemini-winning Michèle Hozer has been working as a filmmaker and editor in Canada since 1987. To date, she has worked on more than 50 documentaries. Her work has received accolades from the most prestigious film festivals in the world, including the Sundance Film Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. Shake Hands with The Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire won both the 2007 Emmy for Best Documentary and the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Promise to the Dead picked up her first International Emmy nomination as an editor. But her directorial debut with Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould won the coveted spot on the Academy Award short list as well as a Gemini for Best Biography. Since its premiere at TIFF in 2009, the feature length documentary has been seen by audiences in Britain, Australia, Japan, and across North America.
In 2012, The Director’s Guild of Canada (DGC) awarded The Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary to Michèle and team for West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson. At the same time, she picked up both the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival Editing Award and top honours from her peers at Canadian Cinema Editors.
In 2015 Michèle completed her first solo feature length documentary in the combined roles of director, editor, and producer for Sugar Coated probing the role of sugar in a global healthcare epidemic. The film, in association with TVO and ZDF/ARTE, had its world premiere at Hot Docs International Film Festival and has been playing worldwide at international film festivals and on television. Sugar Coated was honoured with The Donald Brittain Award for Best Social and Political Documentary at The 2016 Canadian Screen Awards. Sugar Coated presently playing available Netflix across North America. Michèle’ short documentary, The Barber of Augusta just recently won the Dodie Spittal Award at 2017 The Picture This Film Festival. She just completed SponsorLand, the feature length doc for TV Ontario on a Syrian refugee family with 11 children resettling in the tiny town of Picton Ontario.
With over 15 years experience, Argentina-native Andres Landau is an award-winning editor. He was distinguished with the 2018 Canadian Cinema Editors Award for Best Editing in a Feature
Documentary for Unarmed Verses. In 2011, he oversaw post-production for The National Parks Project, and edited Sirmilik the 2012 Genie Award winning short documentary by director Zacharias Kunuk. He edited Charles Officer’s feature documentary, Unarmed Verses produced by The National Film Board of Canada, Winner of the 2017 HotDocs Best Canadian Feature Documentary and 2018 TIFF Canada’s Top Ten Audience Award and The Stairs by Hugh Gibson, Winner of the 2016 Toronto Film Critics Association for Best Canadian Film.
Lea Marin is an award-winning Toronto-based producer with more than 18 years’ experience in the industry. A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Producers’ Lab, Lea joined the National
Film Board of Canada as a producer in 2006. Her most recent film credits include Charles Officer’s Unarmed Verses, which won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs 2017. Other credits include Chelsea McMullan’s My Prairie Home, and Astra Taylor’s Examined Life. Lea recently completed production on Taylor’s follow-up to Examined Life, the feature doc, What Is Democracy? which premiered at TIFF 2018, and is currently in production on Throat, a co-collaboration between filmmaker Chelsea McMullan and artist/activist Tanya Tagaq.
Sarah Hedar is a Vancouver-based editor who utilizes innate patience and her sense of humour to work effectively with the natural ebb and flow of the creative process. Her editing work on provocative and original films crosses genres and spans both documentary and narrative projects. Her recent editing includes the feature film Sgaawaay K’uuna: Edge of The Knife, the first Haida language feature that garnered acclaim at both TIFF and VIFF, and the short film Last Stand to Nowhere, an all female re-imagining of the classic Western story of the gunfight at the OK corral. Sarah’s love of visual storytelling is shown through her dedication to her craft and her commitment to on-going education as she pursues her MA in film, with a focus on writing and directing.
Helen Haig-Brown (Tsilhqot’in) is an award-winning director and a leading talent in experimental documentary. Her work is broad-ranging, from intimate autobiographies to forays into Science Fiction. Her short film ?E?anx (The Cave), an adaptation of a Tsilhqot’in story was named to Canada’s Top Ten Shorts by TIFF and was an Official Selection at Sundance Film Festival. My Legacy, her first feature documentary, focuses on the transformation and healing of intergenerational trauma to trust, worth, intimacy and love. Her work has aired on APTN, CBC, Knowledge, NITV (Australia) and has been showcased around the world at film festivals such as Berlinale, Rotterdam and Sundance.
