Katherine Knight
(KOOP, Colour, 52 minutes, English, 2011)

Katherine Knight is a filmmaker, artist and professor of visual art at York University. In 2006, Knight and David Craig founded Site Media Inc., a Toronto film company that produces documentary films about creative individuals in extraordinary places. Knight is the producer of Annie Pootogook and Kinngait: Riding Light Into the World. Her 2009 film about Canadian performance artist Colette Urban, Pretend Not to See Me, received Special Mention at the Ecofilm Festival in Rhodos, Greece.

Tamra Davis
(Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, Colour, 88 minutes, English, 2009)

Tamra Davis was born in California and studied filmmaking at the Los Angeles City College Cinema. She began her career directing music videos for artists including Hanson, Luscious Jackson and Sonic Youth, and directed her first feature, Gun Crazy, in 1992. Other features include Billy Madison, Half Baked and Crossroads. Davis has also directed documentaries like Mi Vida Loca and the short films To the Curb and Sophie Goes to the Beach. She helmed a concert feature for the Indigo Girls and travelled to Africa, where she directed a film for the United Nations about Bill Clinton’s land-mines initiative.

Sheng Zhimin
(China, the Empire of Art?, Colour, 52 minutes, Mandarin and French with English subtitles, 2010)

Sheng Zhimin is a screenwriter and executive producer for independent filmmakers. He began directing films in 2003.

Emma Tassy
(China, the Empire of Art?, Colour, 52 minutes, Mandarin and French with English subtitles, 2010)

Emma Tassy lived in Beijing in the 1990s before working in the field of contemporary art upon her return to Paris. She is now an author and independent journalist.

Noberto López Amado
(How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? Colour, 78 minutes, English, 2010)

Noberto López Amado has been working for the past 20 years as a filmmaker on diverse projects in cinema, television and advertising. His first full-length feature film, Nos Miran, was a commercial success and was well received by critics worldwide. He is currently considered one of the leading directors of episodic television in Spain. Lopez’s second feature film, Zig Zag, is in pre-production.

Carlos Carcas
(How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? Colour, 78 minutes, English, 2010 )

Carlos Carcas is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Madrid. He has collaborated with Spanish director Fernando Trueba on several projects including The Miracle of Candeal, winner of the Spanish Academy’s Goya Award for Best Documentary. In 2008, Carcas released Old Man Bebo, his first feature-length documentary, which he wrote, directed and edited, and for which he was awarded the Documentary Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 2008 Tribeca FilmFestival.

Claudia Müller
(About Jenny Holzer, Colour, 52 minutes, English and German with English subtitles, 2009)

Claudia Müller has a background in journalism, German literature, and fine art. Since 1991, she has worked as a television journalist and director, making numerous film portraits, videoclips, interviews and documentaries.

Maria Anna Tappeiner
(Nam June Paik: Open Your Eyes, colour, 48 min, English, 2009)

Maria Anna Tappeiner is a freelance art historian and documentary filmmaker living in Frankfurt, Germany. She has made documentaries on prominent artists and filmmakers such as William Kentridge, Richard Serra and several others.

Marcia Connolly
(Ghost Noise, Colour/Black & White, 23 minutes, English and Inuktitut with with English subtitles, 2010)

Marcia Connolly produces emotive films that create a sense of intimacy between her documentary subjects and her audience. Connolly’s work has been shown internationally and nationally, including at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Palme in Paris, the Toronto International Film Festival, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Smithsonian Institute and the National Gallery of Canada. She has contributed over 50 pieces for award-winning programs at the CBC.

Lucas Hrubizna
(Will, Colour, 28 minutes, English, 2010)

Lucas Hrubizna is a filmmaker, musician and photographer from Calgary. He is currently taking a year to travel after graduating from Westmount Charter School.

Edgar B. Howard
(Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawings, Colour, 55 minutes, English, 2010)

Edgar B. Howard is the Founder and President of Checkerboard Films, a non-profit foundation that documents American arts for archival and educational purposes. He has produced and/or directed over 45 films featuring several prominent artists, architects, musicians and writers.

Tom Piper
(Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawings, Colour, 55 minutes, English, 2010)

Tom Piper is the Director of Production for the Checkerboard Film Foundation, where he is responsible for directing, shooting and editing long-format documentaries on individuals who have made important contributions to the American arts. He has co-directed three films with Edgar B. Howard.

Michael Ostroff
(Winds of Heaven: Emily Carr, Carvers and the Spirits of the Forest, Colour/Black & White, 87 minutes, English, 2010)

Michael Ostroff has produced documentaries and educational videos since 1973. He has specialized in narrative historical documentaries exploring issues relating to history and development of Canada’s cultural voice. Ostroff’s previous work as a director includes Pegi Nicol: Something Dancing About Her, which premiered at the National Gallery and was an Official Selection (In Competition) of the prestigious Festival International du Film sur l’Art (2006), and Budge, a portrait of pioneering Canadian filmmaker Budge Crawley.

Margaret Brown
(Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt, Colour, 99 minutes, English, 2004)

Margaret Brown makes her directorial debut with Be Here to Love Me. She produced Six Miles of Eight Feet, which won a Student Academy Award. She was the cinematographer for Ice Fishing, which received a Special Jury Prize from Sundance in 2000, and for which she was given the Nestor Almendros Award for Cinematography from the NYU Graduate Film Program. Brown has also produced a feature-length Western about singing cowboys, Mi Amigo (2002).

Harry Killas
(Picture Start , Colour, 48 minutes, English, 2010)

Harry Killas is a Vancouver-based director, writer and producer. Recent documentary work includes Aristotle’s Lagoon, a history of Aristotle’s biological thought, for the BBC. Of note for this festival, Killas directed and produced Glowing in the Dark, a history of neon art and design. Dramatic work includes What Else Have You Got? and Babette’s Feet, which played at over 25 international festivals including Toronto and Clermont-Ferrand. Killas currently teaches documentary and dramatic filmmaking, and media studies at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver.

Michael Hegglin
(The Colour of Your Socks: A Year With Pipilotti Rist, Colour, 52 minutes, English, Swiss German and German with English subtitles, 2009)

Michael Hegglin was born in Zug, Switzerland. He studied philosophy, history and German before beginning a career in television. He has made numerous documentary films and film portraits.

Susan Sollins
(William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible, Colour, 55 minutes, English, 2010)

Susan Sollins is the Executive Director and founder of Art21 and has served as Executive Producer, Director and Curator of the Peabody Award–winning PBS television series Art in the Twenty-First Century. In addition to her past curatorial and consulting work for many art institutions, Susan Sollins is the co-founder and Executive Director Emerita of the nonprofit organization Independent Curators International.