BIOGRAPHY

 CURRICULUM VITAE 

Manfred Becker, PhD
Assistant Professor & Filmmaker
AMPD, Department of Cinema and Media Arts, York University
(416) 998 4903, bmanfred@yorku.ca 

DEGREES: 

2017 PhD, Joint Graduate Program Communication & Culture, York University & 

Ryerson University, The Frankenbite – Ethics in Factual Programming 

2011 Masters, Graduate Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, York University 

Capturing the Platform – Public Relations and the Olympic Games 

1984 (Pre-) Bachelor, Journalism & Film, Universität Dortmund, West Germany 

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: 

2018 – 2022 Assistant Professor, Department of Cinema & Media Arts (CMA), York University 

2019 – 2025 Graduate Program Director, MFA in Film, York University 

2020 – 2021 Graduate Program Director, MA Cinema and Media Studies, York University 

2017 Course Director, RTA School of Media at The Creative School, Ryerson University 

2014 – 2018 Course Director & Thesis Advisor, Documentary Media Graduate Program, Ryerson University 

2013 – 2018 Course Director, School of Image Arts, Ryerson University 

2011 Course Director, School of Media Studies, Humber College 

2010 – 2017 Instructor, Documentary Institute, Seneca College 

2005 – 2018 Course Director, CMA, York University 

2000 – 2022 Independent Documentary Writer and Director 

1984 – 2014 Independent Sound, Film and Video Editor 

HONOURS AND AWARDS 

2020 Nomination, Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary Program, Canadian Screen Awards – In Search for a Perfect World (director) 

2017 Faculty of Graduate Studies Dissertation Prize, York University 

2014 Special Jury Award, Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs & 

2014 Nomination, Best Documentary Editing, Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) – When the Last Curtain falls (editor, co-writer) 

2015 Grimme Online Award – The Polar Sea (co-director) 

2013 Best Documentary Series, Canadian Screen Awards – The Photograph (director, writer) 

2013 Webby Award – Official Selection; One Show Interactive Competition – Official Selection; Prix Numix – Official Selection; Prix Boomerang – Grand Prix; The Favourite Website Award (FWA) – Site of the Day, for At Home/Chez Soi (co-director) 

2012 Nomination, Golden Sheaf Award, Yorkton – Dark Tourism (director, writer) 

2011 Special Jury Award, Hot Docs Festival – Guantanamo Trap (editor, co-writer) 

2011 Nomination, Best Feature Documentary, Genie Awards – Guantanamo Trap (editor, co-writer) 

2007 Best Documentary, Directors Guild of Canada & 

2007 Nomination, Best Historical Documentary, Gemini Award – Hitler’s Children (director, writer, editor) 

2007 Best Social Documentary, Donald Brittain Gemini Award & 

2007 Nomination, Directors Guild of Canada Award & 

2007 Chris Award, Columbus International Film & Video Festival – fatherland (director, writer, editor) 

2007 Best Documentary Series, Gemini Awards – Diamond Road (co-director) 

2005 Nomination, Directors Guild of Canada Award & 

2005 Gold Camera Award, US Film & Video Festival & 

2005 Chris Award, Columbus – – The Siege (director, writer, editor) 

2004 Best Biography and Best Documentary Series, Gemini Awards) & 

2004 Nomination, Directors Guild Award & 

2004 Best Direction, Hugo Awards, Chicago & 

2004 World Film Fest Award, Houston – Neighbours (director, writer, editor 

2002 Nomination, Canadian Directors Guild Award & 

2002 Best of Festival, World Film Fest, Houston & 

2002 Finalist, BASC, Australia – Death of a Warrior (director, co-writer, editor) 

2001 Donald Brittain Award for Best Social Documentary, Gemini Awards – Breakaway (editor, co-writer) 

1999 Nomination, Best Editing, Gemini Awards – Thin Ice (editor) 

1997 Best Feature Documentary, Genie Awards – A place called Chiapas (editor, co-writer) 

1996 Best Editing and Best Biography, Gemini Awards – Wrestling with Shadows (editor) 

1995 International Emmy Award & 

1995 Donald Brittain Award for Best Social Documentary, Gemini Awards – Gerrie and Louise (editor) 

1990 Nomination, Best Short Documentary, Genie Awards – Who Gets In (editor) 

PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTION & STANDING: 

IN DEVELOPMENT 

2022 Smoke and Gifts feature length documentary on the alternative music group Broken Social Scene, directed by Stephen Chung, produced by Fathom Films. Story editor. 

