Made Here Film Festival 2022 – Meet the Filmmakers

 

CHRISTIAN ACOSTA – ME VALE! 

“Me Vale! was born from a few of my experiences and my frustration with coming of age films, all featuring the same kind of protagonist, a straight white male. I wanted to show another perspective. My own experiences being Colombian born in America influenced a lot of Me Vale!” 

ALEX ANNA – SCARS 

Anna is a director and script supervisor. As a queer and feminist filmmaker, she made her first short film The Fruit of Our Womb in 2017, and uses art as a way to fight for a better world.  

XAVIER BEAUCHESNE-RONDEAU – CITIZEN PATROL 

Xavier studied cinema at UQAM (Montreal) and at the Institut national de l’image et du son (INIS). He has made many award-winning shorts and in 2015 he completed his first feature film, Hier, aujourd’hui, hier. 

CÉDRIC BÉRARD-PATRY – THE UNCANNY WAYS OF BEINGS

Graduate of the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal in 2018, Cédric has been exploring his own themes since adolescence: life and death, transitions and separations, love, masculinity, the quest for meaning. This is his first film as director.

SHANE BUTLER – THE CANDY TIN 

Butler has written, directed, and produced two feature films that played in film festivals around the country. He currently works as a Digital Content Producer at Harvard University. 

BETSY CARSON AND WENDY CHAPKIS – BAR STORIES FROM QUEER MAINE 

Carson has been making self-funded movies since 1995. She has co-produced short and long format films and a 53-episode comedy web series. Chapkis is the Faculty Scholar for the Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine’s LGBTQ+ Collection and has created the “Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project.”

ELLA CAUSER – TIMESICK LOVE TRAVELLER

Causer is a Vermont native currently studying film at Oberlin College 

GUILLAUME COLLIN – BABATOURA 

Collin is a director and producer. Co-founder of Arpent Films, he has produced many short films. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni. Babatoura is his first funded short film.

JORIS COTTIN – EXPIRATION

Born Franco-German, trained in NY and adopted by Montreal, Joris Cottin traveled the world as a cinematographer, before moving on to directing. Expiration is his first documentary. 

TRISH DENTON – X-VOTIVE 

The founder of In Tandem Arts, Trish Denton is a director and interdisciplinary artist crafting original works for both stage and screen. Influenced by magic realism and the oral storytelling tradition, Trish prioritizes collaborative ethnography and the utopian impulse in her community-based work.

MARK FREEMAN, BRANDON ST. CYR- THE GREEN KNIGHT

Brandon St. Cyr is a visual effects artist and Mark Freeman is a writer, both are filmmakers, and together have co-directed and produced three narrative films together, The Green Knight being their latest.

OLIVIER FRIGON – WOMAN OF THE WOODS

Frigon specialized in cinematography, working on film and TV series, directing music videos and commercials. He is currently working on his first feature film.

JEAN-MICHEL GERVAIS, GABRIEL J. LEMAY – ROSA 

“The story that Lemay and I brought to the screen is based on my own experience. A few years back, I encountered a hard time which brought me to be committed to a psychiatric emergency. This stay at the hospital left a mark on me. And, without Gabriel J. Lemay’s experience shooting and the safety of his judgment this film would never have seen the light of day”. ~ Jean-Michel Gervais

CHRIS GOODWIN – DERRICK & BOYD

Chris is a filmmaker from the New England area. Derrick & Boyd is his fourth directorial effort. 

CHARLES GOURDE – PROBLEMS OF SYNCHRONIZATION 

Raised in a small country town in Quebec, Gourde “escaped from his dead-end to Montreal, where he is studying cinema at the University of Montreal, where he dares to dream that his films might, one day, make others dream too.” 

PHILIPPE GREGOIRE – THE NOISE OF ENGINES 

Grégoire holds a BA in Film and Comparative Literature and an MA in Communication as well as graduating in screenwriting. His three previous short films played in many film festivals in over 20 different countries.

RICK GROLEAU – TYPE CAST 

Rick is a multimedia producer and filmmaker based in the Boston area. Since 2013 he has directed and produced five award-winning micro-budget films that have screened at 20+ film festivals. Two of these films have been broadcast on Vermont and Maine public television.  

