About Organization

Since 2006, the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival has built a reputation with filmmakers and audiences as a showcase for outstanding Canadian and International short films. The annual festival connects filmmakers, industry professionals and audiences in an immersive and welcoming festival experience. Our mandate is to curate an original program of short films that celebrates diverse voices and perspectives in the art of storytelling and provide opportunities for connection and education between local and International filmmakers and audiences.

The Vancouver Island Short Film Festival is thankful to operate on the traditional, ancestral, and unceeded territory of Snuneymuxw First Nation. We understand our responsibility to build authentic relationships with Indigenous communities and allow this ongoing dialogue to influence our practices.

For more information please contact us at admin@visff.com.

Staff:

Zoey Heath (Festival Director)

Zoey Heath’s visual eye was honed while attending film school and developed into a career when Zoey was thrown into the role of photographer on film sets. From there, Zoey owned a successful media business, working alongside and managing a team of photographers, videographers and editors to produce various media content for both small and large-scale events. Zoey has worked with multiple high-profile clients including; Canada Council for the Arts, AOL Canada, the University of Waterloo, The Huffington Post, The Ontario Arts Council, Wilfred Laurier University, and Arts & Crafts Productions.

During the same period, Zoey received awards for scriptwriting and photography, helped organize classic film screenings for Cinematique Waterloo and helped establish an artist-run collective that provided affordable arts space to up-and-coming artists.

In their free time, Zoey works in a community darkroom with alternative photography processes and spends far too much time watching the Criterion Channel.
zoey@visff.com

Greg Brown (Submissions Coordinator)

Greg Brown is a writer and educator based on Vancouver Island. He’s the recipient of the Roy Daniells Memorial Essay Prize, a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, the winner of the 2018 Grouse Grind Lit Prize for V. Short Forms and a finalist for the 2018 Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. His fiction and essays have appeared in Paragon, Postscript, Pulp Literature, Tate Street, PRISM International, Best Microfiction 2019 and The Journey Prize Stories 30: The Best of Canada’s New Writers. He teaches at the University of Virginia’s Young Writers Workshop and at the Creative Writing for Children Society in Vancouver. In 2014, he joined the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival as Show Coordinator and has been a member of the board. submissions@visff.com

Melissa Kahan (Promotions Coordinator)

Melissa Kahan is an actor and social media marketer based in Nanaimo, BC. Melissa’s attention to detail and love for fashion makes them comfortable in marketing and promotion. Melissa attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, BC. There, she took classes in Voice, Jazz, Tap, Stage Combat and Physical Theatre. In 2019, Melissa was awarded best actress for her portrayal of Anne in NTG’s festival production of The Diary of Anne Frank. Melissa has voiced several children’s audiobooks and worked on Five Nights At Freddy’s: Security Breach. You can find more of Melissa’s projects and fashion on their instagram: @melifawn

Caileigh Broatch (Volunteer Coordinator)

Caileigh Broatch is a writer, editor, transcriber, and bookseller from Vancouver Island. She is very (very, very) excited to be VISFF’s Volunteer Coordinator this year. volunteer@visff.com

Nick Janzen (Youth Showcase Coordinator)

Nick Janzen is Nanaimo District Secondary School’s film production and sound recording Teacher. These courses nurture student creativity and allow pupils to explore post-secondary and employment opportunities. Nick joined the festival in 2023 to help organize our Youth Showcase. youthshowcase@visff.com

Board of Directors:

Johnny Blakeborough (President)

Johnny Blakeborough co-founded the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival in 2005 and was the Executive Director until 2015. He is an award-winning short film producer and podcaster. He is an educator and technologist at Vancouver Island University where he is also the Secretary Treasurer of the Faculty Association, a member of the University Senate and a Governor of the Board. Johnny is also the Broadcast Producer of Desert Bus for Hope, an online, yearly telethon that has raised over 10 million Canadian dollars for Child’s Play, a Children’s Hospital Charity, since 2007. johnny@visff.com

Jocelyn Matwe (Secretary)

Jocelyn is a graduate from SAIT’s Cinema, Television, Stage, and Radio program. She was able to match her technical aptitude with a passion for storytelling when she accepted a videographer position at Shaw Spotlight in Nanaimo in 2004. Since then, she has produced, filmed, and edited hundreds of stories about Vancouver Island communities, people, and events. She has supported the VISFF over the last several years by editing the annual festival trailers, and by participating in several Selection Committees. jocelyn@visff.com

Sean Enns (Vice-President)

Sean is a writer and playwright, active in Nanaimo arts and culture. His plays have been read and performed locally, and nationally through the Playwrights Guild of Canada. He grew up in the Cowichan Valley and has lived in Nanaimo for 30 years. sean@visff.com

Helena Marie (Director at Large)

Helena Marie is an actor and producer best known for her role as Whitney Cortez in the family series My Perfect Landing (Netflix). Helena co-wrote, produced and starred in the short film Crazy Love, which garnered her several festival awards (including 4 Goldies in 2015) for her unflinching dramatization of domestic abuse and revenge. Following that, Helena’s performance as a gun-slinging bounty hunter in the western Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story earned her an ACTRA nomination for Best Outstanding Female Performance in a Feature Film. Coming up in 2023 you’ll see Helena in the Dawn series, based on the novels by VC Andrews. Born in Montreal, Helena now happily calls Vancouver home and enthusiastically joined the VISFF board of directors in 2021. helena@visff.com