Sadik Ahmed
Sadik Ahmed was born in Sylhet, Bangladesh and
studied cinematography at the National Film and Television
School in Beaconsfield, where he shot many acclaimed
short films, short documentaries and commercials.
Tanju
Miah (06) is his most recent film.
Macky Alston
Macky Alston was born in Auburn, Alabama and received
his B.A. in art history from Columbia University. He
also holds a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological
Seminary. He made his feature-length documentary debut
in 1997 with Family Name, followed by Questioning Faith:
Confessions of a Seminarian (02).
The Killer Within (06) is
his third feature documentary.
Jennifer Baichwal
Jennifer Baichwal was born in Montreal and grew up in Victoria,
British Columbia. She attended McGill University and obtained an
M.A. in religious studies. Her feature documentaries Let It Come Down:
The Life of Paul Bowles (98) and The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby
Lee Adams’ Appalachia (02) both screened at the Festival. Baichwal’s other
documentaries include The Holier It Gets (99) and
Manufactured Landscapes (06).
Bradley Beesley
Bradley Beesley grew up in Norman, Oklahoma. His
longtime collaboration with the band The Flaming Lips has
included ten of their music videos and the documentary
Fearless Freaks (04). His other documentary features are
Hill Stomp Hollar (00), Okie Noodling (01), which played at
the Festival in 2001, and
Summercamp! (06).
Amy Berg
Amy Berg was born in Los Angeles. She has researched,
written and produced documentary segments for
programmes on CNN, CBS News and ABC News on topics
including sexual assault, battered women, poverty, social
welfare and medical research.
Deliver Us from Evil (06) is
her film directing debut.
Doug Block
Doug Block’s documentary credits as director, producer and/or
cameraman include: Home Page, The Heck With Hollywood!, Silverlake Life,
Jupiter’s Wife, A Perfect Candidate, Love and Diane, Paternal Instinct and
The Danny Williams Story (in post-production). Also, founder and co-host
of The D-Word (
www.d-word.com), an online discussion forum for documentary
professionals worldwide.
Jim Brown
Jim Brown is a writer and broadcaster with over two
decades of experience. From 1988 to 1993, he was the
publisher and editor of IslandSide Magazine. Since then,
Brown has worked primarily in radio and television, hosting
“The Current,” “As It Happens,” “This Morning” and “The
House.” Brown currently hosts “The Calgary Eyeopener” on
CBC Radio One.
Radiant City (06) is his directorial debut.
Gary Burns
Gary Burns studied drama and fine arts at the University
of Calgary before attending Concordia University. His feature
directorial debut, The Suburbanators (95), was voted
one of the ten best films of 1996 by the Toronto Film Critics
Association. He followed that success with Kitchen Party
(97), waydowntown (00) and A Problem with Fear (03), all
of which premiered at the Festival.
Radiant City (06) is his
most recent film.
Jem Cohen
Jem Cohen was born in Kabul and studied at Wesleyan
University in Connecticut. His many credits include This Is
a History of New York (88), Buried in Light (94), Nightswimming
(95), Lost Book Found (96), Instrument (99), Benjamin
Smoke (00), Chain (04),
Blessed Are the Dreams of Men
(06),
NYC Weights and Measures (06) and
Building a Broken
Mousetrap (06).
Adam Del Deo
Adam Del Deo was born in Portland, Oregon and studied
political science at the University of Redlands. He was
one of the producers of James D. Stern’s directorial debut,
All the Rage (99), and has since co-directed two documentaries
with Stern: The Year of the Yao (co-director, 04) and
…So Goes the Nation (co-director, 06).
Petra Epperlein
Petra Epperlein was born in Karl Marx Stadt in the
former East Germany and studied architecture in Dresden.
Her Gunner Palace (co-director, 04), screened at the Festival
in 2004;
The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
(co-director, 06) is her latest work.
Sophie Fiennes
Sophie Fiennes was born in Suffolk, England and studied
at the Chelsea College of Art and Design. She worked
with Peter Greenaway for several years before directing
the documentaries Lars From 1-10 (99), The Late Michael
Clark (00), Because I Sing (01), Hoover Street Revival (03)
and
The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (06).
Jeff Garlin
Jeff Garlin was born in Chicago and studied filmmaking
at the University of Miami. He has toured extensively
as a stand-up comic, adapting one of his successful solo
shows for his feature directorial debut, I Want Someone
to Eat Cheese With (06). As an actor, he has appeared in
many productions, including “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” for
which he has also been executive producer and director.
