festivals
2006
Vancouver International Film Festival
Montreal World Film Festival
Cinefest Sudbury International Film Festival
Calgary International Film Festival
33rd Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland, Oregon, USA
2007
Moving Pictures 2007: Canadian Films On Tour
Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival
International Festival of Short Films on Culture, Jaipur, India
Cinequest Film Festival, San Jose, California, USA
Florida Film Festival, Florida, USA
Festival de cin des 3 Amques, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Crossroads Film Festival, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Philadelphia film Festival, Pennsylvania, USA
Media Nets Edges Film Festival, Victoria, B.C., Canada
GenArt Film Festival, New York City, New York, USA
San Francisco Women’s Film Festival, San Francisco, USA
WorldFest Independent Film Festival, Houston, Texas, USA
Celluloid Social Club, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Jackson Film Festival, Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Leo Awards Film Festival, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Nantucket Film Festival, Nantucket, MA, USA
Michigan Womyn’s Music and Film Festival, Ohio, USA
Gimli Film Festival, Gimli, Manitoba, Canada
International Bunker Film Festival, Ventimiglia, Italy
Big Sur Int’l Short Film Screening Series, Big Sur, CA, USA
Vladivostok Int’l Film Festival Pacific Meridian, Vladivostok, Russia
Heart of Gold International Film Festival, Queensland, Australia
Warsaw International Film Festival, Oakland, California, USA
Big House Film Festival, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Asiana International Short Film Festival, Seoul, Korea
Tehran International Short Film Festival, Tehran, Iran
Exground FilmFest, Wiesbaden, Germany
Festival Tous Courts, Aix-en-Provence, France
Moving Pictures 2007: Canadian Films on Tour
Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival
2008
The Int’l Feast of Cinema and Technology 2008, USA
Female Eye Film Festival, Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Cleveland International Film Festival, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
broadcast
2007
CBC’s Canadian Reflections
press kit
synopsis
Sarah is losing her memory. In a last desperate
attempt to maintain control of her life, she begins
to videotape everything: from momentous events
to the tiniest details of daily living. Crooked
lawyers and friends over for tea are all captured
on her little digital cameras. Rapidly, this
accumulation of footage becomes too much for
her to handle. She becomes obsessed with
watching herself. Finally, Sarah must confront the
question of whether her life still has meaning if
she can’t remember it.
downloads
info@compactfilms.com
Michelle Porter
director & writer
Michelle is an accomplished theatre and film director. Her award-winning shorts, Insight and Big Shoes to Fill, have played at numerous festivals including the Vancouver International Film Festival where she was the recipient of the Telefilm Canada Award for Best Western Emerging Director for a Short or Mid-length film. Big Shoes to Fill also received the Best Short Film Award at the Moving Pictures Festival: Canadian Films on Tour and two Leo Awards. Michelle is a graduate of both the theatre and the film program at the University of British Columbia. She has worked for many years in theatre before making the transition into film. Michelle is presently working on a feature length script, as well as a documentary.
604.626.2781
amy@modernfamily.ca
www.modernfamily.ca
www.amybelling.com
Amy Belling
Producer
Amy graduated from UBC in 2003 with a double major in Film Production and Theatre, and has since attended the Berlinale Talent Campus and TIFF Talent Lab. With director Jamie Travis, she produced and shot the critically acclaimed short films Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner (2003) and The Saddest Boy in the World (2006), which screened at TIFF, Rotterdam and Karlovy Varynd for which Amy received Leo nominations for her cinematography and producing. Amy produced the award-winning shorts Once a Fish (2005) and Regarding Sarah (2006, Best Short at the 2007 Leo Awards and nominated for Best Live Action Short at the 2008 Genie Awards); associate produced the theatrical feature Mount Pleasant (2006); and production managed and shot Bravo’s documentary series On Screen!. She has worked as a documentary cinematographer on location in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Haiti. Her Talent Lab self-portrait was selected to screen as a Motorola trailer at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Also premiering at TIFF wa Hirsute, the latest short film Amy produced and shot. Amy recently received the Kodak Image Award at the 2007 Spotlight Gala Awards. Her work has been broadcast on CBC, PBS, Citytv, the Comedy Network and in Japan, Spain and France.
