On May 1st, MFM hosted the seventh annual Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards Ceremony, in the Great Hall at Laurentian University. The award ceremony recognized the efforts and showcase the talent of the Northern Ontario’s music and film industries by featuring award presentations, live performances and movie clips.
The 2010 Northern Ontario Music and Film Award Winners are:
BEST ALBUM BY A SOLO ARTIST
Winner: Cindy Doire – Chapeau de pluie
Nominees:
Faye Blais – Two Pieces
Sarah Craig – The Threshing Floor
BEST ALBUM BY A DUO OR GROUP
Winner: Suzana Da Camara – Proof Of Love
Nominees:
Shift – Shift
Kalle Mattson – Whisper Bee
BEST SONGWRITER
Winner: Mike Dell, Randall Savoy & Suzana Da Camara – Il n’y a qu’un homme
Nominees:
Kalle Wainio – A to Z
Faye Blais – Something’s Changed
BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE ON A RECORDING
Winner: Faye Blais – Canvas
Nominees:
Faye Blais – Something’s Changed
Larry Berrio – Rocktown
BEST ENGINEER
Winner: Billy Bruhmuller, Dave Jeffrey
Nominees:
Chris Dorota
Rusty McCarthy
BEST FILM
Winner: Ben Bruhmuller – Vs.
Nominees:
Heather K. Dahlstrom – Ten For Grandpa
Michelle Derosier – The Healing Lens
BEST DIRECTOR
Winner: Ben Bruhmuller – Vs.
Nominees:
J.P. Borchardt – Shell Shock
Michelle Derosier – The Healing Lens
BEST FILM EDITOR
Winner: Ben Bruhmuller – Vs.
Nominees:
Kevin Hoffman – The Lake
Dave Clement – The Healing Lens
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER
Winner: Ed Regan & Patrick Gilbert – The Lake
Nominees:
Greg Tremblay – Doomzday Jezuz “Man Of The Cloth”
Dave Clement – The Healing Lens
BEST SCREENWRITER
Winner: Eric Boissonneault – Sophie & Sara
Nominees:
Lee Chambers & Kris Ketonen – The Sum Of Random Chance
Ryan La Via – Psyche
TRAILBLAZER AWARD
Shirley Cheechoo
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BIOS
Larry Berrio
Best Vocal Performance on a Recording – Rocktown
Sudbury resident Larry Berrio has been in the country music scene since 1996. With the release of his latest album, RPM, Larry has taken his rockin’ country style to a new level, giving him the opportunity to share the stage with the likes of Brooks & Dunn and Terri Clark.
Faye Blais
Best Album by a Solo Artist – Two Pieces
Best Songwriter – Something’s Changed
Best Vocal Performance on a Recording – Canvas
Best Vocal Performance on a Recording – Something’s Changed
Faye Blais resonates the sweetest melodies coupled with raw acoustics that swiftly turns into the soundtrack to your life. With a stage presence that is equally delectable, this indie-folk princess will win you over with her quick wit, spontaneity, and ability to stroke the warmest pieces of your soul.
Eric Boissonneault
Best Screenwriter – Sophie & Sara
Eric Boissonneault is a filmmaker, screenwriter and roustabout from the North Bay area. He studied film production at Confederation College in Thunder Bay. He has worked most recently on the Kids in the Hall production “Death Comes to Town” and as Third Assistant Director on the feature film “Oliver Sherman”.
J.P. Borchardt
Best Director – Shell Shock
A graduating student from Sheridan College’s Media Arts program, J.P. Borchardt has worked on over 33 award winning short films as a writer, director, assistant director and post sound professional. Most recently, Borchardt worked on a multi-million dollar feature film starring Chris Parnell of SNL fame that shot in his current home of Parry Sound this past summer. While having spent the last few years writing and directing his own shorts, Borchardt hopes to find a career in postproduction sound for films and music once he graduates.
Ben Bruhmuller
Best Film – Vs.
Best Director – Vs.
Best Film Editor – Vs.