2022 Chai Audio-visuals on an augmented book of photography on the Shoah by Edward Burtynsky, 

Steidl Verlag, Germany 

2021 Digital Afterlives – Co-applicant, with Prof. Julia Creet, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Grant Digital Afterlives, $328,000 (pending) 

BOOK PUBLICATIONS 

2021 – Creating Reality in Factual Television: The Frankenbite and Other Fakes. Monograph, print and e-book. London, UK: Routledge. (refereed) 

FUNDING 

2021 Principal investigator, SSHRC Insight Development Grant: A Vaccine against Fake News $40,273. 

2021 Ahmad F (PI), Morrow M (Co-PI), Becker M, Bohr Y, Daftary A, Flicker S, Gaetz S, Hankey J, Gorman RS, Orbinski J, & Weiss J. Community-engaged Research for Health Equity (CeRHE). Submitted to Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Cluster, Office of VPRI, York University. Requested amount year $449,873 (to be resubmitted in 2023) 

CREATIVE/ARTISTIC ENDEAVOURS 

Director/Writer 

2019 Saving Rabbit One-hour process documentary on a young homeless man wanting to beat his fentanyl addiction, for CBC’s ‘POV’ strand. Media Headquarters. 

https://gem.cbc.ca/media/cbc-docs-pov/s01 

Rabbit’s story displays the contradictory approaches available in the crisis from helping users change their lives completely, as opposed to keeping them safe while they fight to do it themselves. Perhaps the best way 

to understand the crisis is to go beyond the statistics and help those in the middle of it tell their stories. CITY NEWS 

2019 The Divided Brain Feature length documentary about neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist’s monumental work, The Master and his Emissary, featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury and John Cleese. Matter-of-Fact-Media https://gem.cbc.ca/media/the-divided-brain/s01e01 

The Divided Brain is a very powerful documentary that has not shied from including critical voices. It conveys, with great clarity and conviction, the immeasurable dangers of the colonisation of the brain by the left-brain hemisphere. Sunil Kumar, former Dean, London School of Economics 

2018 In Search for a Perfect World International Co-production between the CBC and ZDF on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, with Peter Mansbridge. Primitive Entertainment. 

https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/specials/in-search-of-a-perfect-world-1.5086982 

2018 From the Vaults, Six-part series of the CBC Music Archives that tell the history of Canada. Banger Films. 

Co-director with Adrian Callender, Sam Dunn, Nicolina Lanni and Ann Shin. 

https://www.cbc.ca/television/fromthevaults 

And there’s some amazing music on the show. It’s where you can see blues jam, Joan Baez playing an anti-war song at the height of Vietnam, a young cowpunk k.d. lang being critiqued by a present-day k.d. lang, Jackie Mittoo and Oscar Peterson writing new languages for Canadian reggae and jazz. Now Magazine 

2017 No Joke feature length documentary on a singer/songwriter who is saved from his traumatic past by music. Lofty Sky Media, https://loftysky.com/projects/nojoke/ 

No Joke doesn’t condemn bullies, rather it attempts to open up conversation. It explores how fear divides us into the powerful and the powerless.. What began as a documentary about a song becomes a compelling, thoughtful film about empathy. Millicent Thomas, FILM STORIES 

2015 Satan Lives Feature length theatrical documentary on the collective hysteria that gripped North America in the 1980s, HBO Canada. Co-director with Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen. Banger Films 

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/141675158 pw: satanisreal 

2014 The Polar Sea 10-part series on the effects of climate change in Canada’s North, ARTE and TV Ontario. Co-director with Kevin McMahon, David New, Dylan Reibling, Thomas Wallner. Primitive Entertainment, http://www.primitive.net/the-polar-sea.html 

The Polar Sea—a 10-part TV series beginning Monday on TVO—is a thrilling epic that takes us on a magical 10,000-kilometre mystery tour through the legendary Northwest Passage. Hugely entertaining and mind-bogglingly educational at the same time, it instantly stands as one of t landmarks in the long and rich history of Canadian documentary filmmaking. – Martin Knelman, Toronto Star 

By personalizing the problem, the brilliant 10-hour documentary manages to make us understand the enormity of the situation. Made on a mammoth scale, the Polar Sea is instead an intimate look at the changing world of the north, beautifully photographed and crisply edited. All of which indicates to me TVO has seized the initiative from CBC in showing and celebrating where public television should be headed.” – Jim Bawden, television critic 