This Filthy World (06) is his second feature.
Camila Guzmán Urzúa
Camila Guzmán Urzúa was born in Santiago de
Chile and moved to Havana, where she grew up, when she
was two years old. She studied film in the United Kingdom
at the London College of Printing and Distributive Technologies
and in Paris at Les Ateliers Varan. She currently
works as an assistant director and production manager on
both fiction and non-fiction films.
The Sugar Curtain (06) is
her directorial debut.
Nader Takmil Homayoun
Nader Takmil Homayoun was born in Paris and studied filmmaking
in France at l’École Nationale Supéneure des Metiers de l’Image et
du son (FEMIS). He has directed several short films including
Cache-cache (95), Autour de Mortin (97), Les Fleurs de l’Algérien (98)
and C’est pour bientôt (00).
Iran: Une Révolution cinématographique (06)
is his first feature-length documentary.
Fionnuala Jamison
Fionnuala Jamison was born in Northern Ireland and studied at
Trinity College Dublin. She is the Coordinator for Documentaries and
Mavericks at TIFF. This is her fourth year at the festival. She's
currently in post-production on a documentary called Palenque about
a tourist site in Mexico. She divides her time between Paris and Toronto.
Allan King
Allan King was born in Vancouver.
He was a pioneer of the cinémavérité
style, developing the genre of
“actuality dramas” with such widely
acclaimed films as Warrendale (67),
A Married Couple (69), Who’s In
Charge (83), The Dragon’s Egg (99),
Dying at Grace (03) and Memory for
Max, Claire, Ida and Company (05). He has also directed
many films for television and dramatic features including
Who Has Seen the Wind (77) and Termini Station (89).
He was the subject of the 2002 Festival’s Canadian Retrospective
and the monograph “Allan King: Filmmaker,”
published by the Festival Group.
EMPz 4 Life (06) is his
most recent film.
Barbara Kopple
Barbara Kopple was born in New York City and studied clinical physiology
at Northeastern University. A leader in documentary, she has won the
Academy Award® for best documentary feature twice for Harlan County
USA (76) and American Dream (91). Her other feature-length documentaries
include Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson (93), Wild Man
Blues (97), A Conversation with Gregory Peck (99), My Generation
(co-director), which screened at the Festival in 2000, and
Dixie Chicks:
Shut Up and Sing (co-director, 06).
David Leaf
David Leaf was born in New Rochelle, New York
and graduated from George Washington University in
Washington, D.C. He has directed numerous documentaries
for television, including the Grammy-nominated
Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of SMiLE
(co-director, 04).
The U.S. vs. John Lennon (co-director,
06) is his most recent film.
Asger Leth
Asger Leth has made several short films including Gala
(96) and Again. Today (97) and worked as assistant director
on Jørgen Leth’s documentary short New Scenes from
America (02). He also was a writer and assistant director
on Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier’s feature documentary
The Five Obstructions (03), which screened as part of the
Festival’s Real to Reel programme.
Ghosts of Cité Soleil
(06) is his first feature-length film.
James Longley,
James Longley was born in Eugene, Oregon. He won a
Student Academy Award in 1994 for co-directing Portrait of
Boy With Dog. His feature-length documentaries are Gaza
Strip (02) and Iraq in Fragments (06).
Sari’s Mother (06) is
his latest film.
Ron Mann
Ron Mann was born in Toronto and works as a director,
executive producer and producer with Toronto’s Sphinx
Productions. He has devoted his career to covering the
counterculture. His films include Imagine the Sound (81),
Poetry in Motion (82), the Genie-winning Comic Book Confidential
(88), Twist (91), Grass (99) and Go Further, which
screened at the Festival in 2003.
Tales of the Rat Fink (06)
is his most recent film.
Vincenzo Marra
Vincenzo Marra was born in Naples. He has directed
the short films Una Rosa prego (98) and La Vestizione (98),
the features Sailing Home (01), which won several awards
at the Venice International Film Festival in 2001, and Vento
di terra (04), and the documentaries Outsiders of the Crowd
(01) and
The Session Is Open (06).
Catherine Martin
Catherine Martin was born in Quebec and studied
cinema and photography at Concordia University in Montreal.
After working as an editor, she began writing and
directing short films, including Odile ou réminiscences
d’un voyage (85), Nuits d’Afrique (90), L’Ombre (92) and
Les Fins de semaine (95). Her debut feature, Mariages
(01) and her medium-length documentary, Océan (02),
were both named to TIFFG’s Canada’s Top Ten by an independent
national panel. Her other films are Dans les
villes (06) and her first feature documentary,
L’Esprit
des lieux (06).
