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Jul 22nd, 2010,
Canadian Stars,

Award winning Canadian filmmakers Vic Sarin (A Shine of Rainbows) and Carl Bessai (Cole) are coming into the festival with their films.  

Carl Bessai
Carl Bessai started out in the film industry shooting documentaries and soon honed his skills as a producer, writer, director, and cinematographer. His feature films have won international critical acclaim, having screened at numerous festivals including Sundance, Berlin, and Toronto and have been released theatrically in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. To date, his feature dramas include Johnny (1999), Lola (2001), Emile (2003), Severed (2005), Unnatural & Accidental (2006), Normal (2007), Mothers&Daughters (2008) and Cole (2009).

Vic Sarin
A passionate and diverse filmmaker, Vic Sarin's career includes award winning feature films, documentaries and television movies.

Sarin began his career in Australia making documentaries that he produced, wrote, directed and shot, while working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a cameraman. He then emigrated to Canada and went on to become one of Canada's most celebrated Directors of Photography, receiving numerous accolades including Genie, Gemini and Emmy nominations and awards among others. He is the recipient of the prestigious Kodak Lifetime Achievement Award for having created some of Canadian cinema's most moving and memorable images. Vic's outstanding work on feature films such as Margaret's Museum, Whale Music, Bye Bye Blues, Dancing in the Dark and On My Own earned him world renown as one of Canada's premier cinematographers.

Sarin then turned his focus to directing where he often wears both hats as Director and Cinematographer, creating a distinct look and feel with breathtaking visuals and a unique storytelling style that seamlessly weaves together the emotional and visual aspects of his films. As a director, Sarin has won recognition for a diverse range of films such as the feature Cold Comfort, starring Maury Chaykin and Paul Gross, which garnered five Genie (Canadian Academy Award) nominations including Best Picture. He has thrice received Emmy nominations for his family films for television: In His Father's Shoes, starring Lou Gossett (five Emmy nominations including Best Direction and Best Picture), Sea People starring Hume Cronyn, (four Emmy nods including Best Direction and Best Picture) The Legend of Gatorface and Trial at Fortitude Bay starring Lolita Davidovitch and Henry Czerny which garnered both Emmy and Cable Ace nods. He received critical acclaim for the controversial television movie, "Murder Unveiled - A Love Story." He also directed the smash hit Christian feature film Left Behind, based on the popular book series.

Sarin wrote his first feature film screenplay Partition, a story of love against all odds, set against the turmoil at the end of the British reign of India in 1947, based on events he had heard about and witnessed growing up in Kashmir. Partition became a $10 million feature that Sarin directed and shot in India and Canada in 2006 starring Jimi Mistry, Neve Campbell, Kristin Kreuk and Irfan Khan. It was released theatrically internationally in 2007 and has won numerous accolades.

Continuing to work with the themes of belonging, family, and what we leave behind, Sarin co-wrote the screenplay adaptation for the feature film A Shine of Rainbows, based on the novel by Lillian Beckwith. Sarin recently completed production on A Shine of Rainbows in Ireland starring Connie Nielsen, Aidan Quinn and newcomer John Bell.

Sarin's films, though unique in character and setting, share a common thread -- the exploration of the human need for connection, tolerance and opening the boundaries of the human heart.

 

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