2013 At Home/Chez Soi Interactive website about the “largest social experiment in the world” – housing the homeless. Co-director with Sarah Fortin, Darryl Nepinak, Louiselle Noel and Lynne Stopkevich. National Film Board of Canada, https://www.nfb.ca/film/at_home_evicted/ 

2013 The Photograph portrait of the 1942 Toronto Hurricanes football team which lost more men in WW II than any other professional sports team, as part of the CTV “Engraved on a Nation” series. Infieldfly Productions. https://www.tsn.ca/engraved 

The lot of a TV critic is not a happy one. I spend my evenings in the dark relentlessly searching for something passable on my flickering TV set. And then something as evocative as The Photograph comes along. Surely, it’s one of the best Remembrance Day specials I have seen. The Photograph plays like an old-time movie…masterfully directed by Manfred Becker. – Jim Bawden, critic 

We all know the adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ Well, The Photograph is worth a lot more than that—and it also serves as a timely reminder of what a poppy stands for in this country. – Stu Cowan, Montreal Gazette 

2012 Dark Tourism vérité documentary on the phenomenon of tourists seeking out places of conflict and fear. Director/writer/editor. History Television, https://vimeo.com/50454616 

Dark Tourism’ is made for thoughtful fans of non-fiction. This sober meta- travelogue makes you wonder if the documentary genre itself is guilty of the same voyeurism as the gawking tourists. It’s an irresistible, if repellent sight. – Bill Staments, Chicago Sun 

A fascinating examination of the phenomenon revealing that there is a good deal of confusion and conflict. – John Doyle, Globe and Mail 

Dark Tourism raises some unsettling questions. Have people already forgotten their history? It’s 

a worthwhile, and unsettling, question. – Rick McInnis, Metro News 

Manfred Becker’s eerie, thought-provoking documentary is a morality tale. Montreal Gazette 

Hot Box—TV worth talking about.– Toronto Star 

One of three to see. – Alex Strachan, Financial Post 

Welcome to the dark side! – Lisa-Marie Brennan, TV Guide 

2009 Diamond Road 3 x 1-hour HD documentary series on the global diamond industry, Discovery Times & HD, ARTE, ZDF, NHK, ABC Australia. Co-director with Nisha Pahuja. 

https://kensingtontv.com/index.php/2007/09/20/diamond-road/ 

Fascinating with a firm point of view but no preaching. – Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail 

A brilliant three-parter … a must-see of the fall season. – Jim Bawden, Starweek 

2006 Fatherland feature-length personal essay documentary on history, memory and fatherhood, History Television. Director/writer/editor. https://vimeo.com/734970450/62ec480d98 

Intense, substantial and satisfying. Difficult emotional moments and disturbing images. Profoundly intimate portrait of the relationships between fathers and sons. – Henrietta Walmark, Globe Television 

Opens a poignant landscape. One of those few truly great films that jumps right out at you.– 

Jim Bawden, StarWeek 

Tough questions are asked, tough answers are given, and what emerges is a deeper understanding of personal and collective guilt. – Peter Howell, Toronto Star 

Uncomfortable and raw. – Rick McGinnis, Metro News 

A profoundly intimate portrait. – Lynne Fernie, HotDocs 

Enlightening. A stirring look. You won’t find a better program to watch this Father’s Day weekend. – Andrew Borkowski, TV Guide 5 

A lyrical drama that illustrates the illustrates the question how complicated the question ‘What did you do in the war’ can get. – Eye Weekly 

Sobering and provocative. Top pick of festival. – Globe and Mail 

2004 Hitler’s Children: Germany in Autumn 1977 Historical documentary on the Baader-Meinhof urban guerilla group that challenged West German democracy. Director/writer/editor. History Television. https://vimeo.com/194907995, pw:Baader 

Becker manages to bring both terrorists and victims together. A fascinating blueprint for 

dealing with future terrorist threats. – Bill Brioux, Toronto Sun 

Becker has scored a real coup. Nothing could be more relevant. Explains where terrorism comes from and how states should react. The must-see program of the week.” – Jim Bawden, Starweek 

2003 The Siege Historical documentary on the 1999 siege of a UN compound in East Timor. Director/writer/editor. History Television, https://vimeo.com/68796683 

