Gordie Haakstad recently directed his first feature film, Abel’s Field, starring Kevin Sorbo and Samuel Davis. The film was released on DVD on Jan 22, 2013.

Gordie gained his directing background as a filmmaker specialized in cinematography and editing. He began his education at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television where he graduated Magna Cum Laude from the prestigious Production Program.

Following school, Gordie interned under cinematographer Don Burgess (FORREST GUMP, SPIDERMAN, CAST AWAY) on the set of TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES. He maintained his ties with academia by teaching both cinematography and editing at the New York Film Academy – as well as developing much of the curriculum for those two departments.

Gordie continued his creative pursuits while helping to create a number of industrial, short, and feature-length projects. Notably, Gordie was the cinematographer behind the award-winning 11 MINUTES AGO, a feature-length film that was shot entirely in one day.

Gordie was born in Grande Prairie but moved to the US with his family when he was very young. He lives in Los Angeles but has been back in Grande Prairie to visit relatives and to write two feature screenplays. He will teach the Editing for Filmmakers workshop at 1:00 pm on Sat, May 4 and also judge the Screenwriting Competition and announce the winner at 8:30 pm on Sat, May 4 before the Criminal Minds package.