Bonnie Thompson photo

Bonnie Thompson is a veteran Canadian media producer and owner of Dreaming Bird Productions in Edmonton. She worked with the National Film Board of Canada for many years in marketing and with training programs, followed by 17 years as a producer on over 80 productions with Alberta and Canadian filmmakers and producers, on a slate of documentary, interactive, and animation projects.

Bonnie’s productions have been broadcast on national television (including CBC, History, Doc Channel, SuperChannel, Discovery, and APTN) as well as international television (including NHK, PBS, CCT). Her productions have also screened on the web (including Netfilx, nfb.ca, and iTunes) and at festivals in Canada and around the world, garnering many prestigious awards including AMPIA, Webby, Gemini, Genie, and Canadian Screen Academy nominations and awards, as well as a nomination for an Academy Award.

A recent highlight is the feature documentary nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (Tasha Hubbard, director) which was selected as the opening film at Hot Docs 2019. It won the Best Canadian feature documentary at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2020 among many festival screenings and awards. It has been versioned for television for CBC and APTN.

Scott Belyea is a Vancouver filmmaker who grew up in Grande Prairie. In 2016, he directed He Loves You Not, a feature-length thriller for Reel One Entertainment. He currently runs Post Premium Media where he oversees production on various commercial works for major brands.

The short films Scott wrote, directed, and edited have played at festivals around the world, winning various awards. He won Best Peace Region Short at the 2015 Reel Shorts Film Festival for Outside the Lines.

Scott has developed and led a progression of training initiatives for the Reel Shorts Film Festival that began with the first two-hour workshop for school groups in 2007 and grew into the 2½-day Youth Filmmaking Challenge workshops from 2009-2012.

In 2012, Scott directed The Horizon Project in and around Grande Prairie as part of Shoot for Reel, a two-week internship program which led to the formation of PRIMAA (Peace Region Independent Media Arts Association). He led the Youth Film Mentorship Project in 2013 during which four Grande Prairie high school students created HB, a short film that won the Best Overall Youth Short Film at the 2013 Calgary International Film Festival. It was the first international film to win the Young Filmmakers Program Competition Grand Prize at the 2013 Austin Film Festival in Texas.

Scott was a jury member for the festival in 2014 when the festival became competitive, and in 2016 and 2019.

Scooter Corkle photo

Scooter Corkle is a Vancouver filmmaker who has worked in film for over 15 years in various departments including grip, lighting and camera. His feature film, Hollow in the Land (2016), was set in his hometown of Castlegar in the mountains of British Columbia. It was released by Vertical Entertainment in the United States, Elevation Pictures in Canada, and West End Films internationally.

Scooter helped Scott Belyea develop the Youth Filmmaking Challenge workshop for the 2009 festival and helped lead it for the four years that it was offered. During that time, 11 short films were created, and Scooter acted in most of them. The popular workshop was retired after the 2012 festival and replaced with more ambitious training programs.

Scooter was the Cinematographer on The Horizon Project and a mentor during Shoot for Reel, the two-week internship program that took place during the production of that film in and around Grande Prairie in 2012. Scooter was also a mentor during the production of the Youth Film Mentorship Project in 2013 that resulted in HB, an award-winning youth film.

In 2018, Scooter was named one of 25 Screenwriters to Watch by the Austin Film Festival and MovieMaker Magazine.