Becker has an eye for personal detail and an ear for the way people talk and think. Exceedingly well made…a living, breathing record…paced like a thriller, the result is both sobering and thought-provoking filmmaking that puts most dramatized re-creations to shame…a relentless drive that puts viewers right inside. Surprisingly clear-headed and objective. – Alex Strachan, National Post 

Deftly paced and dramatic without overdoing either the heroism or the horror, a fine insight into what happened in a part of the world that was failed by journalism and the world’s most powerful countries. – John Doyle, Globe and Mail 

This is one of TV’s surprises…amazing…a major work. – Jim Bawden, Starweek 

The one to catch! – Toronto Star 

Dramatic, with powerful lessons for today’s conflicts. – Ann Marie McQueen, Ottawa Citizen 

2003 The Life of Me Vérité documentary following the workshop of a play for the “Madness in the Arts Festival,” featuring actors with mental affliction. Director/writer/editor. TV Ontario 

https://vimeo.com/255067412 

Heartbreaking. – John Doyle, Globe and Mail 

Intimate and challenging. – Henrietta Walmark, Broadcast Week 

At times it is almost impossible to believe that these rehearsals will ever result in a positive outcome in the documentary. – Network Magazine 

2002 Neighbours Historical documentary on the fin-de-siècle Vienna of Sigmund Freud and Adolf Hitler. Director/writer/editor. History Television 

https://vimeo.com/234313564 

In my eyes, both Hitler and my grandfather were false prophets of the 20th century. –Sophie Freud, 

granddaughter of Freud, Boston 

Becker uses archival and new material with masterful editing touch. – John Goodman, Vancouver North Shore News 

Freud goes up in smoke. – Judy Gerstel, Toronto Star Definite irony. – Catherine Monk, Georgia Straight Riveting. – Jewish Tribune, Pick of the week. – Now Magazine 6 

2001 Death of a Warrior Documentary about the bombing of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior by French secret agents. Director/co-writer/editor. History Television 

https://vimeo.com/255038011 

A crisply made, clear-eyed look at a tale full of intrigue and courage…gripping, full of suspense and hidden surprises. Remarkable, paced like a thriller. Proves that a well-made documentary can trump all other forms of visual storytelling. A must see. – Alex Strachan, National Post 

An excellent documentaryiIn Becker’s well-crafted program all the twists and turns of the murky events are made clear. – John Doyle, Globe and Mail 

Film tracks the thriller-like hunt for the saboteurs, the diplomatic skullduggery and the bittersweet outcome of the case. – Olivia Ward, Toronto Star 

In the vein of a true-crime detective story, unraveling the mystery. – Taos Talking Pictures 

Saga unfolds like a pulp spy novel, a fine recap of the investigation. The film makes one uneasy in a post-9/11 world. Required viewing. – Andrew Ryan, Globe and Mail 

Editor/Co-Writer 

2014 Before the Last Curtain Falls Theatrical documentary on experimental dance performed by aging homosexual and transsexual actors. Director: Thomas Wallner, https://vimeo.com/121639102 

2013 The Defector Feature-length documentary on the odyssey of North Koreans escaping their country. TV Ontario, co-writer with director Ann Shin, http://www.thedefectormovie.com/ 

2011 Guantanamo Trap Theatrical feature documentary about four people’s lives that connect during the War on Terror, co-writer with director Thomas Wallner, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6lkgA9ThgE 

2001 Breakaway Portrait of two brain-injury survivors, CTV, co-writer with director Mathew Welsh 

A visionary piece of factual filmmaking.– Take One Magazine 

I found it extremely potent and powerful and I could not take my eyes away from it for a 

second. – Shelagh Rogers, CBC Radio 

A fascinating portrait of power, love and psychological obsession. Strongly recommended…this is the rare sort of film that does not come around very often. – Library Journal 

1999 Out of Orbit Biography of Marshall McLuhan, CBC, co-writer with director Carl Bessai 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvpPb89ChM0 

1996 A Place Called Chiapas Feature-length documentary about the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, co-writer with director Nettie Wild, https://www.kanopy.com/en/torontopl/video/5322086 

Exquisitely shot and edited. – Jon Gralick, Boston Phoenix 

Electric, alive, commendable, coincidentally surreal. A humorous, awkward, imperiled cat’s cradle of history, fury and injustice. Bold ways of showing unexpected sides of a story that sometimes has the transcendent urgency of a luscious and troubled agit-prop fable. – Wesley Morris, San Francisco Examiner 7 

Wild and her crew bring out an affecting intimacy rare in documentaries with a news sensibility. Inspiring and chilling point bang glimpse leaves powerful impressions. – Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle 

Story Editor 

2022 To Catch a Tiger Feature length documentary on masculinity in India. NFB. Director: Nisha Pahuja. National Film Board. TIFF 2022. 