Helen’s latest work, co-directing with Gwaii Edenshaw, Sgaawaay K’uuna: Edge of the Knife, is a feature film produced on Haida Gwaii, entirely in the Haida language. A joint production between the Council of the Haida Nation and Isuma’s Zacharius Kunuk, Sgaawaay K’uuna is the story of the Gaagiixid, the iconic Haida wild man. Helen is a graduate of Capilano’s Indigenous Independent Digital Film Program and lives between her traditional territory in British Columbia’s Cariboo Chilcotin and her partner’s traditional home of Haida Gwaii.
Panel #2: Frame by Frame - A primer on Animation editing
Learn from Canada’s leading animation editors about the critical role they play in crafting animated films.
How does the process differ from editing live action? At what point does the editor’s work start? What does the collaboration look like with team members and the director? These questions and more will be answered in this lively group discussion.
Paul Hunter (Nut Job, Spark) and Lesley Mackay Hunter (The Nut Job 2 – Nutty by Nature, Arctic Justice) shed light on their careers in animated film and television, and the unique role of the editor from storyboard to screen.
Chris Mutton brings over 15 years of film and television experience to the edit suite. His latest film, LUBA, won multiple awards at the Canadian Film Fest and earned him a CCE awards nomination. Recently completed are three short films screening at this year’s Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse. He is currently editing Easy Land, the first feature of Serbian-Canadian director Sanja Zivkovic. Chris has served as vice-president of the CCE and continues to stay involved as part of the Global Opportunities Committee.
For over 25 years, Paul has worked as an online, offline and supervising editor, cutting everything from animatics, 2D/3D animation, and stop-motion. Projects include Freaky Stories, Angela Anaconda, Franny’s Feet, Iggy Arbuckle, Johnny Test, Glenn Martin DDS and Nature Cat. The Nut Job was Paul’s first feature film. When given the chance to work on it, Paul thought that he would be nuts not to! Since then, Paul has also edited the feature animated films Spark and The Nut Job 2.
Lesley has worked almost exclusively in animation—a medium that she loves! With an unconventional background in stage performance, music and sound, which she uses to enhance her storytelling techniques. A leica reel and offline editor of many hit shows including Johnny Test, Busytown Mysteries, Justin Time and Total DramaRama. Known for her comedic and musical timing, Lesley has recently been working on feature animations The Nut Job 2 and soon-to-be-released Arctic Dogs.
Panel #3: This Year in Dramatic Film
There’s no formula to a festival hit, but these three editors, each with a recent feature film on the circuit, shed light on their respective experiences. This panel discussion focuses on their careers in indie film, their process in editing these films, getting a festival run, and what lies ahead.
Award winning editor Lisa Grootenboer is an industry staple with two plus decades of experience. She is best known for her work on The Tudors, The Borgias, Mary Kills People and ANNE with an E, as well as for her live music cutting with Joe Bonamassa and Iron Maiden Logging in at 260 hours of cut screen time, her passion is clearly seen in her work. Since 1995, Lisa has been nominated for 18 film awards and has brought home eight, including four DGC Awards, three CCE’s and a Gemini.
Isabelle Malenfant began her career as an assistant editor learning alongside Emmy Award winning director Yves Simoneau, on his films Napoléon, Free Money, and Nuremberg. As long-time editor for critically-acclaimed director Francis Leclerc, she worked on the popular sitcom Les beaux malaises, the dramatic series Marche à l’ombre, and Mon meilleur ami and the poetic short Trotteur, amongst others. Their latest collaboration, the feature film Pieds nus dans l’aube, is an adaptation of Félix Leclerc’s autobiographical novel of the same name. Over the years, she has also collaborated with directors François Jaros, Philippe Gagnon, Quentin Dupieux (a.k.a. Mr Oizo), Olivier Asselin and Mélanie Charbonneau. Originally from Quebec, she has worked on both French and English productions including television series, films and commercials.
