Screen Siren Pictures Inc.

Eco-Pirate on the cover of the Georgia Straight

http://www.straight.com/article-404549/vancouver/ecopirate-story-paul-watson

http://www.straight.com/article-404629/vancouver/renegade-high-seas

Paul Watson – Eco-Pirate!

Paul Watson is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society – an organization dedicated to the “investigation and enforcement of laws, treaties, resolutions and regulations established to protect marine wildlife worldwide”. Born in Toronto but raised in a small lobster-fishing town in New Brunswick, Paul’s career as an animal rights activist began at the age of nine, when he confiscated and destroyed leg-hold traps laid out to kill the beavers near his home.

After being expelled from the Board of Greenpeace for not adhering to the strict code of nonviolence (he threw a sealers club into an ice floe), Watson resigned from Greenpeace so that he could form his own direct action organization that would enforce laws protecting marine wildlife on the high seas. Using funds given to him by Cleveland Amory of the Fund for Animals, Watson purchased a North Atlantic trawler, reinforced her hull with cement, and rammed a pirate whaling ship off Portugal – and Sea Shepherd was born.

In recent years, Paul has gone from being an obscure environmental activist, to being an ecocelebrity. He has been featured in such feature films as Sharkwater and the Oscar-winning The Cove, and Sea Shepherd’s recent campaigns against Japanese whaling in the Antarctic are the subject of the enormously successful Animal Planet series, ‘Whale Wars’. Depending on who you listen to, Watson is either “one of the heroes of the 20^th century” (Time Magazine, 2000), or “one of the fathers of environmental terrorism” (Centre for Consumer Freedom).

Mike Goldbach

Filmmaker Mike Goldbach is quickly making a name for himself as a writer and director.

Goldbach most recently completed his first feature film, Daydream Nation, which he wrote and directed. The film, which stars Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas, Andie McDowell, and Reece Thompson, tells the story of a city girl who moves to a small town and becomes entangled in a love triangle with her highschool teacher and a stoner classmate. Daydream Nation will be making the film festival rounds in 2010 and 2011.

Goldbach’s latest original script, Jaws of Life, made the 2009 “Blacklist” and is currently being developed with producer Mason Novick (Juno, 500 Days of Summer).

Goldbach first gained notice after co-writing Childstar – a film directed, produced, and co-written by Don McKellar.  The film, which stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Eric Stolz, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was listed as one of the “Top Ten of the Year” by Village Voice. It was also nominated for a Genie Award (Canada’s Academy Awards) in seven categories, including Best Script.

Goldbach, in addition to film, has segued his talents into writing for television.  He has written for television shows in Canada including the animated series Odd Job Jack, and the comedy Rent-A-Goalie.

Goldbach earned a B.A. in Cinema Studies from the University of British Columbia, and later completed grad work at the Canadian Film Centre.  He currently splits his time between Toronto and Los Angeles.

Mark Cousins

DIRECTOR-CINEMATOGRAPHER-WRITER

Mark Cousins is 44 on the outside and 15 on the inside. The 44-year-old has done lots of serious, adult stuff: he’s made documentaries on Neo-Nazism, Gorbachev, the first Gulf War, Iranian cinema, Ian Hamilton Finlay and I Know Where I’m Going! He’s Honorary Dr of Letters at the University of Edinburgh and Honorary Lecturer at the University of Stirling. He’s published four books: Imagining Reality (with Kevin Macdonald), Scene by Scene, The Story of Film (a history of cinema translated into ten languages including Chinese – the Times of London critic said it was by the best film book he’s ever read), and Watching Real People Elsewhere (a collection of his writing in Prospect). He was a BBC TV presenter for 5 years (Moviedrome and Scene by Scene, which he also directed). He was director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, took that festival to Sarajevo during the siege, co-directed Cinema China, and has guest curated film fests around the world. He co-founded the charity Scottish Kids are Making Movies, is co-director of 4Way Pictures with Antonia Bird, Robert Carlyle and Irvine Welsh, is making The Story of Film into a 12 hour documentary, and he’s on the board of lots of things.

The 15-year-old Mark drove his campervan from Edinburgh to Mumbai, loves dancing, architecture, night swimming and drawing, and is a bit of a feardie. He and Tilda Swinton directed the Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams, the Scottish Cinema of Dreams in Beijing (a forest inside a cinema, in which it snowed feathers) and A Pilgrimage (in which they pulled the Screen Machine film truck across bits of Scotland). The First Movie was made by the bloke of 44 and the kid of 15. Both loved the adventure.

Sook-Yin Lee

Sook-Yin Lee is a Toronto-based musician, actor, filmmaker and TV and radio broadcaster. She fronted the art-rock band, Bob’s Your Uncle before embarking on a solo career. She was a VJ in the late 90’s on MuchMusic and is currently the host and producer of the irreverent pop-culture radio show DEFINITELY NOT THE OPERA on CBC Radio 1.