Ben Bruhmuller specializes in stop-motion animation and is originally from Sudbury, Ontario, where he maintains a studio and carries out much of his animation work. He has made six previous independent short animated films that have screened at festivals across Canada, and has won five Northern Ontario Music and Film awards. He currently lives in Toronto. Vs. is his seventh film.
Billy Bruhmuller
Best Engineer
Billy Bruhmuller began his production career in 1997 with the opening of Easter Island Studio. He has engineered/produced projects for Warner, Sony Music Canada, and hundreds of independent artists and labels. He currently works as a freelance producer in a variety of media fields.
Lee Chambers
Best Screenwriter – The Sum Of Random Chance
Born and raised in Sault Ste. Marie, Lee Chambers spent ten years working in England and Los Angeles writing and directing drama shorts, music videos and commercials. He started teaching in the film production program at Confederation College in 2005. He is the founder of the annual Make It Short Film Project (which attracted executive support from Roger Corman and David Cronenberg).
Dave Clement
Best Film Editor – The Healing Lens
Best Cinematographer – The Healing Lens
Dave is an earth scientist turned filmmaker and founder of Thunderstone Pictures. With both a Master’s of Science in Physical Geography and a Diploma in Film Production, Dave combines a knack for logistics with both writing skills and a sharp eye for great images. He is an award-winning cinematographer and director and has been producing films in Northern Ontario since 2003, including the documentaries “Woodland Spirits” and “Seeking Bimaadiziiwin”. His credits also include working as production manager on the feature film "Oliver Sherman" which was shot in North Bay, Ontario.
Sarah Craig
Best Album by a Solo Artist – The Threshing Floor
A self-described "Sudbury girl," Sarah Craig's jazz is as tasty and clean as Ramsey Lake water. In the tradition of Billie Holiday and Eva Cassidy, her smoky vocals set the stage for her bluegrass- and gospel-inspired jazz songs. The Laurentian-educated musician swings alongside gypsy jazz trio Sunnyside Paris, sounds molten hot in Slag Heap Love’s 3 woman jazz cabaret, and is past member of indie-rockers OX, which allowed her to tour the British Isles and Canada. Her 2008 release "The Threshing Floor" produced by Paul Dunn has won 2 songwriting awards for its Manitoulin inspired song “Dig the Dirt”.
Suzana Da Camara
Best Album by a Duo or Group – Proof Of Love
Best Songwriter – Il n’y a qu’un homme
"Suzana Da Camara" was founded by artists Suzana Da Camara (vocals), Mike Dell (piano) and Randall Savoy (bass). The group's unique blend of jazz, cabaret, world and pop has earned it critical audience acclaim in Canada and abroad. Influenced by their Canadian and Portuguese heritage, their music explores themes of love, life and relationships in English, French and Portuguese. Their new album, “Proof of Love” produces a fresh, yet vintage-inspired sound that is both familiar yet startlingly different.
Heather K. Dahlstrom
Best Film – Ten For Grandpa
Heather K. Dahlstrom has been producing films since 2000. Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, she graduated from the Confederation College Film Production Program. Previous credits include the feature film Taken, and short films Gummi, Snaps, and Off the Menu. Heather is currently overseeing the development of six feature film scripts, as well as participating in the production of You Are Here, a feature film with zeroFunction Productions. Dahlstrom is currently a Development Executive for Torch Head Productions in Toronto. Torch Head has previously produced a TV pilot for the Food Network as well as co-produced Ten for Grandpa for Bravo! with Chop Wood Carry Water.
Michelle Derosier
Best Film – The Healing Lens
Best Director – The Healing Lens
Michelle brings a suite of unique talents to the art of filmmaking. Not only is she an award-winning drama screenwriter, producer and actor, she is also a documentary filmmaker and a practicing social worker. Originally from Migisi Sahgaigan, in Northwestern Ontario, she has ten years of front line experience as a counselor working with First Nations people. She has also delivered workshops on using film as a vehicle of healing and empowerment and is a published researcher. Her vast experience with people in crisis, her trustworthy nature and a nose for great stories, make Michelle a great storyteller.
