Filmmakers

Kelly-Anne Riess, Director and Producer

Kelly on a time-out.

A CTV National Fellow at the Banff World Media Festival in 2011, Riess has worked as a writer, unit director and researcher on the TV show Crime Stories, which aired on A&E Biography, Discovery Investigation and History Television.

Travelling across North America, Riess interviewed police officers who solved some of the most gruesome serial killer cases in the world. She has also worked on TV shows such as the Gemini Award-winning Drug Class, In Justice, The Lodge, Concert in Canna and Struggle and Emerge: The Pere Athol Murray Story.

Riess has also written and produced a number of short films that have screened in film festivals across Canada and aired on SCN’s 15 Minutes of Fame. Recently, she completed a feature film script with the support of SaskFilm and Super Channel. Her first television job was working at the CBC Newsworld office in Calgary, where she was a part of the team that covered a number of top international stories, such as the SARS crisis and the American invasion of Iraq.

As a journalist, Riess worked as a freelance arts and entertainment reporter for the Regina Leader-Post. She has profiled some of North America’s top artists, such as Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka and Buffy Sainte-Marie. Riess lived for a year up north, working for the Whitehorse Daily Star. While there, she covered a number of high profile crime stories, including seven murder trials. She also travelled across the sub-arctic to write about the Yukon Quest, a 1,600 dog sled race.

Riess has also shared the stories of prairie people with the rest of Canada by writing features for the Globe and Mail and Canadian Geographic. Her work has appeared in the Ottawa Citizen, the Vancouver Sun, the Montreal Gazette, Business Edge, This Magazine, Alternatives Journal and Prairies North.

Her debut poetry collection To End a Conversation (Thistledown Press, 2008) has been featured on CBC Radio and The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. Riess was the lead writer of the bestselling Saskatchewan Book of Everything (MacIntyre Purcell, 2009), a non-fiction fact book that features everything from wild weather to local slang. I Love Saskatchewan (MacIntyre Purcell), Riess’ first children’s book, quickly rose to the top of McNally Robinson’s bestseller list upon its release in 2012.

Lowell Dean, Director of Photography

Lowell takes on Mac the Moose

Lowell Dean is an up and coming Canadian filmmaker. After graduating with his Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies, Lowell began work as an editor, writer and director for many respected companies nation wide. His short films have screened in festivals around the world including New York, Los Angeles and Sydney. Most recently Lowell transitioned into feature films with his directorial debut, the zombie thriller 13 Eerie.

Some of his recent directorial productions include Dust Up, a reality series on crop dusters for the History Channel, I Heart Regina, an anthology feature film about life on the prairies, Hollywood: Saskatchewan, a documentary series on the film industry (nominated for Best Documentary Series at the 2011 Yorkton Film Festival) and the Rah Rah music video "Henry" which was #1 on the Much Music viewer's choice program and one of Exclaim Magazine's top 10 Canadian videos of 2010.

Ian Rogers, Director of Photography

Ian frames up a shot of Candis Kirkpatrick of Tourism Moose Jaw.

From fly-fishing in the Rocky Mountains, riding beneath the waves in a tourist sub, hanging off the side of the Eiffel Tower, crawling through Vietcong tunnels near Saigon or sipping champagne in a penthouse apartment overlooking New York's Central Park, Ian Rogers has been there, working for Home and Gardens Television, History Television, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Life Network, CBC, CTV, TSN, NBC, MSNBC and The Weather Network.

Greg Stanton, Director of Photography

Greg gets ready to call action.

A Gemini nominee, Greg Stanton has worked on a number of documentaries including The Re-Inventors, Crime Stories, Disasters of the Century, Trading Places, Crime Stories, Weather Untamed, Very Odd Jobs, Beyond Medicine, Survivors, Voices of War, Birdman, Baby Crash, and Fire in the Soul. These television series have been broadcast in over 60 countries on networks such as: History Television, the Life Network, The Learning Channel, WTN, A&E, National Geographic HD, WCCO, The Food Network, Danish Television, and The Discovery Channel.Prior to working in documentary film, Greg worked for CKCK-TV in Regina for 18 years. He also taught Film and Television Broadcast at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario for 4 years from 2000 to 2004.

Thomas Bartlett, Director of Photography

Tom takes a water break.

With a career spanning more then twenty-five years, Thomas Bartlett’s professional photographic, video and teaching work has taken him on international assignments in Africa and beyond.

His fine art photography has been exhibited in several galleries, including the Luz in Victoria and Neutral Ground in Regina. In fact, a collection of his images are part of the City of Regina’s permanent collection.

In the last few years, Thomas has pushed the discipline of photography beyond the traditional boundaries of “straight photography” into an impressionistic technique that both challenges and inspires the viewer. Tom has been taking all the production stills for Finding Al, in addition to filming.

Ernie Nathaniel, Editor

Ernie hard at work in "the basement" studio.

Ernie is an award-winning editor with 25 years of experience in the production field. He has edited over 500 episodes of a weekly Christian program, Church of the Rock in HD with bilingual translation.

He has created concert DVDs and directed a 26-episode music series for broadcast. He has shot and edited mini-documentaries, many for non-profit organizations.

He has also consulted for many post-production houses in equipment setup.