TUFF Judge & Jury
Jeremey Podeswa - Tuff Judge
Jeremy Podeswa is the writer, director and co-producer of the critically acclaimed feature films THE FIVE SENSES (Fine Line Distribution) and ECLIPSE (Strand Releasing). He was cited by Variety Magazine in its survey of new international directors, "Tomorrow's Hot Exports".
He has just completed writing and directing his third feature, FUGITIVE PIECES, based on the acclaimed novel by Anne Michaels. The film stars Stephen Dillane, Rosamund Pike, Rade Serbedzija, Ayelet Zurer and Ed Stoppard and was produced by Robert Lantos (Being Julia, Sunshine, The Sweet Hereafter, Existenz). It will have its world premiere as the opening night gala of the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.
THE FIVE SENSES was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the prestigious Directors' Fortnight section. It was nominated for nine Canadian Genie Awards winning for Best Director, and was the recipient of the award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The story of five characters that live or work in a building across the road from a park in which a young child disappears, THE FIVE SENSES is a poignant and affecting film about the search for intimacy and meaning in life. The film has been distributed in over 50 international territories and stars Tony and Emmy Award winner Mary-Louise Parker, Molly Parker, Philippe Volter ("The Double Life of Veronique"), Marco Leonardi ("Like Water for Chocolate"), Gabrielle Rose, and Pascale Bussieres .
ECLIPSE , the story of 10 characters looking for love in a 10 day period preceding a solar eclipse, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, New Directors/New Films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Podeswa has also directed the television movie AFTER THE HARVEST, starring Sam Shepard, winner of the Directors Guild of Canada Award for Best Direction and nominated for nine Gemini Awards (Canada’s equivalent of the Emmy Award), including Best Director.
He has also directed the final 2-hour movie of the mini-series INTO THE WEST, set in the 1890’s and Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg for Dreamworks and TNT (nominated for 16 Emmy Awards).
In addition, Jeremy has directed numerous episodes of HBO’s JOHN FROM CINCINATTI, SIX FEET UNDER, CARNIVŔLE and ROME. Other TV directing credits include SHOWTIME’s THE TUDORS, THE L WORD, QUEER AS FOLK, and THE CHRIS ISAAK SHOW, FX’s THE RICHES and NIP/ TUCK, ABC’s COMMANDER IN CHIEF, NBC’S BOOK OF DANIEL, and FOX’s WONDERFALLS.
TUFF Jury
Jon Davies holds an MA in film and video, critical and historical studies, from York University in Toronto and an interdisciplinary BFA from Concordia University in Montreal. He is a regular contributor to the Toronto queer newspaper Xtra! and his writing has also been or will be published in the academic journals GLQ, Animation Journal and the Canadian Journal of Film Studies; the magazines Canadian Art, Cinema Scope, Prefix and C; and the anthology The Cinema of Todd Haynes: All That Heaven Allows. He has curated experimental film and video art screenings for the Inside Out Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, the Images Festival and Cinematheque Ontario, as well as for Pleasure Dome, where he has served on the programming collective since 2004.
John Greyson is a Toronto film/video artist whose shorts, features and installations include: Fig Trees (2003, Oakville Art Galleries); Proteus (Best Actor, Sithenghi 2003); The Law of Enclosures (2000, Best Actor Genie); Lilies (1996 - Best Film Genie, Best Film at festivals in Montreal, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, San Francisco); Un©ut (1997, Honourable Mention, Berlin Film Festival); Zero Patience (1993 - Best Canadian Film, Sudbury Film Festival); The Making of Monsters (1991 - Best Canadian Short, Toronto Film Festival, Best Short Film Teddy - Berlin Film Festival); and Urinal (1988 - Best Feature Teddy, Berlin Film Festival). He co-edited Queer Looks, a critical anthology on gay/lesbian film & video (Routledge, 1993), is the author of Urinal and Other Stories (Power Plant/Art Metropole, 1993), and has published essays and artists pieces in Alphabet City, Public, FUSE, and twelve critical anthologies. An assistant professor in film at York University, he was awarded the Toronto Arts Award for Film/Video, 2000.
