Meet the 2022 Catalyst Cohort

Mariam Barry is a biracial multimedia artist of Norwegian and African descent. Her creative work as an actor, writer, director, filmmaker, theatre artist, and producer is grounded in her experience as a Third Culture Kid and celebrates what it means to be Black around the world. As an early career artist who works globally, Barry was a recipient of the 2021 Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative and is a BFA in Acting graduate from the University of British Columbia. Her filmmaking credits include the shorts Cypher (2021), RISE (2021), Legacy (2021), and Yaye (2022). She has a mini-series in development.

Dide Su Bilgin is a Turkish-American filmmaker currently based in Vancouver. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Film Production program and was the host of the Vancouver Turkish Film Festival in 2018.

With a focus on narrative films, Bilgin examines the human condition through dynamic characters and evocative, expressionistic imagery. Her work is comprised of narrative shorts and music videos with musician Haley Blais.

Robin Dalla-Vicenza is queer filmmaker and visual artist currently living on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations also known as Vancouver. Dalla-Vicenza grew up in “Manitoba” where she was influenced by the flat lands, harsh climates, and unique people that have permeated into her surreal film collages. She completed her BFA in Film from Simon Fraser University in 2018 where her work was heavily focused in stop motion, direct animation, and found archival footage. She embraces traditional material practices to explore themes of identity, nostalgia, and the longing for connection. Her practice has also expanded to textile based visual art, and she continues to find ways to blend artistic mediums to to show the beauty in materials that are often overlooked.

David Granneman is an artist, photographer, and filmmaker from a small town on Vancouver Island. Drawing from personal experience as well as influences of non-traditional formats and structures in storytelling, he is interested in new and frank ways of exploring mental health, love, loss, poverty, and addiction in art, choosing to contemplate the more mercurial and volatile aspects of the human condition from a decidedly empathetic and holistic perspective. His autobiographical 2019 short film  Secret Horror won Art With Impact’s monthly Short Film Competition, and he has since been honing his skills as an actor, sound designer, artist, and cinematographer.

Kimberly Ho 何文蔚 is an interdisciplinary artist based on the unceded ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and (Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh) Tseil-Waututh peoples. Growing up in a working-class immigrant family, Ho’s work is nourished by collaborative processes. Their directorial debut Dumplings / 餃子 (2020) received an Honourable Mention for Most Moving Film at the Festival of Recorded Movement. Ho’s documentary To Make Ends Meat 心頭肉 (2021) won the People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. They are co-producing Season 4 of Pride: The LGBTQ+ History Series with OUTtv.

Jae Lew is a media artist and filmmaker currently residing in unceded Coast Salish territories. They specialize in creating experimental 16mm film and DIY electronic instruments; their work deals with topics of spirituality, disability, and gender. Lew holds a bachelor’s degree in New Media and Sound Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Shane Leydon is a Métis, Irish, and Ukrainian artist from Treaty 5 territory in Flin Flon, Manitoba. He is currently a grateful, humble guest on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh First Nations where he works as an actor, writer, and mental health worker.

He directed Teresa Rebeck’s Seminar to critical acclaim and was a pick for Vancouver Presents’ The Best of the Year in 2019. He recently played Gabriel Dumont in Jay Cardinal Villeneuve’s short film Gods & Devils. Leydon is a recent graduate of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University.

Nathalie Lopez-Gutierrez’s work explores cultural and linguistic identity and is drawn to stories around migration, gender, motherhood, and exclusion. She wrote, directed, and co-produced a docudrama highlighting the barriers faced by Francophone mothers in BC, and wrote and co-directed La vie en rose (2010), a web series on BIPOC immigrant Francophone women in BC. She recently wrote and directed two plays based on the experiences of marginalized groups using the Theater of the Oppressed methodology. She is developing her first fiction web series about BIPOC Francophone women experiencing mid-life crisis.