2022 rebel angel feature length portrait of Canadian poet and teacher Ross Woodman. Christopher Lowry, Ecotone Productions. 

2022 Undeniably Young Animated Short on athlete Nora Young and the Six-Day Race. Julia Morgan, Evoke Films. 

2020 Road to Roxham CBC Gem short documentary on a road travelled by refuges to escape the US and enter Canada. Consulting Producer. Director: Cristian Gomez 

2015 Shadow Girl Feature-length documentary on a filmmaker’s journey into blindness. Producer/director: Maria Teresa Larrain 

2014 Fractured Land A charismatic First Nations chief in British Columbia takes on the oil and gas industry and coming of age, CBC. Directors: Fiona Rayner and Damien Gillis 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe591PtCfa0 

2014 Lost and Found Objects swept into the ocean by a tsunami in Japan are washed up on the beaches on the Pacific West Coast. Directors: Nicolina Lanni & John Choi 

2013 Chi Actress Babz Chula battling cancer, Director: Ann Wheeler https://www.nfb.ca/film/chi_en/ 

2013 Spring & Arnaud Two artists and their shared life. Directors: Marcia Connelly & Katherine Knight , 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzXR0CUEze0&ab_channel=S1T3M3D1A 

2012 Buying Sex Documentary on the legalization of versus banning the sex trade, NFB, directors: Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason. https://www.nfb.ca/film/buying_sex/ 

2012 Occupy Love Part III of Velcrow Ripper’s documentary trilogy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cTBlGcZCeA 

2011 A Sorry State Mitch Miyagawa’s filmic essay on the meaning of government-issued apologies, TV Ontario, https://vimeo.com/50831235 

2010 Kids in Jail NFB documentary on children who kill. Director: Larry Lynn http://www.nfb.ca/film/kids_in_jail/trailer/kids_in_jail_trailer/ 

2008 Fierce Light Velcrow Ripper’s theatrical documentary on finding spirituality in places of darkness 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh5Qvv3UIEg 

2006 That’s my Time Adamm Liley’s portrait of comedian Irwin Barker’s life with terminal cancer 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcIEHYDk0c8 

2005 Griefwalker Tim Wilson’s portrait of Stephen Jenkinson, the palliative care counsellor at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, NFB. https://www.nfb.ca/distribution/film/griefwalker 

2005 Scared Sacred Velcrow Ripper’s spiritual search for places of darkness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSx68p7ItDk 

2002 Fix Nettie Wild’s feature-length documentary about drugs and resistance on Vancouver’s East Side, NFB, https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thenettiewildcollection/2880574878 

Political struggle is emotionally grounded by two very different yet similarly stubborn, rabble-rousing personalities whose loyal alliance is like a quarrelsome marriage. – Variety 

Editor 

2014 The Polar Sea 2-D editor on the 360 VR component of the 10-part series. Producers: Irene Vandertorp & Thomas Wallner, http://deep-inc.com/portfolio/polarsea360/ 

2010 Prosecutor Feature-length documentary on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, for the BBC and TVO. Director/writer: Barry Stevens 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04s_Y1zCxQc 

2008 Biodad Follow-up feature-length documentary on the search for the biological father of the filmmaker, CBC. Director/writer: Barry Stevens 

2001-04 Blue Murder 4×13 prime-time dramatic series, Global Television. Senior picture editor. Executive producers: Laszlo Barna and Steve Lucas 

2001 Offspring Documentary on the search for the filmmaker’s biological father, CBC. Director/writer: Barry Stevens, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNjaPs599Qs 

This film has a wonderfully light touch resulting in an exemplary documentary. – Henry Lewes, Take One. 

1999 Lola Theatrical fiction film, Invited to Sundance and Berlin, Toronto and Vancouver Film Festivals. Director: Carl Bessai, https://vimeo.com/13211692 

1999 Obachan’s Garden feature-length docu-drama on the Japanese immigrant experience, NFB Pacific Centre. Supervising editor. Director/producer: Linda Ohama 

https://www.nfb.ca/film/obachans_garden/ 

Ohama’s emotionally exhilarating with dozens of emotionally wrenching and uplifting scenes. – Louis Hobson, Canoe.ca 

Obachan’s Garden is a film to be watched again and again. It reminds me once again of the impressive depth of ability in Canadian documentary filmmakers. Highly Recommended. 

