Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
Refugee stories are rarely as colorful and uplifting as Footsteps on the Wind. The project had been ruminating for years with director Maya Sanbar and producer Gillian Gordon before they met the Dirty Work team and began production on the film in 2020; just as the world was going into lock-down.
In this conversation, Maya and Gillian are joined by co-director Faga Melo to discuss where this story started, how Sting became involved and how this international production came together over a lot of conference calls and with a lot of faith.
SPEAKERS
Maya Sanbar
Artist, Director // Independent
Maya Sanbar is an Artist and Filmmaker. Her work in both moving image and installation is centered on the art of storytelling.
Footsteps on the Wind is her directorial debut in the narrative and animation world.
Her experience is varied, her artworks being often collaborative and enabling of others adding their voices to a central theme. In relation to this film, aside from her own family refugee history, she sought out the depth of emotional truth within refugee stories via therapy workshops, ensuring that this is a film about refugees, told by refugees, for refugees and the general public young and old.
As a multimedia artist, her work has been exhibited internationally, notably installations at Shoreditch Town Hall in London “Waiting” 2015, the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City “Alex in Wonderland” scented experience (2016), and at the Berlin Wall on the 30th anniversary of its fall “Chasing the Light” (2019), "Words on the Hill" at the Coronet Theatre in London (2020). Her film production credits include 360 immersion visits to artist studios and documentaries.
Sanbar is fluent in 6 languages and passionate about crossing cultural boundaries using words with images to bring about a fresh point of view.
Gillian Gordon
Executive Producer // Visionaire Media
An award-winning film/television producer, executive and educator who has worked in Los Angeles, London and Asia. Experienced in every aspect of production Gordon has worked in Hollywood film development as well as hands-on responsibility for ground-breaking films, television, commercials and music videos. She has an extensive knowledge of the global film market as well as film festivals and funding platforms. She regularly conducts screenwriting workshops and consults to film financiers and producers.
Having spent thirty years in London, she has recently moved back to the USA where she was the inaugural Executive Director of the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center. She has produced successful TV series for the BBC, and ITV, worked as a development executive at Film & General Productions, Make Waves Media and ITV. She was a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the MA Producing program at Royal Holloway University of London for 12 years and spent 3 years in Singapore with Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. She is currently Executive Producer at Visionaire Media and recently produced the animation short, Footsteps on the Wind with song by Sting about child refugee migration.
Faga Melo
Director, Artist // Dirty Work
Filmmaker and motion graphics artist, born in São Gonçalo - Rio de Janeiro, studied Cinema in São Paulo and Los Angeles, has worked between the production of advertising films, content for Cinema, TV, and stages such as Rod Stewart World Tour and Paralympic Games.
MODERATOR
Marina Antunes
Festival Director, Film Critic, Podcaster // Spark CG Society
Marina joined the Spark Computer Graphics Society as Festival Director in 2014. Throughout her tenure, the festival has grown into Western Canada’s premiere animation festival, featuring a number of specialty programming including the “Made in Canada” program celebrating Canadian creators, “Mother of a Medium” featuring works from female filmmakers, and “Spotlight on France” which celebrates the best of French animation. In 2019, the SPARK ANIMATION FESTIVAL became Academy Award ® accredited, the only festival in British Columbia to hold that distinction.
Marina is also a writer and podcaster with over 15 years of experience, first on a personal blog followed by a decade-long tenure on the now-retired Row Three. In 2008 she joined the writing staff at Quiet Earth, becoming Editor-In-Chief in 2014, a role she still holds. Over the years, she has also produced and hosted a number of podcasts including Before the Dawn, a long-running podcast on the Twilight franchise, Girls on Pop, a podcast on film and popular entertainment from women’s perspective and After the Credits, bi-monthly film podcast with nearly 300 episodes.
Marina is a member of the Online Film Critics Society, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the Visual Effects Society is the President of the Vancouver SIGGRAPH chapter, and has served on juries for several film festivals including the DOXA, St. Louis International Film Festival, and the Whistler Film Festival.
