CAROLINE DHAVERNAS (Sarah Mann) It’s at age 12 that Caroline Dhavernas makes her television debut in the daily series Marilyn. Since then, she has accumulated lead roles in most of Quebec’s successful series, such as Zap, Jasmine, Urgence I and II, Lobby and Le Pollock. But it is in Tag I and II, in which she plays the unforgettable role of Stephanie, that her French Canadian public understand how the child-actress is now a woman of great talent.

Caroline Dhavernas is also very present on the movie scene. Her first feature film, Comme un voleur, is followed by L’ïle de sable, The Baroness and the Pig, Heart; The Marilyn Bell Story, Edge of Madness, Out Cold, Nez Rouge and The Tulse Luper Suitcases, by English director Peter Greenaway, to name only a few. She recently held leads in These Girls and Niagara Motel, which released in 2005, as well as in Comme tout le monde, with French actor Thierry Lhermitte. She also recently shot Hollywoodland, playing opposite Adrien Brody, La Belle Bête, with Carole Laure and Marc-André Grondin (C.R.A.Z.Y.), Breach, playing opposite Ryan Philippe and Chris Cooper and most recently, Surviving My Mother, directed by Émile Gaudreault, and Cry of the Owl, opposite Julia Stiles and Paddy Considine.

The actress made an impression on the American public, mainly with her critically acclaimed portray of Jaye in the FOX network series Wonderfalls, which was bought by more than twenty countries around the globe. Prior to that, she also appeared in the American series Law and Order.

Caroline Dhavernas was nominated for two Gémeaux awards (Quebec’s television awards), one for Best Interpretation in a Youth Series for Zap III and the second for Best Supporting Role in Tag. She was also nominated for a Genie Award last year for best supporting actress in Niagara Motel.

JOE DINICOL (David Mann) Joe began acting at the age of nine at the Stratford Festival of Canada where he spent five seasons. While there, Joe performed in Antony and Cleopatra, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Waiting for Godot and Richard III. After leaving in 1998, he began working in film and television. So far he has appeared in numerous films and television shows that include George Bloomfield’s film adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s children’s book: Bottom Feeder, The Marsh, Kart Racer, Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang and Sophia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. More recently Joe spent two years as one of the regular cast members on Global TV’s Train 48 – a show that was largely improvised. He has recently worked with director Allan Moyle on Weirdsville and George A. Romero on Diary of the Dead.

JIM MEZON (Randolph Dobson-Hughes) This Dora Award-winning actor is a graduate of the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School and spent 23 seasons working at the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake in over 40 productions as an actor and director. Additionally, he has also worked at the Stratford Festival, Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Centaur Theatre in Montreal, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage Company, all in Toronto, Theatre Calgary, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Chicago Shakespeare in Chicago and the New Victory Theatre in New York City. Currently teaching at the University of Northern Colorado, Mezon will be directing at the National Theatre School in Montreal in 2008 as well as appearing and directing for the Pittsburgh Irish Classical Theatre. On television, he has been seen in “The Best Years,” “Road to Avonlea,” and “Adderly.”

MEREDITH BAILEY (Cassie Walker) Newcomer Meredith Bailey graduated from the University of Alberta in 2007 with a Bachelor Of Fine Arts in Acting. At the U of A, she was the recipient of the Jason Lang Scholarship. She holds a Theatre Arts Diploma from Mount Royal College, attained the Dean’s list and the Dean’s Wall of Honour. Passchendaele marks Meredith’s feature film debut. On television, she can be seen in the series “Heartland.”

MICHAEL GREYEYES (Highway) Michael Greyeyes is an actor, writer, producer, and choreographer. He is a member of the Muskeg Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Mr. Greyeyes began his professional career as a classical ballet dancer with The National Ballet of Canada and with the company of Eliot Feld in New York City. In 1993, Mr. Greyeyes began to choreograph and direct his own theatre work, which has appeared in festivals in Canada and Europe. As an actor he was worked on stage and extensively in film and television for the last 14 years. Recent credits include Passchendaele, Terence Malick’s The New World, Skinwalkers for PBS Mystery!, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Numb3rs, Skipped Parts, Smoke Signals for Miramax and the ABC mini-series Dreamkeeper.

Professor Greyeyes received his M.F.A in Acting from Kent State University, where he taught as an instructor and first began his on-going research into post-colonialism and the staging of ethnicity in both film and dance. He has presented papers on “Notions of Indian-ness” at the PCA/ACA conference in 2007 and was an invited keynote speaker at Wilfred Laurier University’s Indigenous Film and Media conference that same year.