MIRYAM GUIMOND – ALL ABOUT GIRLS

A Concordia University graduate, Guimond is “mainly interested in round characters, as well as complex human relationships, which give voice to nuanced beings.” She is currently committed to her first full-length feature film.  

SARINA HAHN – THE CARRIER BAG 

Hahn is a multidisciplinary artist and writer currently based in Brooklyn, NY, but The Carrier Bag was made in Western Mass. 

WILL HOPPIN – POPSTAR

Hoppin is a junior at Middlebury College from Mill Valley, California. He studies film and computer science. 

LUKAS HUFFMAN – NIGHT MUSIC 

Huffman is an award-winning writer and director who recently moved to Vermont from Brooklyn. He has created films for networks and organizations such as The New York Times, Vice Media, ESPN, The Boston Globe, The National Wildlife Federation, and more. Huffman’s obsession with folk music and field recordings have culminated Night Music, his most recent film.

ALEXANDRE ISABELLE – THEREFORE, SOCRATES IS MORTAL

Quebec City filmmaker and philosophy teacher Isabelle envisions his short films as aphorisms. Through their poetry, he seeks to inspire existential reflections.

NORA JACOBSON – PASSION IN A PANDEMIC: MAKING OPERA AT HANOVER HIGH 

Vermont native Jacobson is a multi-award-winning independent filmmaker who writes and directs narrative films as well as documentaries. She is devoted to telling stories of women, place, justice and diversity, and believes that filmmaking can promote social change by provoking meaningful discourse. 

EVAN KAY – RIDING THE RAILS 

Evan is a full time freelancer with a diverse set of skills in videography, photography, and digital marketing. He is a devoted adventurer too, and can be found on pre-dawn skinning sessions, weekend mountain traverses and in the occasional mountain bike enduro race.    

EMMANUELLE LACOMBE – THE GOLDEN AGE 

Born and raised in Quebec’s countryside Lacombe studied at UQAM (Montreal. In 2018, she produced Compete, her first independent short film, in competition at VIFF. The Golden Age is her second independent short film. 

JOANNIE LAFRENIERE – GABOR

Documentary filmmaker and photographer, Joannie, uses the camera as an excuse to establish relationships with her chosen subject. Her documentary projects have been shown in major film festival in Canada and abroad.  She often uses a kitsch style to avoid sentimentality.

GORDON DAVID LEPAGE – A CHANGE OF SONG 

ANTHONY MARQUES – BEYOND THE SCRIPT

Anthony has been on a mission the past few years to show his form of art through storytelling. Have you ever looked Beyond The Script before?

ALLISON POWER – HOMEWARD CLOWN

Allison R. Power is an energetic animator from Cherry Valley, Massachusetts. She works primarily in stop-motion but is also familiar with 2D animation and has much experience in live action filmmaking.

Jeremy Rayburn is a comedian, writer, and filmmaker who lives in Burlington with his wife, Catherine. His love of comedy, storytelling, and photography led him to pursue an MFA in film. He is currently attending his first semester at the Vermont College of Fine Arts

DAVID WRIGHT SMITH – EYESORE 

Dave Smith is a videographer and short filmmaker from Middlesex, Vermont. He spent much of his career as a print journalist and loves to tell stories about the people and landscape of Vermont. Eyesore is the first film he has submitted to festivals.  

CHRIS SPENCER – THE PRICE OF SAFETY

The Price of Safety is Spencer’s first feature-length film. Previously, he was the Senior Digital Media Producer at Middlebury College and a videographer/editor at Vermont PBS. He now works full-time as a freelance filmmaker. 

PHILIPPE VANASSE-PAQUET, ROSALIE REMILLARD – ALL IN

Philippe and Rosalie are both students at Cégep de Granby in Québec.

MIKA YATSUHASHI – AN UNINTERRUPTEDVIEW OF THE SEA 

Mika grew up in Takoma Park, Maryland. She moved to Montreal in 2017 to attend the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University. She has a passion for exploring documentary film and American identity.