Liz Mermin
Liz Mermin was born in Ithaca, New York and received
a B.A. in literature from Harvard University and an M.A.
in cultural anthropology from New York University. She
has also been a Fulbright Scholar and a Fellow of the
Whitney Independent Study Programme and of the Rockefeller
Foundation. She is a producer, editor and director
of documentaries, whose credits include the feature documentaries
On Hostile Ground (01), The Beauty Academy of
Kabul (04) and
Office Tigers (06).
Peter Mettler
Peter Mettler is known foremost for his award winning films but also as a
photographer and groundbreaking live audio/visual mixing performer whose
work bridges the gap between experimental, narrative, personal essay and
documentary. He has been honored with retrospectives worldwide, and
collaborated with an extensive range of international artists including Atom
Egoyan, Fred Frith, Robert Lepage, and Jim O'Rourke.
Namir Abdel Messeeh
Namir Abdel Messeeh was born in Paris and studied
directing at l’École Nationale Supérieure des Métiers
de l’Image et du Son (FEMIS). He has made two short
films: Quelque chose de mal (05) and the documentary Toi,
Waguih (05).
Mohammed Naqvi
Mohammed Naqvi was born in Montreal and grew
up in Canada, the United States and Pakistan. His short
films include Time (99), Night (99) and Hide (04). He also
directed the documentary Terror’s Children (03).
Shame (06)
is his first feature-length documentary.
Alexander Oey
Alexander Oey was born in Amsterdam. He has directed
numerous documentaries for Dutch television, including
Jeff Wall (99), Bijlmer the Rough Guide (03) and Euro-
Islam According to Tariq Ramadan (05). He has also directed
episodic television.
My Life as a Terrorist: The Story of
Hans-Joachim Klein (05) is his most recent film.
Haobam Paban Kumar
Haobam Paban Kumar was born in Imphal, Manipur, India. He studied
filmmaking at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and the
Asian Academy of Film and Television. He has directed several television
programmes. His documentary AFSPA, 1958 (06) won a FIPRESCI prize at this
year’s Mumbai International Film Festival.
A Cry in the Dark (06) is his
most recent film.
Cecilia Peck
Cecilia Peck was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Princeton
University. As well as acting in numerous films and television programmes,
she has worked with Barbara Kopple in the past on Kopple’s 1997 television documentary
Defending Our Daughters, on which she served as associate producer. She also
produced Kopple’s documentary series “The Hamptons” (02) and her feature
documentary A Conversation with Gregory Peck (99). Her most recent
collaboration with Kopple is
Dixie Chicks:
Shut Up and Sing (co-director, 06).
JT Petty
JT Petty is a writer and director of movies, video games,
books and graphic novels. He is one of the creators of the
popular video game “Splinter Cell” and created the videogame
adaptation for the film Batman Begins (05). In the
summer of 2005, his most recent children’s book, “Clemency
Pogue: The Hobgoblin Proxy,” was published. His
films include Soft for Digging (01), Mimic: Sentinel (03) and
S&MAN; (06).
Andréa Picard
Andréa Picard is co-curator of Wavelengths, the Toronto International Film
Festival's programme of experimental and avant-garde film and video. She is
also a programmer at Cinematheque Ontario, the year-round screening programme
of TIFFG. She is a contributing writer to various art, film and architecture
publications, and writes a quarterly Art/Film column for Cinema Scope
magazine. She is a founding Advisory Board member of the Chicago
International Documentary Film Festival.
Thom Powers
Thom Powers is the Programmer for Documentaries and Mavericks at TIFF.
He also programs the fall and spring Stranger Than Fiction series at
Manhattan's IFC Center and teaches documentary at New York University's
School of Continuing Professional Studies. He has directed documentaries
for HBO and PBS. His most recent film is "Loving & Cheating" (05). He
divides his time between New York City and Toronto.
Sarah Price
Sarah Price was born in Virginia, and received her B.A.
from the University of Iowa and her M.F.A. from the University
of Wisconsin – both in film. She served as sound
recordist on Michael Moore’s The Big One (97) before
directing American Movie (co-director, 99), Caesar’s Park
(00), and The Yes Men (co-director, 03), which screened
at the Festival in 2003.
Summercamp! (co-director, 06) is
her latest documentary.