With a background in theatre, Malenfant is an editor with a passion for bringing out an actor’s talents and crafting their best performance. She has a particular affinity for telling dramatic stories, but an interest in seeking projects that challenge her to learn new techniques has expanded her editing credits to include comedies (Steak, Dans Une Galaxie Près de Chez Vous 2), VFX projects (Marie-Antoinette, Assassin’s Creed), animation (Mune, the guardian of the moon) and dance film (Amelia from Edouard Lock’s Lalala Human Steps).
Isabelle Malenfant has been nominated for five Gémeaux Awards including Marche à l’ombre 2 (2017), Les beaux malaises (2014-2015), Mon meilleur ami (2013), and Les Rescapés (2012). She was nominated for a Jutra Award in 2009 for Un capitalisme sentimental and won best editing at the Savannah Film Festival in 2012 with Trotteur.
She won this years’ CCE awards for Best Editing in Feature Film Pieds nus dans l’aube.
Michelle Szemberg is a Toronto born award winning film editor. After graduating from the film program at York University, Michelle worked for many years as an assistant editor. This allowed her to be mentored and to collaborate with some of the leading forces in Canadian cinema. Michelle’s selected credits include the independent feature films Moon Point (Dir. Sean Cisterna), Don’t Get Killed in Alaska (Dir. Bill Taylor), No Stranger Than Love (Dir. Nicholas Wernham), Natasha (Dir. David Bezmozgis) and the Serendipity Point Films produced feature Below Her Mouth, directed by April Mullen, which premiered at TIFF in 2016. In addition to her work in film, Michelle edited two seasons of the Netflix/Rogers TV series Between, created by Michael McGowan. Her latest titles include the Cuban/Canadian film, Un Traductor, directed by Rodrigo and Sebastian Barriuso, which premiered in competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and the upcoming Netflix/CBC series Northern Rescue.
Christine Armstrong is an editor who has worked on a variety of short films, tv series, commercials and feature films in the US and Canada. She is an alumni of Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Editor’s Lab at the Canadian Film Centre.
Armstrong’s recent work includes THE NEW ROMANTIC starring Jessica Barden (The Lobster) , and Camilla Mendes which received special Jury award at SXSW festival, THE DROP IN & MARINER (CANADA TOP TEN), comedy series Kristal Clear (Amazon PRIME) and MARY GOES ROUND (TIFF 2017, Santa Barbara Film Festival) which she received a best editing in feature nomination.
Armstrong’s upcoming work includes AMERICAN REJECT starring Annaleigh Ashford (Masters of Sex) and Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman) and her directorial debut on comedy series CLAMBAKE.
Panel #4: Behind the Cut with Ron Sanders, CCE
In this masterclass, award-winning editor Ron Sanders shares insight from his career, notably his longtime collaboration with celebrated director David Cronenberg on 19 films, for which he won four Genie Awards for Excellence in Film Editing (Dead Ringers, Crash, eXistenZ, Eastern Promises) and three Best Editor Awards from the Directors Guild of Canada (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method).
Writer-Director Jim Allodi is a graduate of the NYU film program, and the CFC Director’s Lab. He wrote and directed the acclaimed feature The Uncles (Odeon Films), named one of Canada’s Top Ten by the Cinemateque Ontario. His award winning shorts have played in numerous international festivals.
His directing work for television includes the pilot for The Republic of Doyle (CBC), Call Me Fitz (HBO Canada), Regenesis (TMN), and he has won a Gemini award and nominations for both drama and comedy (Naked Josh, Showcase), and a DGC Award for Best Miniseries/TV Movie (The Best Laid Plans, CBC.)
Having worked as an editor and photographer, Jim turned to acting in his 20’s as a means of furthering his development as a director, and has since accumulated a long list of film and television credits and appeared on stage in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.
Ron has worked with directors including, Robert Longo, Daniel Petrie Jr., Sturla Gunnarson, Norman Jewison, and Henry Sellick. He collaborated with David Cronenberg on 19 films winning Genie Awards for Dead Ringers (1989), Crash (1996), eXistenZ (2000) and Eastern Promises (2007) and DGC Awards for A History of Violence (2006), Eastern Promises (2008) and A Dangerous Method (2012). He was nominated for an American Cinema Editors Award for his work on Coraline (2010).
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