Michelle Mason
Michelle Mason, Writer/Director of Breaking Ranks for Screen Siren Pictures, is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker from Vancouver, BC. Her first film, The Friendship Village is a tragic and inspiring documentary about our ability to transcend war. Through the moving story of a Vietnam veteran’s hawk-to-dove transformation, Mason weaves together a powerful film about the potential for reconciliation and redemption through one man’s journey to heal the wounds of war (www.cypress-park.ca). The Friendship Village has won six international awards.
Before becoming a filmmaker, Michelle worked in international television news production for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in London and Washington, D.C. She received a Masters Degree in International Journalism from London’s City University after writing a thesis on the decline of investigative journalism in Britain.
In 1998, Michelle left journalism to become an independent filmmaker, and moved to Berlin where she began work on The Friendship Village. She returned to her hometown Vancouver in 2000 and founded Cypress Park Productions, where she is currently at work on several documentary and dramatic films about stories of transformation.