Tahani Rached
Tahani Rached was born in Egypt and settled in Montreal,
where she attended l’École des Beaux-Arts. Her
documentary features include Les Voleurs de jobs (79),
Beirut! Not Enough Death to Go Round (83), Au Chic Resto
Pop (90), Médecins de coeur (93), Quatre Femmes d’Egypte
(97), Urgence! Deuxième Souffle (99), À travers chants (01),
Soraida, une femme de Palestine (04) and
These Girls (06).
Paul Rachman
Paul Rachman was born in New York City. While in
college, he directed underground films and music videos
for numerous hardcore punk bands, including Bad Brains,
Gang Green, Negative FX and Mission of Burma. He later
gained prominence as a music video director at Propaganda
Films and was a founder of the Slamdance Film Festival. He
has directed several award-winning short films, including
Memories with Joe Frank (92), Drive Baby Drive (95), Bang
Bang (99), Home (01) and Zoe XO (04). He made his feature
directorial debut in 2000 with Four Dogs Playing Poker.
American Hardcore (06) is his most recent film.
Gabriel Range
Gabriel Range was born in Chester, England and studied Medicine at
Bristol University and did postgraduate work in journalism at Cardiff
University. He has directed drama-documentaries for British television,
including The Great Dome Robbery (02), The Menendez Murders (02), The Day
Britain Stopped (03) and The Man Who Broke Britain (04).
D.O.A.P. (06) is
his most recent film.
Nicolas Rey
Nicolas Rey has been making films since 1993. In 1995,
he co-founded L’Abominable, an artist-run film lab in Paris.
His films, which hover somewhere between photography,
documentary and experimental cinema, include Postier de
nuit (95), Terminus for You (96), opera mundi (99), Les Soviets
plus l’électricité (01) and
Schuss! (05).
Ari Sandel
Ari Sandel was born in Calabasas,
California. He studied media
arts at the University of Arizona and
received an M.A. from the University
of Southern California. He directed
the award-winning short film West
Bank Story (05), which has screened
at over one hundred film festivals
worldwide.
Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30
Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland (06) is his
feature documentary directorial debut.
John Scheinfeld
John Scheinfeld was born in Milwaukee. He attended
Oberlin College and Northwestern University. He is a prolific
writer, director and producer of television documentaries,
including The Unknown Peter Sellers (co-director, 00)
and Ricky Nelson Sings (05) and the documentary feature
Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About
Him?) (06).
The U.S. vs. John Lennon (co-director, 06) is his
most recent film.
AJ Schnack
AJ Schnack was born in Edwardsville, Illinois. He is an
independent filmmaker who made his feature directorial
debut with Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) (02), a documentary
about the rock band They Might Be Giants. In addition
to feature documentaries, he has directed music videos
and two short films: Might as Well Be Swing (00) and The
Heir Apparent (05).
Kurt Cobain About A Son (06) is his
most recent film.
James Stern
James D. Stern was born in Chicago and received an
MBA from Columbia University. He has produced numerous
films, including Proof (05) and Stay Alive (06). He made his
feature directorial debut with All the Rage, which screened
at the Festival in 1999. He has also co-directed three documentaries:
Michael Jordan to the Max (co-director, 00), The
Year of the Yao (co-director, 04), which screened at the Festival
in 2004, and
…So Goes the Nation (co-director, 06).
Michael Tucker
Michael Tucker was born in Honolulu. His Gunner Palace
(co-director, 04), screened at the Festival in 2004;
The
Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair (co-director, 06)
is his latest work.
Lucy Walker
Lucy Walker grew up in London. She studied literature
at Oxford University, where she also wrote and directed
theatre. She received an M.F.A. from New York University’s
graduate film programme. She directed Devil’s Playground
(02), a documentary dealing with the struggles of Amish
teenagers, and has directed television commercials, music
videos and three award-winning shorts.
Blindsight (06) is
her most recent film. She is blind in one eye.
Akram Zaatari
Akram Zaatari was born in Saida, Lebanon and currently
lives in Beirut. He has created more than thirty videos and
photo/video installations exploring the relationship between
documents and history, particularly in times of conflict. Zaatari
is a co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation, through
which his recent research-based work on the photographic
history of the Middle East has developed. His videos include
All Is Well on the Border (97), Red Chewing Gum (00), This
Day (03) and
In This House (05).
Jia Zhang-Ke
Jia Zhang-Ke was born in Fengyang, China and studied
at the Beijing Film Academy. He directed his first feature,
Pickpocket, in 1997. His next three features each screened
at the Festival: Platform (00), Unknown Pleasures (02) and
The World (04). He directed the short documentary In Public
in 2001.
Dong (06) is his first feature-length documentary.