NSI Feature First faculty
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Presented by the National Screen Institute in association with Telefilm Canada
Elise Swerhone | Co-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.
Will Pascoe, Co-Program Manager
Will is a graduate of the National Screen Institute’s Features First program. His first film,
Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without A Pause, had its world premiere at the prestigious IDFA (International Documentary Feature Film Festival Amsterdam) where it sold out several screenings.
His comedy short film,
The Burger Joint, earned a broadcast on the Comedy Network and has played at numerous festivals, while his relationship drama,
Zen and the Art of Dating, played on Movieola.
Will’s short film,
Choices, won a special award at the 2007 IDFA in Amsterdam and his bro-mantic comedy feature film screenplay,
Charming Grace, was nominated for a Writers Guild of Canada Jim Burt Screenwriting Award and is hopefully going into production in 2011. The film will be his debut as a feature film director. Other directing credits include the three part series,
The Three Passions of Bertrand Russell and multiple episodes of the children’s series,
Discovering Canada.
He’s written for the acclaimed international series
Degrassi: The Next Generation, the comedy series,
Majority Rules and
Heartland, and is currently developing several television series with various production companies.
Will has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Guelph and a Masters from the University of Western Ontario. He’s a former board chair of TD Canada-Trust’s "Friends of the Environment Foundation" and was a recent recipient of a CTV National Fellowship to the Banff Television Festival.