FREE ADMISSION: 4:30pm Saturday, September 26 @ The Pearl Theatre, 37 Hall Street
NEW this year, Lunenburg Doc Fest is proud to host a Filmmakers’ Panel featuring documentary directors whose works are screening at The Festival.
Are you curious about the the inspiration for the documentary, the filmmaking process, or something specific about the subject of the film? Would you like to learn more about the art, craft, and business of moving image production for documentary films? Or are you just curious to hear filmmakers in conversation? Learn about the behind-the-scenes stories and be a part of the panel and Q&A.
Participating filmmakers include John Choi (Lost & Found), Nicolina Lanni (Lost & Found), Kelly Nyks (*Canadian Premiere* of Requiem for the American Dream) and John Rowe (Omo Child). Read about our guest filmmakers below.
LOST & FOUND
LOST & FOUND explores the unlikely friendships that were forged on opposite sides of the world, in the wake of a massive natural disaster.
JOHN CHOI, Director/Director of Photography
JOHN CHOI is a Toronto based filmmaker. His career began in New York and Los Angeles working on feature films which include 28 days, The Out-of-Towners and In Dreams. He has emerged as both a Director and Director of Photography working on commercials, music videos and television series which include The Food Network, Discovery Channel, SBS, NHK and Shaw Media – Fresh With Anna Olson, Motives & Murder and William Shatner’s Weird or What? He was nominated for a Gemini Award in 2011 and recently formed the production company Frank Films. LOST & FOUND is his first feature documentary.
NICOLINA LANNI, Director/Producer
NICOLINA LANNI is a Toronto based filmmaker with a background in Journalism. She began her career working in public radio at the CBC but quickly turned film. She has emerged as both a Director and Producer working in feature film and broadcast television which include programming for The History Channel, Discovery Channel, NHK, SBS, Shaw Media and more. She has worked on numerous award winning programs like NAZI HUNTERS and MANSON. LOST & FOUND is her first feature documentary.
REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM *Canadian Premiere*
In REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM, Noam Chomsky, widely recognized as the most influential intellectual alive, makes plain the principles perpetuating the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a select few.
KELLY NYKS, Director/Producer
Kelly is an award-winning director of narrative & documentary films and a partner at PF Pictures.
He most recently directed and produced DISRUPTION – the story of the greatest crisis mankind has ever faced and the movement rising to fight it (all platform distribution). Kelly also directed and produced DO THE MATH – chronicling America’s preeminent environmentalist Bill McKibben in a David vs. Goliath battle to fight the fossil fuel industry and change the terrifying math of the climate crisis (Al-Jazeera America).
Kelly wrote, directed and produced SPLIT: A DEEPER DIVIDE – a non-partisan investigation of the US political divide, hailed by Variety as a ‘solid, evenhanded spur for discussion’ and ‘a Must See’ by The Examiner (The Documentary Channel). His directorial debut SPLIT: A DIVIDED AMERICA won Best Documentary and Audience Favorite awards at festivals nationwide and cornerstoned a nationwide First Time Voter campaign in partnership with the National Council for the Social Studies, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, MTVu and Rock the Vote.
Kelly directed and produced the critically acclaimed shorts MONEY IS MATERIAL and IMPOSSIBLE, both Vimeo Staff Picks, as well as producing THE ARTIFICIAL LEAF, which won the Jury Prize in the Focus Forward Filmmaker Competition and will play Film Festivals worldwide this year.
He is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.
OMO CHILD: THE RIVER AND THE BUSH
OMO CHILD: THE RIVER AND THE BUSH traces the story of the Kara and their beliefs that some children are born cursed or become cursed. Cursed children are called mingi and are killed. The Kara people believe mini children bring disease, drought and death to their families and to the community. one young educated man, Lale Labuko, decided he would challenge this ancient tradition. This is his story.
JOHN ROWE, Director/Producer
John Rowe, the Director/Producer of Omo Child: The River and the Bush is a first time filmmaker who began his journey in film at the US Naval School of Photography in 1970. Following 6 years in the USNR as a camera operator and photographer for various Navy documentaries John pursued a 25 year career producing video games and CG animated films for video games.
In 2004, John first visited the Omo Valley in southwest Ethiopia and returned many times as a photographer exploring the tribal cultures of the lower Omo Valley. In 2010, John learned about the killing of children thought to be cursed and of Lale Labuko, a young man from the Kara tribe who was rescuing some children. Lale needed help to support the children he and his organization had rescued. John decided that same year to begin filming and documenting this incredible story. What started as a short video for youtube ended up becoming a feature length documentary.
John has been married to his wife Regina for 33 years and they have two children Tyler (26) and Kelly (22). They currently live in San Diego, California. Tyler Rowe Co-Produced and Directed the Photography for Omo Child: The River and the Bush.
The inaugural Filmmaker’s Brunch features John Rowe and the delicious offerings of Rime Restaurant (menu below). The special event requires a separate ticket. Click HERE to buy tickets.