Mathieu Samaille majored in literature and studied drama and digital arts. He is a Canadian and French Citizen. In 2018, his experience in interdisciplinary arts, including writing, directing and editing, led to an interest in Video-Poetry, an immersive and ontological art form that explores the sensorial bonds between text, sound and image, transposing literary processes in media arts (see trailers below).
He was awarded the Grand-Prix de Vidéo-Poésie at the Festival de la poésie de Montréal 2019. His videos toured in many festivals and cultural events (Canada, USA, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Sweden, England, Poland, Portugal, Mexico…). A copy of his video-poem Madame Jarrar was purchased by Harvard University Department of “Art, Film and Visual Studies” for classroom use. With the support of The Canada Council for the Arts, a solo installation of his work premiered in Montreal at Festival Phénomena in October 2022. Distributed by The Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center, it will tour internationally in 2023.
Matthew Wade is an illustrator, animator, filmmaker & musician from the Northwest United States. He studied Classical Animation at Vancouver Film School before working as a freelance commercial animator in LA for brands such as Footlocker, Vans, Apple, Target, SyFy Channel, Whole Foods, Patagonia, the NFL, and on music videos for the bands Good Times Ahead (formerly G.T.A.), Brockhampton, and more.
Matthew’s short films have premiered in Oscar-qualifying festival competitions including Slamdance (4 times) and San Francisco International Film Festival, as well as having screened around the world, including ExGround, Alchemy Film & Arts, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Sun Valley Film Festival, GIRAF, and at the Hollywood Arclight Cinema’s (R.I.P) Slamdance Presents series.
Matthew’s work has been covered in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Threat, Screen Anarchy, NoBudge, Cartoon Brew, Hammer to Nail, Brooklyn Magazine, Horror Buzz, The Journal of Religion & Film, Moviemaker Magazine, and more.
Matthew currently lives with his wife/producing partner, Sara Lynch, in the Pacific Northwest, USA.
Maude Trottier holds a master’s degree in Art History. Her doctoral research project deals with the historiography of sculpture. She is member of the editorial committee of Panorama-cinéma, editor for the collective Moult Éditions and writes art and film criticism for various journals and magazines (Spirale, Vie des arts, Hors champ).
Maxime Labrecque possède un doctorat en études cinématographiques de l’Université de Montréal. En 2017, il a publié l’essai Le film choral : Panorama d’un genre impur aux Éditions l’Instant Même. Il enseigne le cinéma au Cégep Garneau et a été chargé de cours à l’Université de Montréal. Il est membre de l’AQCC et rédacteur pour la revue Séquences, en plus d’être chroniqueur à CIBL 101,5. Il a été membre du jury pour plusieurs festivals, notamment le Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Fantasia, Regard et le Festival International du film de Rotterdam.
Miryam Charles (Une barque ouverte) is a filmmaker of Haitian descent living in Montreal. Her latest film Drei Atlas screened in various International film festivals and recevied a special mention from the new alchemists jury (FNC 2018), as well as the price for best experimental film at the RVQC 2019. More recently her short film Second Generation was selected for the last edition of TIFF. A retrospective of her works was featured at the cinémathèque québécoise in April 2019. In 2020 a second retrospective was presented during the 4th edition of the Third Horizon Film Festival, as well as an collaborative installation at the Leonard and Ellen Bina Art Gallery in Montreal. Miryam is currently at work on her first feature film.
Mohammed Harb was born in Gaza City and graduated from Al Najah University, Nablus, with a BA in Fine Arts in 2001 also graduated from the School of Visual Arts in Marrakech, Morocco in 2015. He is a member of the Palestinian Association of Fine Artists and since 2003 has been working as a director at the Palestine satellite TV channel in Gaza. Harb has also participated in many local, regional and international exhibitions, festivals and workshops, in Europe and the Arab world. He took part in the Cannes International Film Festival within the Palestinian pavilion of the film Repatriation Room 2019. The film was nominated for the Robert Bosch International Prize in Germany as Best Documentary Project on Human Rights. Mohamed has received many local and international awards and several grants for his innovative work not only in project implementation but also in the use of IT and video techniques.
Mustafa Abu Ali (1940-2009) was a Palestinian filmmaker. Abu Ali studied at the University of California-Berkeley in the 1960s before studying cinema in London, graduating in 1967. He is considered one of the founders of Palestinian cinema, and the Palestinian Cinema Association in Beirut in 1973, (re-established in Ramallah in 2004). Along with Sulafa Jadallah and Hani Jowharieh, he established the Palestine Film Unit (PFU)—which saw its primary task as “documenting the revolution and creating an archive of images of historical documents”. After the PLO’s move to Lebanon after the events of Black September, the PFU was renamed the Palestine Cinema Institute and became one of the seven departments of the PLO’s Unified Media. Abu Ali headed the department from 1973 to 1975. Abu Ali wrote four screenplays and directed more than 30 films, for which he won more than 14 awards, the most recent from the 2003 Ismailia Film Festival.