– Deborah Begoray, University of Victoria 

1998 Thin Ice Biography of Bruce McCall, Canadian-born New Yorker magazine illustrator , NFB. Director: Laurence Green. https://vimeo.com/142279795 , pw:brucemccall 

A subtle investigation of the processes of colonialization and psychology of need, Thin Ice is a film about one expatriate Canuck’s strangely desperate desire for American affirmation. – Tom McSorley, Take One 

1997 Johnny Theatrical fiction, Toronto, Vancouver and Thessalonica Film Festivals. Director/producer: Carl Bessai, https://vimeo.com/4540260 

Heralded as the first North American entry in the growing Dogma ’95 canon is raw, bare-boned, and bleak. – Alibris 

1996 Machine Gun 3-part documentary series on the history of the 19th and 20th centuries viewed through the barrel of a machine gun, Discovery US and Canada. Supervising editor. Director: Steven Silver 9 

1997 Wrestling with Shadows Feature-length study of a modern-day hero in the world of professional wrestling, BBC, ARTE, TVOntario and A&E. Director/producer: Paul Jay 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wZhA5s3kI 

This is one whale of a tale! – Newsday 

A classic story of a modern-day hero, one of the most riveting Canadian films in years. 

– Eye Magazine 

Jay, along with seamless editing by Manfred Becker, tracks this progression all the way to its bitter, bitter end. Watching Wrestling With Shadows is still great entertainment. In fact, it’s a knock out. – Antonia Zerbisias, Toronto Star 

Like great art, its essence lies not in the subject matter at hand, but in the universal themes that drive it—loyalty, betrayal, jealousy, revenge. You must see the great doc.- Grant McIntyre, Broadcast Week, Globe and Mail 

A tale as bizarre as Kafka and tragic as Shakespeare…riveting. – T. Atherton, Ottawa Citizen 

1996 Gerrie and Louise Feature-length documentary about the relationship between a South African soldier of apartheid and a journalist for the CBC. Director: Sturla Gunnarsson. https://vimeo.com/154442032, pw: niagara 

That sense of the indelible presence of awful memories is heightened by the film’s use of skillfully selected archive footage heightening the sense of their subjectivity at the same time as underscoring for the viewer what exactly is meant by the euphemistic and evasive terms used by Hugo and other former apartheid agents and victims in the film. – Simon Lewis, Charleston College 

1995 Whispers in the Air Biography of the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, A&E, TV Ontario. Producer/director: Tom Perlmutter 

1999 Who Gets In? Documentary on Canadian immigration, NFB/CBC co-production. Director: Barry Greenwald. https://www.nfb.ca/film/who_gets_in/ 

1987 The Journey 14.5-hour Global Peace film. Co-editor with director/producer Peter Watkins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFxcTIzUog 

I went expecting a great movie. What I got was more information, emotion, despair and transcendent hope than I ever dreamed a mere length of celluloid could possibly convey. – 

New Zealand Herald 

Extraordinary, spellbinding and ultimately filled with hope. – The Raleigh Times 

CONSULTANT 

2014 Biology of Story, interactive website by Professor Amnon Buchbinder 

CONFERENCE PAPERS PRESENTED (R = refereed) 

2022 “Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas,” Oakland. R. 

2019 “Ethics in the Edit rooms of Factual Television,” Visible Evidence XXVI, Los Angeles. R. 

2019 “Media Ethics in a Connected World,” Media Ecology Association, Toronto. R. 

2019 The European Conference on Media, Communication & Film, Brighton, UK (invited) 

2019 International Association of Media & Communication Research, Madrid, Spain (invited) 10 

2019 4th Intern. Conference on Communication & Media Studies, Bonn, Germany (invited) 

2015 “The Frankenbite,” C.I.L.E.C.T. conference on post-production, Chicago. R. 

2011 New York City Jewish Heritage Museum, Future of Holocaust Education. R. 

2009 Centennial College, Culture and Heritage Institute conference. R. 

2009 Canadian Psychiatric Association conference, Toronto. R. 

2008 Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education, TIFF Lightbox. R. 

2008 in flagrante depictor, New York University, Law and Film Conference Children of Perpetrators symposium, Cardozo School of Law. R. 

