York University

BIOGRAPHY

Geneviève Appleton started her career as an award-winning actress in KIDS OF DEGRASSI, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, THE SEQUEL (ANNE OF AVONLEA) and other films and TV shows. After receiving her B.A.A. in Film Production from Ryerson University in 1994, she started working behind the camera as associate producer trainee on the award-winning CBC mini-series THE ARROW (starring Dan Aykroyd), and on the development of feature films SUCH A LONG JOURNEY directed by Sturla Gunnarsson and WHOLE NEW THING directed by Amnon Buchbinder.

Geneviève associate produced WILBY WONDERFUL (starring Sandra Oh, Ellen Page, Paul Gross, Callum Keith Rennie and Rebecca Jenkins) by writer-director Daniel MacIvor, which screened at festivals around the world, and is distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media and in the US by Film Movement. She produced Amnon Buchbinder’s short, TRAVELLING MEDICINE SHOW: APOCALYPSE, funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

Since receiving her MFA in Screenwriting from York University in 2003, Geneviève has written narration for the travel series GAP: GREAT ADVENTURE PEOPLE (broadcast on National Geographic and other channels) and two feature film documentaries: IN THE LAND OF THE MOOSE, directed by Harold Arsenault, which aired on TV5, and PARTLY PRIVATE, directed by Danae Elon, which won the best New York Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival.

For her company, White Wave Productions (est. 1992), Geneviève has written, produced, directed and co-edited several films. Her documentary A GARDEN’S FAMILY aired on Vision TV, and ACTOR’S TRANSFORMATION, featuring the extraordinary work of acting teacher Deena Levy and her students in NYC, premiered at the Female Eye Film Festival and aired on Bravo! Canada. Her short dance film CALLING THE MINSTREL was screened at the 2010 Olympics’ Cultural Olympiad, the Atlanta Film Festival, and the Izmir International Short Film Festival.

She produced Seth Feldman’s documentaries THE DACHAU LINE, screened at several conferences including Visible Evidence at New York University, and MAUTHAUSEN TWICE, screened at the Toronto Independent Film Festival and the Utanç Muzesi (“Museum of Shame”) in Turkey.

She was invited to present her documentary EAST TIMOR PEACE MISSION at the 20th Anniversary Commemoration Ceremony and Conference in Timor-Leste, where it aired on East Timor Television. Footage from the film and an interview with Geneviève were included as part of a new documentary by Francisco Manso Producoes for RTP1 (the Portuguese public TV channel).

With Colleen Wagner, Geneviève co-directed and co-produced the documentary WOMEN BUILDING PEACE, which won Best Documentary at the Silver Wave Festival.

She earned a BAA (Honours) in Film Production from Ryerson in 1994, and an MFA in Screenwriting from York University in 2004. Since 2003 Geneviève has taught Screenwriting and Media Production at various institutions including Bilkent University, University of Toronto, York University, Sheridan and Ryerson as well as in private workshops.

She is the producer of Amnon Buchbinder’s interactive documentary BIOLOGY OF STORY (biologyofstory.com), featuring interviews with storytelling experts Steven Bochco, Dean DeBlois, Pen Densham, Leonard Dick, Aaron Ehasz, Rodrigo Garcia, Alex McDowell, Janet Peoples, David Webb Peoples, Philip Pullman and Zak Penn, as well as dozens more. She currently teaches a course based on this project at York University

Born in Lima, Peru, Marcos graduated from the Communication’s program at San Martin de Porras University in 1985. In Peru he worked as a journalist and photographer for the daily magazine “MARKA,” and the weekly magazine “AMAUTA”

Arriaga immigrated to Canada in 1987. He graduated from Sheridan College’s Media Arts Film Program in 1995 followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film Production at York University in 2003. Arriaga has directed over a dozen films including WATCHING (1994); MARS (1995); EL BARRIO (1998); THE HARRIS PROJECT (1998); PROMISED LAND (2002); A LITTLE SQUARE HEAVEN (2003); 3X16 (2007); TALE OF WINTER (2008); ASSEMBLY (2012); MY GENTRIFICATION (2020); JATUN LLAXTA, NOH KAAH….(2020) and two medium length documentaries, MARICONES (2005) and LOOKING FOR CARMEN (2012).

Marcos’ visual project, “MANY YEARS LATER”, a solo Photography Exhibition (20 Silver Gelatin Prints) was featured at MayWork Festival 2011, Toronto Free Gallery.

Arriaga was the Director of Photography on several independent productions including: HONEY MOCASSIN (1998); DEEP INSIDE OF CLINT STAR (1999), which won a Gemini award for Best Social and Political Documentary (2000); the feature drama JOHNNY GREY EYES (2001), which won awards at Toronto’s Inside Out Film Festival and the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles; ZERO: THE INSIDE STORY (2004); GOLDIROCKS (2003); and several shorts.

Marcos works as a Film Technician in the Department of Cinema and Media Arts at York University and lives in Toronto, Canada.

Tereza Barta has extensive experience as a director, writer, researcher and editor, having worked on more than 25 documentaries, a feature film, and numerous television productions. For twelve years she was a writer and director at the Romanian National Film Board in Bucharest, followed by stints at the Austrian Film Board and CBC Radio Canada in Montreal. Her films have been screened at prestigious international festivals such as Bilbao (Spain), Leipzig and Oberhausen (Germany), Bucharest, Chicago and Montreal, and she has been honoured with many international and national awards, including a Gemini in 1994 for her documentary Chez nous, c’est nous ici. Currently she is producing a feature-length film titled And now, where?, a Franco-Canadian-Romanian co-production.

