NSI Drama Prize faculty
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Elise Swerhone | Program Manager
Elise is an award-winning producer, director and writer.
In 2010, she directed
TuTu Much, a theatrical feature documentary about aspiring ballerinas, which won awards in China and Chicago and was shown theatrically in Canada and around the world including the Cannes International Film Festival.
Elise’s most recent documentary,
Mysteries of the Deep, was part of the award-winning series,
One Ocean, shown on the CBC’s
The Nature of Things, Discovery US and National Geographic in 2010. Her latest documentary
Surviving The Teenage Brain will be shown on
The Nature of Things in January of 2012.
Her body of work includes
Ballet High, a feature-length documentary about the graduating class of the professional school at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, made for BRAVO!;
The Science of the Senses:
Hearing and
Drug Deals for the CBC’s
The Nature of Things. She also directed
Restitution (about the return of Nazi-looted art) and
Me, My Brother and My Father’s Van Gogh for CBC’s
Witness.
Swerhone has written, directed and edited episodes for the Gemini award-winning series
Recreating Eden.
Her dramatic credits include episodes for the
Adventures of Shirley Holmes,
Miss Manitoba,
Now & Then and
The Mayor of Odessa. She directed the MOW
My Mother’s Ghost from the novel of the same name and
One of Them, a film about homophobia, for the National Film Board.
Sean Garrity | Program Advisor / Director Facilitator
In 1997, after spending years backpacking through Asia and South America, Sean returned to Winnipeg to begin a career as a filmmaker and musician creating award-winning music videos for Winnipeg artists including The Wyrd Sisters, Mark Reeves and Richard Moody.
He also completed a number of documentaries and short films including
Middle, which won awards at film festivals in Toronto and Vancouver and
How Much for a Half Kilo?, which took the top prize at Calgary. All nine of Sean's short films have international distributors and been sold to television around the world.
His first feature film,
INerTia, was awarded Best First Feature at the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, and netted him Best Director at the 2001 FilmCan Festival. The
Globe & Mail named him one of three 'Canadian Filmmakers to Watch' in 2002.
His second feature film,
Lucid, won the CityTV award for best Western Canadian Feature at the 2005 Vancouver International Film Festival, was an Audience Award pick at Cinefest and was an official selection at more than 25 film festivals around the world, including Shanghai, Mannheim, Singapore and Toronto.
His third feature,
Zooey & Adam premiered at the Atlantic International Film Festival in 2009, was nominated at the Vancouver International Film Festival for the CanWest award for Best Canadian Feature Film and won Best Experimental Film at the Pollygrind festival in Las Vegas
Sean is presently in post-production on his fourth feature
Blood Pressure, and in pre-production on his fifth feature,
My Awkward Sexual Adventure – both slated for 2012 theatrical releases.