2008 The Holocaust: Children of the Perpetrators Confront Their Parents Nazi Past symposium, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. R. 

FILM/MEDIA INDUSTRY PRESENTATIONS 

2014 Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) Industry breakfast on data visualization 

2013 L.I.F.T. Toronto, Panel on New Media 

2010 Toronto District School Board, Professional development 

2008 Documentary Association of Canada conference on post-production, Innis College, U of T, keynote speaker 

2008 Filmhaus Bremen, Germany 

2009 Documentary Association of Canada, Masters Series 

2008 Reel Diversity Program, NFB Montreal 

WORKSHOPS 

2018 Belleville Doc Fest, workshop leader 

2013 Docs North Workshop, Thunder Bay, presenter and workshop leader 

2012 Toronto International Film Festival Film Circuit, Masters Workshop, Kingston 

2011 Documentary Summit, Ryerson University, panelist 

2007 Docs North Workshop, Thunder Bay, presenter and workshop leader 

2007 Hot Docs Film Festival, Toronto, workshop leader & presenter 

2007 Saskatchewan Motion Pictures Association, Regina, workshop leader 

2005 Inspired Workshop Series, NFB Atlantic Studio 

2001 NIFCO – Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Cooperative, workshop leader 

2002 Yorkton Film Festival, panelist and workshop leader 

2001 Moving Images Group, Halifax, 3-day workshop on story editing 

PANEL CHAIR 

2015 Visible Evidence XXII International Conference, Toronto (invited) 

PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO SERVICE 

Festival Programmer 

2004-2012 Rendez-Vous with Madness Festival (also panelist and presenter) 

Juror 

2022 Ethics Bowl Ontario High Schools 

2007 – 2017 Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, also jury chair 11 

2011 Hot Docs Film Festival, also workshop facilitator and panel moderator 

2010-2014 Bishop Marrocco High School, Toronto 

Board Member 

2021 The News Analysis Org, a charitable podcast to provide unbiased news reporting, investigation and academic historical Inquiry, produced by Paul Jay 

Magazine Editor 

1996 DOC Magazine POV, co-editor with Geoff Bowie and Petra Valier; contributor 

Professional Associations 

2005 – 2017 Documentary Association of Canada presenter, panelist 

1992 Canadian Film Caucus (CIFC) executive board member 

MEDIA APPEARANCES 

2021 News Point 3 

2020 Interview York YU file 

2013 CTV morning radio I/V 

2007 & 2013 CBC Metro Morning I/V 

2007 Capturing Reality, NFB documentary, I/V subject 

2004 Edgecodes – The Art of Motion Picture Editing, documentary, I/V subject 

TEACHING 

York University 

UNDERGRADUATE 

2018-2019 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 
• FA/FILM 1020 Introduction to Filmmaking 

2017-2018 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 
• FA/FILM 1020 Introduction to Filmmaking 

2016-2017 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 
• FA/FILM 1020 Introduction to Filmmaking 

12 

2015-2016 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 
• FA/FILM 1020 Introduction to Filmmaking 

2014-2015 F 

• FA/FILM 3135, Postproduction 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 

2013-2014 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 

2012-2013 

• FA/FILM 3001/4001 Documentary Production (co-instructor) 
• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I, 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 

2011-2012 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 

2010-2011 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 

2009-2010 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 

2008-2009 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 
• FA/FILM 4135 Advanced Picture Editing III 

13 

2007-2008 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 

2006-2007 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I 
• FA/FILM 4130 Intermediate Picture Editing II 

2005-2006 

• FA/FILM 3130 Introduction to Picture Editing I (co-instructor) 

2006-2019 

• Supervisor for Independent Studies (various) 

GRADUATE 

2021 – 2023 

• FA/FILM 5010 Production 
• FA/FILM 5400 Graduate Seminar 

2020 – 2021 

• FA/FILM 5200 Selected Topics in Production 
• FA/FILM 5400 Graduate Seminar 

2019 – 2020 

• FA/FILM 5400 Graduate Seminar 
• FA/FILM 5600 Art of Event 

Thesis Supervision 

2022 

Iqbal Chowdhury (Cinema and Media Studies) Rickshaw Art of Bangladesh as a Medium to Recreate Cinematic Pleasure 

Beau Bridges (MFA FILM) Forgetting 

2021 

Kathrin Mentler (Cinema and Media Studies) Contemporary Holocaust remembrance in Austria through film-based art 

