HOW TO START YOUR OWN COUNTRY
Credits / Bios
Jody Shapiro – Director, Producer
Jody Shapiro is a filmmaker and photographer whose work has been featured in various festivals, galleries and publications around the world. He co-directed and produced Green Porno, a series of short films with Isabella Rossellini about the sex lives of insects which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He directed and produced Ice Breaker, a documentary portrait of life aboard a Canadian coast guard vessel which premiered at the Hot Docs documentary festival in 2005. Shapiro has also produced several works by Guy Maddin, including My Winnipeg, winner of the Best Canadian Feature Film award at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and selected as one of the top ten films of the decade by Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Denis Seguin – Writer, Co-producer
An award-winning journalist and filmmaker, Denis Seguin has been writing about what interests him in such publications as The Walrus and the Globe and Mail in Canada, Slate in the US and The Times and The Guardian in the UK. He co-wrote the feature documentary 100 Films And A Funeral, the story of the first Hollywood film studio not run from Hollywood. His short film, It’s My Right, won the $10,000 first prize in Canadian Film Centre’s 2010 Reel Challenge.
Phyllis Laing – Producer
President of Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Pictures, Phyllis Laing has produced an impressive list of acclaimed feature films, documentaries and TV programs. Some of her notable recent accomplishments include her role as executive producer on Guy Maddin’s feature film My Winnipeg (2008), her role as producer on the 2009 psychological horror Haunting in Connecticut; and as executive producer for 2009’s Gemini-winning hit TV series Less Than Kind.
John Gurdebeke - Cinematographer
John Gurdebeke is trained as an artist, now working in film. Besides cinematography, he is primarily noted for his work as picture editor and sound designer. Recent picture edit work of note includes: Guy Maddin’s ‘Cowards Bend The Knee’, ‘Brand Upon The Brain!’, ‘My Winnipeg’ and ‘Night Mayor’, the Isabella Rossellini / Guy Maddin short ‘My Dad is 100 Years Old’, as well as Sean Garrity’s feature ‘Lucid’.