Heather Keung has a B.F.A from the Ontario College of Art & Design. Her artistic practice examines issues of identity, intimacy and physical experience through the use of video, installation and performance art. Inspired by repetitive daily actions and physical labour, her current work looks at involuntary responses, habitual social behaviours and the training of the mind & body. Works from this series have recently been exhibited at Trinity Square Video's Artist Spotlight (Toronto), FIFA (Montreal), Transmedial (Berlin), MUU Gallery (Helsink, Findland), tranzit ateliery (Bratislava, Slovakia), Casa Tranzit Haz, (Romania), Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art (Budapest, Hungary). In addition to her artistic practice, she is an active contributor to local arts organizations such as Images Festival, Planet in Focus Festival, Trinity Square Video, and Vtape. Keung is currently the Programming Manager at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film & Video Festival.
Jacqueline Nuwame has nearly a decade of experience in media production and has held several senior positions in both Television and New Media. Currently she is Interactive Project Lab Mentor at the Canadian Film Centre’s Advanced Interactive Media Training Facility. Prior to this position, she was the Director of Communications at DECODE Entertainment Inc. one of Canada’s top production companies. While there she was responsible for the marketing and promotion of productions such as Naturally Sadie, Radio Free Roscoe, The Blobheads, Be The Creature, The Zack Files and Angela Anaconda.
In addition to her award-winning portfolio of television and multimedia work, she has a broad range of experience in entertainment and new media, marketing, as well as corporate communications. Her project, Anansi World of Folktales is a broadband site for showcasing and collecting folktales. The project was exhibited at the 29th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (Siggraph), 2002 at the San Antonio Children’s Museum as a part of SigiKIDS exhibit and at the 2004 McLuhan Festival of the Future.
Jacqueline is also very involved in the Canadian production industry and is a sought after guest speaker, appearing on panels at such recent events as the 2005 Banff World Television Festival and OMDC-NXNE Music Festival. Jacqueline also was the prize winner at the 2006 Nextpitch, and NextMedia Conference at Banff, AB.
Steve Reinke is an artist and writer best known for his single channel videos, which have been screened, exhibited and collected worldwide. The Hundred Videos — Mr. Reinke’s work as a young artist — was completed in 1996, several years ahead of schedule. Since then he has completed many short single channel works and has had several solo exhibitions/screenings, in various venues such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), The Power Plant (Toronto), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Argos Festival (Brussels), Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Tate (London).
Mr. Reinke is currently Associate Professor of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University in Evanston (Illinois). He has published many catalogue essays, program notes, theoretical musings and reviews. A book of his scripts, Everybody Loves Nothing, was recently published by Coach House. He co-edited several anthologies: By the Skin of Their Tongues: Artist Video Scripts (with Nelson Henricks), Lux: A Decade of Artists’ Film and Video (with Tom Taylor) and The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema (with Chris Gehman). His single channel work is distributed in Canada by Vtape and he is represented by Birch Libralato Gallery in Toronto.
Kim Simon is an independent curator and writer based in Toronto. Most recently she was one of four curators for Toronto’s first Nuit Blanche in 2006 and curated Material Overtures for the York Quay Gallery at Harbourfront Centre. Past curatorial projects include exhibitions for Oakville Galleries that explored the relationship between abstraction and the production of knowledge in the work of Ben Reeves (Drawing Painting, 2005) and Karilee Fuglem (many things were left unsaid, 2003). Simon has also curated projects investigating autobiography and direct modes of address in first person for Mercer Union in 2003 and In Person: Recent Work by Jonathan Horowitz for the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum in 2001. Upcoming curatorial projects include an exhibition for the University of Waterloo Art Gallery “RENDER” series (2008).
Simon writes regularly for the exhibition context; past essays include writing on Linda Duvall, Milutin Gubash, Nina Levitt, Diane Borsato and Andrew Wright. Simon has contributed reviews to publications such as CV Photo and Canadian Art and is a former member of the editorial committee for FUSE Magazine. Upcoming, she will be writing for C Magazine, Border Crossings Magazine and contributing an essay for the 10th anniversary edition of the Tree Museum.
Since 2003 Simon has also been the Director of Programming at Gallery TPW, an artist-run centre with a recently expanded mandate to showcase contemporary photography, video, film and new media.