agent: Tyman Stewart
604-733-9800
Gina Stockdale
Lead Actor
Born in Cambridge, England, Gina moved to Canada in 1967 and settled in the Vancouver area in 1970. She took a BA at Simon Fraser University, majoring in Fine and Performing Arts and English. Favourite stage credits include the role of Mother Courage in Courage in the Park for Ruby Slippers/Public Dreams, Doris in Unity 1918 for Touchstone Theatre, Prospero in The Tempest for SFU, Irene in Alan Bennett’s A Lady of Letters for These Four Walls. Gina has been working in TV and film for the past nine years. Highlights include a series regular on Hope Island and the role of Mrs. Scott in a mini series re-make of Little House on the Prairie, which aired on ABC and CBC. Gina writes, performs and has her own company: These Four Walls Theatre.
Shannon Kohli
Director of Photography
Shannon grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada to study at the University of British Columbia where she graduated with a BA in Film. While at UBC she won Best Cinematography for The Night Visitor and Big Shoes to Fill. Since completing her degree, Shannon has shot numerous short films including BlindSpot, 30 min or Free and Captured. Most recently she has directed photography on the short films Inconvenience, Jilted, Break a Leg Rosie and Gravity Boy, as well as on the three feature films Ragnarok, 22 Hands and Of Golf and God. Shannon was the 2005 recipient of the WIFVV Kodak Excellence Award and is a cinematography member of the International Guild of Photographers, IATSE 669.
Peter Ochotta
Production Designer
Peter Ochotta’s work includes architecture, graphic design, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He holds degrees in Fine Arts and in Architecture, and is a former professor of Computer Aided-Design at the University of Waterloo. Since moving to Vancouver in 1999, he has been Art Director on independent features and Production Designer of several shorts, including The Night Visitor and Big Shoes to Fill. Peter was in the Art Department of the films Scooby Doo 2, Catwoman, Fantastic Four and the TV series Killer Instinct. He is currently working as a Set Designer on productions in Vancouver.
meekoby@yahoo.com
Lauren Mainland
Editor
Lauren Mainland is a recent graduate of the University of British Columbia’s film production program. As a writer, director, editor and producer, Lauren’s award-winning shorts have screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival and the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. Her short film Rigor Mortis (2001) aired on CBC. Lauren is pursuing editing while continuing to write and direct her own scripts.
bionicaudio@gmail.com
778.836.4830
Miguel Nunes
Sound Designer/Mixer
Miguel Nunes works in Vancouver as a sound designer, supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer. The winner of a 2003 Gemini Award, for the CBC series Da Vinci’s Inquest, Nunes has built a sturdy reputation of excellence in Canada’s post-production sound scene. Genie Award-nominated for his work on the feature films Emile and Last 
Night —by Carl Bessai and Don McKellar, respectively— Nunes has also been nominated for a total of eleven Leo Awards in sound editing and overall sound; and he has won three. Other recent credits include the Air Bud franchise for Keystone/Miramax and the upcoming feature An American Haunting, starring Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. Nunes also recently ventured back to his roots, composing music and sound designing an Air Jordan commercial for Nike.
heatherwardrobe@gmail.com
778.888.0404
Heather Osborne
Costume Designer
Heather Osborne grew up in Toronto and moved to Halifax in 1998 where she earned a BFA in textiles at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Moving across Canada to Vancouver, she obtained a certificate in Costuming for Theatre and Film from Capilano College. Heather has worked on several short films including Fallen by director Allison Beda. Regarding Sarah is her first credit as Costume Designer.  Since then, Heather acted as costume designer on the theatrical feature film Mount Pleasant. Heather is currently pursuing a career in costumes as a dyer/ager and a textile artist.
ambereyed@shaw.ca
Andrea Manchur
Make-Up Artist
A professional make-up artist for eleven years, Andrea Manchur is a graduate of the highly acclaimed Blanche Macdonald Institute. Andrea’s expertise is widespread: film and TV, special effects, fashion runway, commercial print and bridal. Andrea began with a coveted position at CBC where she headed make-up for the shows CBC Sportsline, Hockey Night in Canada and Broadcast 1. From there she ventured into the world of film. A member of IATSE 891, Andrea has worked on numerous feature films, MOW’s and popular TV series’: X-Men 3, The Santa Clause 2, Scary Movie 3, DaVinci’s Inquest, Andromeda, Battlestar Galactica, The L-Word, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight. While Andrea’s primary focus is film and TV, she does freelance work for music videos, commercial print and her private celebrity clientele.