2020 

Lea Carlson (MFA FILM) Letter to a mother departed 

Shabnam Sukhdev (MFA FILM) Unfinished 

2019 

Pooya Badkoobeh (MFA FILM) Based on a True Story 14 

Jamie Whitecrow (MFA FILM) The First Female Pornographer 

2018 

Elisa Paloschi (MFA FILM) Memory of Forgetting 

Thesis/MRP reader 

2021 

Kezia Hall (Cinema and Media Studies) Media Representation of Queerness and Black Identity 

Bhaskar Chattopadhyay (MFA FILM) Aranyak 

Jharol Mendoza (MFA FILM) The Sounds of the Rocks 

2020 

Karlie Weltman (Cinema and Media Studies) Techno-aesthetics of the Nonhuman Cinematic 

2019 

Federica Foglia (MFA FILM) Currents 

Tamara Segura (MFA FILM) Father Figures 

2018 

Kristi Tethong (MFA FILM) Far from Home 

2017 

Alex Cortez (MFA FILM) Dr. B 

Defense Chair 

2019 MFA’s Amit Breuer, Josh Boles, Raghed Charabaty, and Antoine Bourges 

Thesis Co-Supervisor for Ryerson Doc Media MFA 

2013 Kelly Showker Etima 

2014 Vivian Belik Finding Lilian 

2015 Lindsay Fitzgerald Through a Blue Lens revisited 

2016 William Heartha Denk ich an Sonneberg 

2017 Mohammed Dawood From Egypt to Canada 

OTHER TEACHING-RELATED ACTIVITIES 

2020 Master Class on editing for MFA graduates 

2020 Workshop Adobe Premiere 

2020 Provided guidance for Web video production – Luin Goldring, Dep. of Sociology 

COURSES TAUGHT AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS 

Toronto Metropolitan University 

2018 DM 8226 II Master’s Project Development (MFA) Doc Media Graduate Program 

2018 RTA 957 Documentary Production, School of Media 

2017 DM 8103 Documentary Studies II (MFA), Doc Media Graduate Program 15 

2014 DM 8235 Master’s Project Production (MFA), Doc Media Graduate Program 

2015 MPF 322 Writing for Documentary (BFA) 

2013 -2018 MPF 422 Documentary Production (BFA) 

2003 Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, guest lecturer 

Documentary Institute Seneca@York 

2010 – 2016 Editing for Documentary (Documentary Diploma) 

2010 – 2017 Editing for Documentary (Documentary Summer Institute) 

Humber School of Media 

2011 FILM 330 Screenwriting Film (Diploma Program) 

Academy for Lifelong Learning, U of T 

2010-2012 Lecturer 

YORK COURSE/CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT 

2013 FA/FILM 3135, Postproduction (developed course design) 

2007 FA/FILM 4135, Advanced Picture Editing III (developed course design) 

UNIVERSITY SERVICE 

Appointments 

2019-25 Graduate Program Director, MFA in Film 

2020/21 Graduate Program Director, MA in Cinema & Media Studies 

Committee Service 

York University 

2022 Participation in the Hyflex Pilot Program for course delivery 

2020 Author, Documentary Research Ethics Guidelines for Office of Research Ethics, VPRI 

Faculty of Graduate Studies 

2020-2021 FGS SSHRC MFA/MA Adjudication Committee 

School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design 

2019-21 Member, Cinespace Advisory Committee 

2018-19 AMPD Tenure and Promotion Review Committee 

Graduate Program in Cinema & Media Studies/Film 

2021/22 Susan Mann/Provost Dissertation Scholarship Program Adjudication Committee 

2021/22 Program-level ranking committee for SSHRC/OGS PhD applications 

2019/22 Coordinator, Depth of Field Graduate Thesis Films showcase 

2020 Member, Cinema & Media Studies PhD Admissions Committee 

Department of Cinema & Media Arts 

2020-25 Chair, Research Ethics Delegated Review Committee 16 

2022 Member, Hiring Committee, Media Arts VR Cinematography 

2021 Coordinator, CINESIEGE Undergraduate showcase 

2021 Member, Hiring Committee, Media Arts Markham Campus 

2021 Member, Hiring Committee, Production Fiction 

2020-21 Organizer, Prof. Amnon Bookbinder’s retrospective, DVD and book collection 

2020 Editorial consultant, undergraduate and grad program website re-design 

2019-2020 Adjudication Committee Telefilm Talent to Watch Program 

2018-19 Member, Tenure and Promotion Adjudication Committee