Kay Shioma Metchie is a Vancouver-based mixed-race actor, director, and writer. Her love of film started as a child when she would visit her father on set and raid the chocolate tray at craft services when no one was looking. She graduated from Simon Fraser University, where she studied theatre performance and communication studies. She worked as a script supervisor for many years, and more recently as a Supervising Producer for Movies of the Week. She wrote and directed Weeds Are Flowers, Too for the 2022 Crazy8s Film Festival.

Giselle Miller is a Jamaican-Canadian writer, actor, and filmmaker living in Vancouver. Miller fell in love with storytelling early, winning her first writing competition at 13. After completing an MFA in Creative Writing at UBC, she went on to write, produce, and direct 12 short films and two seasons of the Leo Award-nominated web series Young, Single and Black. Miller also received a Leo Award nomination for her performance in the series. Miller’s productions have been featured in the Women of African Descent Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival, and Roma Shorts Film Festival.

Ryley O’Byrne is an artist and writer from xwesam, the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the shíshálh and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nations (Roberts Creek, Canada). Her work explores relational dynamics, intimacy, and meaning-making through a diverse practice encompassing film, research, text, and installation.

Her projects have been exhibited at Trinity Square Video (Toronto), the Anthology Film Archives (New York City), La Cité de la Mode (Paris), Projet Pangée (Montreal), and in Vancouver at The International Film Centre, The Cinematheque, Unit/Pitt Society for Art and Critical Awareness, and as a part of the City’s Public Art Program.

Clara Salameh is a Lebanese filmmaker who received their BFA in Film Production at the University of British Columbia in 2021. She’s written and directed two short films, including Debutante (2021), which premiered at the Toronto International Women’s Film Festival. Since graduating, Salameh has worked on various sets as an assistant director and in the art department, aiming to work in as many departments as possible. Salameh is very passionate about how mental health uniquely affects different cultures and groups of people, and aims to make that a recurring theme in their films.

Hannah Siden is a filmmaker interested in ideas that are big-hearted and boundary-pushing. She directed a music video with Ballet BC, and her short films have screened at numerous festivals, garnering nominations for Best Vancouver Short at the Sunday Shorts Film Festival and the Next Gen Award at MAX3MIN.

She produced a documentary series about homelessness which was distributed by NowThis and Little Dot Studios and reached more than 15 million views online. She is now in post-production on a documentary about community conservation efforts in Howe Sound/Átl’ḵa7tsem. Hannah is disabled and currently carries out all of her work remotely.

Edson Sithole’s first short film, The Violin (2020), about a young Afro-Canadian boy who rebels against his immigrant parents, screened at Oregon Short Film Festival, Vues d’Afrique in Montreal, and Seattle Black Film Festival.

His second project, Summer 2020, commissioned by the City of Vancouver, was displayed on public screens as part of the city’s Public Art Program.

He is currently developing two short films called The Prophetess and A Dead Goat Does Not Fear The Butcher’s Knife. Like The Violin, they both look at the world of migrants and immigration through the eyes of a young protagonist.

Liliya Syvytskaya is a Ukrainian film director, who found her connection for filmmaking and acting in early childhood. Since her arrival in Vancouver for the UBC Film Production Program, Syvytskaya has continued to grow as a narrative filmmaker, transitioned into screen acting, and has worked in the film Industry as a first assistant director. Soon after the invasion of Ukraine, Syvytskaya traveled back home to Kyiv to film stories about humanity during a time of war. Currently, Syvytskaya is based in Vancouver and Kyiv, finishing her last term in UBC and preparing to shoot a new short film.

Daniel Wester is a Filipino-Canadian filmmaker born in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up, his struggles with mental illness created a deep passion for filmmaking and its ability to affect individuals.

He studied film production at Simon Fraser University’s School for Contemporary Arts. Since graduating from film school, Wester has been working on a no-budget feature film about mental illness, an MLM, and the Vancouver housing crisis, that he wrote, shot, and directed. As a writer-director, Wester continues to explore the line between documentary and fiction through forms of improvisation.