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Satu Bell
Gina Stockdale & Joy Coghill | Photograph by Satu Bell
Gina Stockdale & Stephen E. Miller | Photograph by Satu Bell
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Satu Bell
Joy Coghill | Photograph by Satu Bell
Tom McBeath | photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale & Nicole Porter | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale & Tom McBeath | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale | Photograph by Ed Araquel
Stephen E. Miller | photograph by Satu Bell
Joy Coghill | Photograph by Satu Bell
Crew | photograph by Ed Araquel
Michelle Porter & Gina Stockdale | photograph by Ed Araquel
Michelle Porter | photograph by Ed Araquel
Gina Stockdale | photograph by Ed Araquel
Shannon Kohli & Michelle Porter | photgraph by Ed Araquel
Korea, November 2007
Asia International Short Film Festival
Seoul, Korea
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
Jury members comprised of international filmmakers Changdong Lee, Jon Bloom, Keiko Takahashi, Anders Thomas Jensen and Hyungkoo Kim awarded Porter with the following statement of congratulations:
“In the category of Special Jury Award, we recognize Regarding Sarah as a film of both fresh perspective and meaningful message. Its humour and import are both of exceptional note. With a deft stroke and assured sense of timing, director Michelle Porter has created a film which embodies the very best of that which a short film can hope to achieve, and done so with laudable skill. For this, we praise her vision and finesse.”
Canada, December 2007
Glen Schaefer of the Province calls the film a “powerful, touching, short drama.”
USA, November 2006
33rd Northwest Film and Video Festival
Portland, Oregon, USA
MOST MEMORABLE FILM AWARD:
REGARDING SARAH, Michelle Porter’s unforgettable fictive short, is about a technological salve for time. As her memory recedes, the eponymous Sarah surrounds herself with countless camcorders, recording her every waking moment. Porter’s great revelation is that the real pleasure is to be found in the lived moments, not in the retrieval of zeroes and ones, even if living doesn’t last.
– Steve Seid, Video Curator at the Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley
Canada, October 2006
“Michelle Porter, whose previous shorts include INSIGHT and BIG SHOES TO FILL has directed a thought-provoking piece of work that is highlighted by its strong performance by lead actress Gina Stockdale, whose work here is subdued with a certain elegance. But yet, it is still very real and has a down-to-earth quality that will remind each potential viewer of their own grandparents. Thematically strong, well acted, and well written, REGARDING SARAH is a strong example of why a strong idea need not only be told in a feature length film but can also be told in a short as well.”
Mark McLeod, MovieContests.com reviewer
Best Live Action Short
Genie Nomination, Canada
Special Jury Award
at Asia International Film Festival, Seoul, Korea
Short Film Award
at Festival Tous Courts, Aix-en-Provence, France
Best Short Narrative
at the Crossroads Film Festival, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Most Memorable Film
at the 33rd Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland, Oregon, USA
Best Film
at the Women in Film Festival B.C., Vancouver, Canada
People’s Choice Award
at the Women in Film Festival B.C., Vancouver, Canada
Best Editing
at the San Francisco Women’s Film Festival, San Francisco, CA., USA
Best Cinematography
at the WorldFest Independent Film Festival, Houston, Texas, USA
Winner of six Leo Awards, B.C.’s film and television awards, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
–Best Short, Directing, Writing, Production Design, Editing & Lead Female Performer
Nominated for eight Leo Awards, B.C.’s film and television awards, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
–Best Short, Directing, Writing, Cinematography, Production Design, Make-up, Editing & Lead Female Performer
Audience Award for Best Short
at the Jacksonville Film Festival, Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Best Overall Short Film
at the Big House Film Festival, Calgary, AB., Canada
Jury Award
at the Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival, Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada
contact
Amy Belling
Producer
604.626.2781
info@compactfilms.com