Prior to York, Professor Barta held teaching appointments at a number of post-secondary institutions including the National Theatre School and Concordia University in Montreal, and the Academy of Film, Theatre and Television at the University of Bucharest. She joined the faculty in York’s film department in 1995.

As an artist, Hector’s focus is on the aesthetic potential of immersive digital sound, visual and interactive experiences that seek to engage the audience into a reflection of existence, place relationship and the phenomenology of place. Among his artistic activities are national and international presentations of multi-channel sound art, interactive installation art, live sound and video performances, virtual reality experiences, virtual cinematography (virtual production), and virtual photography.

As a software and interactive system developer and designer, he has worked on virtual and augmented reality interactive experiences, video game mechanics and simulation systems, hardware sensors and micro-controller interactive systems for art installations, and spatial audio software tools. The organizations he has been involved with include New Adventures in Sound Art (as Technical Director), Impossible Things (as Technology Director) and for multiple independent interactive media artists.

As an academic, Hector has taught courses on theory and production techniques of digital media art at OCADU (Digital Futures), George Brown College (VFX, Interaction Design and Video Design) and Sheridan’s SIRT (Virtual Production).

Professor Cameron retired from teaching in 2008 having for over forty years taught screenwriting, design and production in Canada, England and the United States while attending to the historical and philosophical roots of the crafts. Four students who studied screenwriting, design or production with him have won Academy Awards and nominations, three have won other Academy Award nominations and six have won both Student Academy Awards and nominations. Upon retirement, he relinquished as well his cross-appointments to the graduate programs in Philosophy and in Cultural Studies. A growing collection of his lectures and essays may be found within the ‘Evan Wm. Cameron Collection’ of YorkSpace. Onsite overviews of his philosophical and cinematical predilections may be found in the essays “Filmmaking, Logic and the Historical Reconstruction of the World”, Film & Philosophy II (1995, pp. 88-104); and “From Plato to Socrates: Wittgenstein’s Journey on Collingwood’s Map”, Canadian Aesthetics Journal, Vol. 10 (Fall/Autumn 2004).

Dr. Mary Bunch is an Assistant Professor In Cinema and Media Arts and affiliated with Theatre Studies, and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA). She earned her PhD in Theory and Criticism at Western University in 2011. Dr. Bunch’s teaching and research interests include interdisciplinary and collaborative critical disability, feminist, queer studies and critical theory, research creation and arts-based methodologies. She works at the intersection of the political imagination and its visual / sensory expressions. Her current project on Ecstatic Freedom engages theoretical, activist, and arts epistemologies as these re-envision the forms that democratic participation, political belonging and justice take. She has published articles in the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies; Feminist Theory; Culture, Theory and Critique; and the Canadian Journal of Human Rights. Dr. Bunch has taught at McGill University, the University of Toronto and Western University.

HONOURS AND AWARDS 

2020 Nomination, Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary Program, Canadian Screen Awards – In Search for a Perfect World (director) 

2017 Faculty of Graduate Studies Dissertation Prize, York University 

2014 Special Jury Award, Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs & 

2014 Nomination, Best Documentary Editing, Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) – When the Last Curtain falls (editor, co-writer) 

2015 Grimme Online Award – The Polar Sea (co-director) 

2013 Best Documentary Series, Canadian Screen Awards – The Photograph (director, writer) 

2013 Webby Award – Official Selection; One Show Interactive Competition – Official Selection; Prix Numix – Official Selection; Prix Boomerang – Grand Prix; The Favourite Website Award (FWA) – Site of the Day, for At Home/Chez Soi (co-director) 

2012 Nomination, Golden Sheaf Award, Yorkton – Dark Tourism (director, writer) 

2011 Special Jury Award, Hot Docs Festival – Guantanamo Trap (editor, co-writer) 

2011 Nomination, Best Feature Documentary, Genie Awards – Guantanamo Trap (editor, co-writer) 

2007 Best Documentary, Directors Guild of Canada & 

2007 Nomination, Best Historical Documentary, Gemini Award – Hitler’s Children (director, writer, editor) 

2007 Best Social Documentary, Donald Brittain Gemini Award & 

2007 Nomination, Directors Guild of Canada Award & 

2007 Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival – fatherland (director, writer, editor) 

2007 Best Documentary Series, Gemini Awards – Diamond Road (co-director) 

2005 Nomination, Directors Guild of Canada Award & 

2005 Gold Camera Award, US Film & Video Festival & 

2005 Chris Award, Columbus – – The Siege (director, writer, editor) 

2004 Best Biography and Best Documentary Series, Gemini Awards) & 

2004 Nomination, Directors Guild Award & 

2004 Best Direction, Hugo Awards, Chicago & 

2004 World Film Fest Award, Houston – Neighbours (director, writer, editor 

2002 Nomination, Canadian Directors Guild Award & 

2002 Best of Festival, World Film Fest, Houston & 

2002 Finalist, BASC, Australia – Death of a Warrior (director, co-writer, editor) 

2001 Donald Brittain Award for Best Social Documentary, Gemini Awards – Breakaway (editor, co-writer) 

1999 Nomination, Best Editing, Gemini Awards – Thin Ice (editor) 

1997 Best Feature Documentary, Genie Awards – A place called Chiapas (editor, co-writer) 

1996 Best Editing and Best Biography, Gemini Awards – Wrestling with Shadows (editor) 

1995 International Emmy Award & 

1995 Donald Brittain Award for Best Social Documentary, Gemini Awards – Gerrie and Louise (editor) 

1990 Nomination, Best Short Documentary, Genie Awards – Who Gets In (editor)