Media Arts

Anne Golden is Artistic Director of Groupe Intervention Video, an artist-run distribution, exhibition and production centre for videos directed by women. She is an independent curator and writer whose programs include Horizontal Holds/Vertical Views: Recent Canadian Art Video (Musée National du Québec, 2001) and Seuils/Thresholds (Edges Festival, Victoria, 2006). She has also curated programs for Vtape (Toronto) and Centre for Art Tapes (Halifax). Golden has made 12 videos since 1991. Among these are FAT CHANCE (1994), BIG GIRL TOWN (1998), SOMME (2005) and FROM THE ARCHIVES OF VIDÉO POPULAIRE (2007).

Bettina Hoffmann is a photo and video artist working in at the intersection of photography and cinema. Her work is shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions as well as in video festivals in Europe and North America. She works as well as a professional photographer. She received a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Hochschule der Künste, Berlin and attended both the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles and the Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Bettina Hoffmann has been an instructor at JAC since 2008. Currently she is teaching Digital Photography.

Jen is a Montréal-based artist and curator who works with small gauge film. Her work has been shown in festivals around the world. After a foundation liberal arts program at King's College, Dalhousie University, she studied Art History at the University of Toronto, and cinema production at Ryerson University. In 2011, she obtained a Maîtrise en arts visuels et médiatiques avec distinction de l'Université du Québec à Montréal.

Jen teaches a range of media arts courses at John Abbott College, including production, media and film studies.

Clea Notar has taught Film Studies in the Media Arts department at John Abbott for over 20 years. Her areas of specialization are international narrative cinema, American independents, introduction to film as art and films by filmmakers under 30.

Clea’s commitment to film as a tool for social and personal transformation is born witness in the film programming she developed and implemented for alternative venues such as: a minimum-security men’s prison (Bexhill, UK), the dementia unit of a nursing home (Waterloo, Canada) and a drop-in centre for the homeless (Montreal, Canada).

Clea has written on, and broadcast reportages on film and the arts in Canada, England and continental Europe, has worked for international film festivals in Canada and the US, has a background in CBC national radio and alternative music coverage. Clea has facilitated journaling workshops for the community of cancer survivors and their caregivers at an established cancer support centre in Canada.

Clea is a strong proponent of the arts and other natural resources for wellbeing and transformation.

Daniel Schorr was born in Rio de Janeiro, where he studied Communications, specializing in Film Animation. His first film, Viagem de ônibus, received the First Prize for Animation in Havana. Daniel trained in animation in Brazil with visiting NFB filmmakers and subsequently became the first Latin American director to be hired by the NFB animation studio. In Montreal, Daniel worked on several National Film Board of Canada productions, including Jours de plaine (1990), Dinosaurs: Piecing It All Together (1991) and Snow Cat (1998). His film Recital received the Best Direction Prize in Festival de Recife, Brazil . He also co-directed the award-winning Jonas and Lisa (1995) on children's rights. Dominoes (NFB, 2006) is part of the ShowPeace Series on conflict resolution. No Planet B (2022) is a 3D digital animation drawing attention to the risk of annihilation of the planet. He has taught animation, filmmaking, video production, media and films studies at John Abbott College since 2007.

Mitchell Stafiej is a disabled film director and producer based in Tio'tia:ke (Montréal). He has lived with Type 1 Diabetes since he was 16 years old. His films explore the potential and the political power of juxtaposition and the cut; language-less demonstrations of social change. He embraces textural images and harsh sound and often shoots films on 16mm and lo-fi technology like HI-8 and cell phones. He is constantly on the search for the ‘anti-image’ and tries to expand the notion of what can be considered cinematic.

His past documentary work explored the politics of racism, hate, and religion. His first documentary The Devil’s Trap was a deeply personal and harrowing exploration of a highly secretive and religious cult. It used analog media to represent the degrading state of mind of the main character. The film premiered at CPH:DOX, where it competed for the F:ACT Award. In fiction, Mitchell destabilizes traditional narratives to create portraits of distinct moments in time. His first film Found, used cell phone images and characters filming themselves to present a family struggling with grief. His next film, the 16mm fever dream A, funded by Telefilm Canada, followed an alcoholic ambient musician who locked himself in his apartment on a dangerous seven-day bender. His following film, The Diabetic, shot on HI-8, is a portrait of an irreverent and lonely Type 1 Diabetic who returns to his hometown for one night to relive his teenage glory days. His upcoming documentary is an experimental exploration of the definition of the word 'inequality' under capitalism.

He received his M.F.A. in Studio Arts from Concordia University in 2018 and currently teaches film production, film studies, and art history at John Abbott College.