Mr. Greyeyes has continued to create theatre work, alongside his film and television credits. This past year he was invited to create new dance works for the Dusk Dances festival in Toronto and for Nozhem: First Peoples Performance Space and Trent University’s Indigenous Studies Program. The theatre work developed for Trent University was a duet, co-choreographed by Santee Smith, which will tour across Canada in 2008 and is an invited dance work for the 2008 Canada Dance Festival held bi-annually in Ottawa, Ontario.

Mr. Greyeyes next wrote and performed in a short dance film entitled Triptych for BRAVO!, directed by Byron McKim in November 2007, which he also co-produced and choreographed. Mr. Greyeyes will next direct a new opera work, entitled “The Journey” for Soundstreams Canada, with music by Melissa Hui, and libretto by Tomson Highway. In 2009, he will appear in Ric Burn’s new documentary/ live action film for PBS, entitled “We Shall Remain: Tecumseh” in the title role.

GIL BELLOWS (Royster) Most recently, Bellows has completed work on “Toronto Stories” – a collaborative project by Sook-Yin Lee, David Sutherland, David Weaver, and Aaron Woodley. Previous to those, he worked on Dimension Films’ “The Promotion” starring opposite Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly, written and directed by Steve Conrad, and also starred in Aria Films’ “Kill Kill Faster Faster.” In 2005, Bellows was seen in Paramount Pictures “The Weatherman” opposite Nicolas Cage. That year he also starred in The Channel 4 ten-part miniseries “Terminal City” for which he was nominated for a Gemini Award.

Bellows gained attention among filmgoers and critics for his portrayal of an inmate with a penchant for knowledge in the critically lauded “Shawshank Redemption,” opposite Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Shortly after, Bellows starred opposite Renee Zellweger in “Love and a .45” and with Sarah Jessica Parker in “Miami Rhapsody.” His additional film credits include “The Substance of Fire,” “Richard III,” directed by Al Pacino, “The Assistant” with Joan Plowright and Armin Mueller-Stahl, “Dinner at Fred’s” with Parker Posey, “Judas Kiss” with Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman, “Chasing Sleep” opposite Jeff Daniels and “Beautiful Joe” opposite Sharon Stone.

He is widely recognized for creating the role of ‘Billy Alan Thomas’ in the Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning FOX series “Ally McBeal.”

On stage, Bellows appeared in Manhattan Class Company’s production of “A Snake in the Vein” in the Playwrights Horizon production of “Flaubert’s Latest” and UBU Repertory’s “Best of Schools.” He is a founding member of the Seraphim Theater Company in New York for whom he starred in “True West,” “Road,” and “The User’s Waltz.” He was also a member of the Act One Repertory Company of the prestigious Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts.

PAUL GROSS (Producer, Director, Screenwriter and “Michael Dunne”)
Known foremost as an actor, Canadian Paul Gross is also a writer, producer and director. His portrayal of Constable Benton Fraser on Due South, a drama series he co-wrote and executive produced, won international acclaim. His directorial debut, Men with Brooms, broke Canadian box office records. Paul was the recipient of a Golden Nymph Award for Best Lead Actor at the Monte Carlo Television Festival for his role in H2O, a Whizbang mini-series that he also co-wrote and executive produced. For his portrayal of Geoffrey Tenant in the critically acclaimed series Slings & Arrows Paul recently picked up his fourth Gemini Award and is currently nominated for a fifth. He portrayed Romeo and garnered a Dora Award and a career highlight was playing Hamlet to record-breaking audiences at the Stratford Festival in 2000. Paul served as Playwright-in-residence at Stratford and the National Arts Centre and has won numerous playwriting and screenwriting awards.

NIV FICHMAN (Producer) Niv Fichman has more than 25 years experience and some 200 documentaries, television series and feature films to his name. Currently working with Fernando Meirelles on an adaptation by Don McKellar of Blindness, the
best-selling novel by José Saramago, Niv has previously produced directors such as Francois Girard, Olivier Assayas, Guy Maddin, Don McKellar, Peter Mettler, David
Wellington, Peter Wellington, Kevin McMahon, Marc Evans, as well as his
partners at Rhombus, Larry Weinstein and Barbara Willis-Sweete. Feature
films include The Red Violin, Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, Last Night, , Saddest Music in the World, Clean , Snowcake, and Silk. Selected television projects include “Slings & Arrows,” “Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired By Bach,” “September Songs,” and “Le Dortoir.” Awards include an Oscar for The Red Violin, seven Emmys and numerous Genies, Geminis, Golden Pragues as well as a Golden Rose of Montreux and a Prix Italia.