Conversations with filmmakers selected to the festival.
Refugee stories are rarely as colorful and uplifting as Footsteps on the Wind. The project had been ruminating for years with director Maya Sanbar and producer Gillian Gordon before they met the Dirty Work team and began production on the film in 2020; just as the world was going into lock-down.
In this conversation, Maya and Gillian are joined by co-director Faga Melo to discuss where this story started, how Sting became involved and how this international production came together over a lot of conference calls and with a lot of faith.
SPEAKERS
Maya Sanbar
Artist, Director // Independent
Maya Sanbar is an Artist and Filmmaker. Her work in both moving image and installation is centered on the art of storytelling.
Footsteps on the Wind is her directorial debut in the narrative and animation world.
Her experience is varied, her artworks being often collaborative and enabling of others adding their voices to a central theme. In relation to this film, aside from her own family refugee history, she sought out the depth of emotional truth within refugee stories via therapy workshops, ensuring that this is a film about refugees, told by refugees, for refugees and the general public young and old.
As a multimedia artist, her work has been exhibited internationally, notably installations at Shoreditch Town Hall in London “Waiting” 2015, the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City “Alex in Wonderland” scented experience (2016), and at the Berlin Wall on the 30th anniversary of its fall “Chasing the Light” (2019), "Words on the Hill" at the Coronet Theatre in London (2020). Her film production credits include 360 immersion visits to artist studios and documentaries.
Sanbar is fluent in 6 languages and passionate about crossing cultural boundaries using words with images to bring about a fresh point of view.
Gillian Gordon
Executive Producer // Visionaire Media
An award-winning film/television producer, executive and educator who has worked in Los Angeles, London and Asia. Experienced in every aspect of production Gordon has worked in Hollywood film development as well as hands-on responsibility for ground-breaking films, television, commercials and music videos. She has an extensive knowledge of the global film market as well as film festivals and funding platforms. She regularly conducts screenwriting workshops and consults to film financiers and producers.
Having spent thirty years in London, she has recently moved back to the USA where she was the inaugural Executive Director of the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center. She has produced successful TV series for the BBC, and ITV, worked as a development executive at Film & General Productions, Make Waves Media and ITV. She was a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the MA Producing program at Royal Holloway University of London for 12 years and spent 3 years in Singapore with Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. She is currently Executive Producer at Visionaire Media and recently produced the animation short, Footsteps on the Wind with song by Sting about child refugee migration.
Faga Melo
Director, Artist // Dirty Work
Filmmaker and motion graphics artist, born in São Gonçalo - Rio de Janeiro, studied Cinema in São Paulo and Los Angeles, has worked between the production of advertising films, content for Cinema, TV, and stages such as Rod Stewart World Tour and Paralympic Games.
MODERATOR
Marina Antunes
Festival Director, Film Critic, Podcaster // Spark CG Society
Marina joined the Spark Computer Graphics Society as Festival Director in 2014. Throughout her tenure, the festival has grown into Western Canada’s premiere animation festival, featuring a number of specialty programming including the “Made in Canada” program celebrating Canadian creators, “Mother of a Medium” featuring works from female filmmakers, and “Spotlight on France” which celebrates the best of French animation. In 2019, the SPARK ANIMATION FESTIVAL became Academy Award ® accredited, the only festival in British Columbia to hold that distinction.
Marina is also a writer and podcaster with over 15 years of experience, first on a personal blog followed by a decade-long tenure on the now-retired Row Three. In 2008 she joined the writing staff at Quiet Earth, becoming Editor-In-Chief in 2014, a role she still holds. Over the years, she has also produced and hosted a number of podcasts including Before the Dawn, a long-running podcast on the Twilight franchise, Girls on Pop, a podcast on film and popular entertainment from women’s perspective and After the Credits, bi-monthly film podcast with nearly 300 episodes.
Marina is a member of the Online Film Critics Society, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, and the Visual Effects Society is the President of the Vancouver SIGGRAPH chapter, and has served on juries for several film festivals including the DOXA, St. Louis International Film Festival, and the Whistler Film Festival.