Cindy Doire
Best Album by a Solo Artist – Chapeau de pluie
The sweet, husky voice of this Timmins country-jazz-folk artist conjures up the days of intimate, dimly-lit cabarets and the nostalgia of shared secrets. Her performance is alluring and precise, demanding everyone's notice. With her second record (Chapeau de Pluie), she presents us with inspiring French country/folk jazz music that unleashes a traveling French melody. She takes her listeners on a migration passage that tours from a north-American sound to the Parisian cafés and cabarets.
Chris Dorota
Best Engineer
Chris Dorota has far more talents than just audio engineering. His hobbies include building microphones from scratch, developing one of the first touch consoles mixing boards in the world, and constantly fiddling and modifying the newly built Dining Room studios to match the needs of the artist.
Patrick Gilbert
Best Cinematographer – The Lake
Patrick Gilbert is a multi-talented artist currently specializing in multimedia and graphic art design and production. Pat has always maintained a keen interest in artistic pursuits, from comic books through to film production, including recent work in the art department of a feature film shooting in the North Bay area.
Kevin Hoffman
Best Film Editor – The Lake
With a background in marketing, Kevin’s strength in the visual arts, and his experience in storyboarding, art directing, and television commercial editing, has resulted in a handful of film making awards. An accomplished painter, designer, and musician, Kevin applies his sensibilities to his films to create a uniquely artistic vision.
Dave Jeffrey
Best Engineer
Dave Jeffrey is a jazz-guitarist forced to play bass. He loves photography and, of course, sound engineering. Self-taught at the computer Dave has an ear for organic vintage sound. He ran his own studio from 2000 until 2006 in Sudbury, working with chart topping OX on “Dust Bowl Revival” and Northern Ontario Music and Film Award winners November Allstars. Mr. Jeffrey is now teaching at the Nipissing school board and playing rock star on weekends.
Kris Ketonen
Best Screenwriter – The Sum Of Random Chance
Kris Ketonen was born and raised in Thunder Bay, graduating form Lakehead University before studying journalism at Ryerson University. He then worked as a reporter with a Canadian daily newspaper, leaving to study scriptwriting at Algonquin College in Ottawa. Afterwards, he returned to Thunder Bay, becoming involved in the city’s film community and working on several short films and short and feature-length scripts. He has recently returned to journalism as a daily newspaper reporter.
Ryan La Via
Best Screenwriter – Psyche
Ryan was born in Thunder Bay and continues to call it home today. Since graduating from Confederation College Film Production program in 2004, he runs a film/video production company called Pastime Productions. Everything Ryan makes is either produced or co-produced through Pastime Productions.
Rusty McCarthy
Best Engineer
Rusty McCarthy is a guitarist, composer and painter who lives in Toronto and regularly travels to play guitar on music projects. As capable of playing Jazz & Blues as he is charting a string section for a film score, he is an artist with style. In recent years, Rusty has been busy playing dates in Canada and the UK, writing scores for BRAVO TV's "A Taste Of Shakespeare". He also spends a lot of time recording artists at his recording studio.
Kalle Mattson
Best Album by a Duo or Group – Whisper Bee
Best Songwriter – A To Z
Kalle Mattson is a four-piece group from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. In their two years together they have released two records to rave reviews, received national radio airplay and played countless Canadian shows. Like Wilco colliding with a sunny day, Kalle Mattson injects indie-rock with off-kilter folk and rootsy accents. Ringing guitars, Jeff Tweedy-style vocals and exhibiting rock finesse to counteract their youngish appearance.
Ed Regan
Best Cinematographer – The Lake
Born and raised in Northern Ontario, Ed works as a professional photographer and has made a name for himself as a consummate professional with a keen eye for the beauty that surrounds him. As well as a talented filmmaker and photographer, Ed is also a gifted musician and singer.
