Director’s notes

Joe Balass founded Compass Productions in 1997 and works in both fiction and documentary. He has produced and directed numerous award-winning films, including Nana, George & Me (1997), The Devil in the Holy Water (2002), Parting Words (2006), Baghdad Twist (2007), JOY! Portrait of a Nun (2012), The Length of the Alphabet (2013), Venus (2017), The Affairs of Lidia (2022), and Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever Seen? (2024). Balass is known for a distinctive blend of seriousness and humour, with a strong focus on underrepresented, racialized, and queer voices. His films have screened at major festivals including TIFF, Tribeca, and IDFA. Both the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Toronto Jewish Film Festival have honoured him with retrospectives of his work. His most recent feature as producer, Calorie by Eisha Marjara, was shot in Canada and India. He also has several features in development, including Mary, Mary by cult filmmaker Bruce LaBruce, and Farida, adapted from a novel by the award-winning Canadian-Iraqi writer Naïm Kattan.

In addition to his production work, Balass organizes the Journées du cinéma québécois en Italie, a festival dedicated to showcasing francophone Canadian cinema in Italy, now in its twentieth edition.

An accomplished producer and well-known in the Montreal film industry, Barbara Shrier has collaborated with well-known filmmakers such as Louis Malle, Jean-Jacques Annaud and Alan Rudolph. 

She has produced features by François Girard, Gabriel Pelletier, Francis Leclerc, Tara Johns and Julien Knafo. Sought after co-production partner she has collaborated with teams from Italy, Austria, England, China, Belgium and France. 

Her commitment to solid, auteur-driven work continues with the production of Out Late  by Thomas Michael, Good Bones an original screenplay by Tara Johns, and  Mater  a genre film written by Émilie Serri. She continues to support young filmmakers by Executive Producing a variety of projects and mentoring screenwriters.

A pioneer of sustainable film production she sits on the BCTQ committee Rolling Green and gives workshops to producers across the country.

Gaëtan Gravel is a composer, musician and producer. He composes for film, television and the visual arts. He has scored over twenty feature films, ballets and musical environments for museum exhibitions. He combines a variety of writing and production techniques, and has received national nominations and awards for his orchestral, electronic and experimental music.

His sensory approach to film music combines many creative and production techniques, from field recording to sampling and orchestral writing. He interweaves acoustic instruments, electronics and concrete sounds to explore the emotional dimension of narration and give a singular voice to the invisible character that is film music. 

His credits include music for Sophie Dupuis (SOUTERRAIN, CHIEN DE GARDE), Eisha Marjara (VENUS), Raymond St-Jean (CRÉPUSCULE POUR UN TUEUR), François Girard (CARGO, LE DORTOIR), Charles Binamé (ELEPHANT SONG), Rudy Barichello (MEETINGS WITH A YOUNG POET), Olivier Asselin (LE CYCLOTRON).

He is the recipient of the 2014 Alex North Award for Film Music as well as the 2016 SOCAN Award for International Television Music and a SOCAN Classic. He lives and works in Montreal.

Marc Simpson-Threlford, a Canadian cinematographer with over two decades of experience, has worked on various film, television, commercial, and music video projects. His notable credits include the Academy Award-nominated film Marguerite(2017) and Dear Flora, winner of the Grand Prix at the Gémeaux Awards. He also contributed to Nous Season 1, which won Best Daily TV Series at the Gémeaux Awards, and the film Brain Freeze, which opened the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival. A member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC), Marc has filmed projects across Canada, the United States, France, Mexico, Cuba, and India.

Christophe Dalpé, cinematographer, lives and works in Montreal. He began his professional career working on various music videos, commercials, and short films, including Patrice Laliberté's Viaduc, which won the award for Best Short Film at TIFF. His career has since focused on fiction film and television, where he has distinguished himself with the first Quebec film produced by Netflix, Jusqu'au Déclin by Patrice Laliberté, as well as a Gémeaux Award nomination for the series Aller Simple by Yan Lanouette-Turgeon. He continues to work on projects that stand out locally and internationally, such as Mo Matton's short film Gender Reveal, selected at Locarno and TIFF, and the series La Collecte directed by Podz.

Born in the suburbs of Paris in 1993, Paul Chotel has been living in Quebec since 2011, where he studied media arts and cinema at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. He has since worked as an editor, screenwriter, director and producer. He co-wrote and co-produced the short film ÉCUME (2020) which was presented in official competition at the 70th edition of the Berlinale. His first feature film DESVIO DE NOCHE (2022) had its world premiere at FID Marseille in international competition.

Patricia Christie has been working professionally as a production designer since graduating with her BFA in film production from Montreal’s Concordia University in 1989, following a BA at McGill University in Film Studies and English Literature. Ever interested in creative diversity, she has also co-owned and curated the Archive Art Gallery in Toronto with the architect Johnson Chou. The gallery opened in 1990, boasting one of Canada's first and most comprehensive databases, featured in a 1930's rif on a library space.  Aside from curating hundreds of shows for Archive and a prominent one for Red Bull Canada, entitled Playing In Traffic, Archive's primary focus was to offer decorators, and ultimately film designers a vast resource of contemporary art with copyright clearance for use in film and TV.  Archive inc. gallery and art library ran until 2010 in Toronto.   Originally from Montreal, Patricia's career has spanned the two cities ever since and wherever else film takes her. Although she has primarily worked as production designer within the Canadian Independent Feature Film Industry, she has also worked in ad world and TV.

Marie-Florence has been working in the artistic field for more than five years, as artistic director and costume designer. She participates in several film and musical productions and adds her touch, sometimes dark, sometimes bright, but always "on point" with the project concept. For the production Calorie, Marie-Florence offers a palette for the costumes that blends beautifully with the artistic direction. Her costumes are frank and sincere with the personality of the characters.