Shift
Best Album by a Duo or Group – Shift
After ten years of collaborative musical artistry, Konflit is still drawing new waters from its well-spring of inspiration. The band is always uncompromisingly true to itself, yet never quite the band you think you’ve come to know. For their fifth album, Konflit has once again broken the mould transforming themselves into SHIFT, a new project that swells with oceanic energy and sparkles with the coral-tinged colors of the heart. KONFLIT now SHIFT still and always delivers a welcome commodity in the field of contemporary songwriting: true artistry in music for our times.
Greg Tremblay
Best Cinematographer – Doomzday Jezuz "Man Of The Cloth"
Greg is co-owner of M-Plicit Productions and specializes in various creative video projects including feature films and documentaries. He has written and directed several short films. Greg currently teaches independent filmmaking for children at the Sudbury Art Gallery.
Shirley Cheechoo
Trailblazer Award
The Trailblazer award is an honorary award given out each year in recognition of an individual, group or organization whose contributions to either the music or film industry in Northern Ontario have been groundbreaking in that they have helped pave the way for artists working in the cultural industries.
Music and Film in Motion (MFM) is pleased to announce that this year’s Trailblazer Award will go to Shirley Cheechoo. The award recognizes the outstanding contributions made by Shirley to the film industry in Northern Ontario.
Dr. Shirley Cheechoo was born in Eastmain, Quebec in 1952. Shirley is a member of the Cree Tribe and her early childhood was spent in Moose Factory along the James Bay coast. Shirley also experienced part of her young life in various Indian Residential schools until her family later moved to Hearst, Ontario. She is married to artist Blake Debassige and they have one child, Nanoshkasheese.
Memories of growing up within a warm family group have become the focal point for her expression through the medium of acrylic. She recalls here childhood days where she and her brother would create and perform plays to entertain local community. Her paintings represent the personal documentation of the many experiences she shared with her large family in the north as well as those of other Cree families lived by trapping and fishing. She provided the illustrations for Basil H. Johnston's book "Tales the Elders Told”.
Cheechoo gathered like-minded artists and founded De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Company in 1984. This touring company has become one of the foremost and respected independent Native theatre companies in the world, and is located on Manitoulin Island. She first gained national attention in the theatre in 1992 with her play, "Path With No Moccasins". Shirley began directing films in 1998, after working as a playwright, actor and director of notable plays.
Realizing she can ease a pain or raise an issue with her film work, she threw herself headlong into the medium. She enrolled in writing classes, director’s labs, acting workshops and film schools. As one of a select group of promising filmmakers, Shirley was invited to attend the prestigious Sundance Institute lead by Robert Redford, where she worked and filmed scenes of her script, “Backroads”. She became the first, First Nation person to write, produce, direct, and act in a dramatic, feature length film from Canada. She has also appeared on several Canadian film and television series and programs, including “The Rez”.
Her film directorial debut is the acclaimed short film, “Silent Tears”, which won several film festival awards for Best Short Film. It was screened at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and was also awarded the Telefilm Canada and Northern Canada Award for Best Canadian Aboriginal Language Program. Her many achievements have earned numerous prizes over her career over 21 to be exact, including the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, CTV Fellowship Award and the Eagle Spirit Award. Her films have been selected for screenings at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, Reel World, Imaginative and Montreal International Film and Vancouver Film Festival. She has won first prize awards for various works at film festivals including: Montreal's First Peoples Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, and American Indian Film Festival of San Francisco. In 2002 Shirley was named Independent Filmmaker of the Year at the Arizona International Film Festival. Her most recent award is the Best Public Service for her latest project Sweet Blood. Shirley is gearing up for her second feature film Kelly’s Bar, starring Adam Beech.
Her patronage to the arts does not stop there however. She is co-owner of Kasheese Studios Art Gallery, along with her husband Blake Debassige, which promotes native, visual artists from around the world. Both of their works have been recognized and critically acclaimed internationally. Shirley is also the President of her own business and independent film company - Spoken Song Film Productions. Shirley is most recently Founder and President of Weengushk Film Institute (WFI) located on Manitoulin Island. WFI is an artist-focused, film and television training centre, dedicated to unlocking the creative potential of Aboriginal Youth and persons of diversity. |