FRANK SIRACUSA (Co-Producer) As a producer, Frank Siracusa has amassed and impressive list of credits, including the television pilot The Others, where he worked under DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg. He has produced numerous television movies including The Triangle with Luke Perry and Dan Cortese, Sanctuary with Melissa Gilbert, Santa Who? with Leslie Nielsen, One True Love with David Hasselhoff, On Hostile Ground with John Corbett, Common Ground with Ed Asner, Love Songs, written by Nobel Prize winning playwright Charles Fuller, Murder Most Likely, which was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Dramatic Program and Summer’s End, which won Best Cable Movie at both the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and the Young Artist Awards. Siracusa also received a Daytime Emmy Award on behalf of Summer’s End for Outstanding Children’s Special.

In 1999, Siracusa partnered up with Due South Producer Paul Gross to form Whizbang Films. In 2001 Frank was Producer on Men with Brooms, a feature film written and directed by Paul Gross that was released in March 2002 and garnered the highest box office for an English speaking Canadian film of the last twenty years.

In 2002 Siracusa produced the critically acclaimed television movie The Sins of the Father”, starring Tom Sizemore and Ving Rhames as well as The One for ABC and A Christmas Visitor for the Hallmark Channel. In 2003 he produced the Series Platinum for CBS, UPN, American Zoetrope and Greenblatt Janollari Studios and was also Supervising Producer for the series This is Wonderland, currently airing on CBC. Siracusa Executive Produced H2O, a mini-series for CBC starring Paul Gross and Leslie Hope. He is recently completed Martha: Behind Bars for CBS and Tilt and Codebreakers for ESPN and Executively Produced the sequel to H2O, TheTrojan Horse. Currently Frank is Executive Producing ZOS: Zone of Separation, The Good Witch, and Bridal Fever.

FRANCIS DAMBERGER (Co-Producer, 2nd Unit Director) Francis Damberger is an award winning filmmaker who hangs his hat on a ranch in Tofield, Alberta, where he is the president of The Damberger Film and Cattle Co. Francis is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the University of Alberta He has worked as an actor in film, TV and stage. In 1985, Francis turned his talents to film making. His first film “On the Edge”, a drama about teenage suicide, won awards around the world. His first feature film Solitaire, swept the Alberta Film Awards and received four Genie nominations and a Genie award for Best Supporting Actor. Francis was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Solitaire was also invited to several film festivals, including the prestigious Cannes TV Festival. Francis’ second feature film Road to Saddle River was well received and the Toronto Star called it “perhaps the best Canadian film of the year!” Among his many other credits, Francis has directed episodes of “Due South”, “Jake and the Kid”, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”, “So Weird”, “Mentors,” “AD. 2030,” and “Caitlin's Way.” He also directed the TV movie “Trial By Fire”, a “North of 60” mystery. Francis used the beautiful South Saskatchewan River valley as the backdrop for his third feature film Heart of the Sun. The film has earned much critical praise and several awards. Marc Horton, Edmonton Journal, called the film “an ugly story, told with skill and beauty”..

GREG MIDDLETON (Director of Cinematography) Greg Middleton previously collaborated with director Jeremy Podeswa on Fugitive Pieces, and The Five Senses, a Director’s Fortnight Selection at the 1999 Cannes International Film Festival. He also worked with Podeswa on the short films Touch and The Susan Smith Tapes. Additional film credits include Slither, Cake, Going the Distance, Falling Angels, Between Strangers, After the Storm, Better Than Chocolate and Kissed for which he received the first of five Genie nominations for Achievement in Cinematography. Middleton received Leo Awards for Best Cinematography for the feature films Suspicious River and Rupert’s Land and for the short film drama White Out. Middleton recently completed work on Possession, directed by Simon Sandquist and Joel Bergvall.

CAROL SPIER (Production Designer) is perhaps best known for her longtime association with director David Cronenberg. Her collaborations with Cronenberg includes Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, eXistenz, Crash, M. Butterfly, Naked Lunch, Dead Ringers, The Fly, The Dead Zone, Videodrome, Scanners, The Brood and Fast Company as well as two television docudramas for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) including “Scales of Justice”. She received Gene Awards (Canadian Oscars) for both Naked Lunch and Dead Ringers and Genie nominations for The Brood, Videodrome, Scanners and eXistenz.

Her numerous other feature film credits include Silent Hill, The Man, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Noel, Mimic, Joe's Apartment, The Santa Clause, Canadian Bacon, Consenting Adults, Where The Heart Is, Renegades, Sing, Search and Destroy, Running Brave and I Miss Your Hugs and Kisses, which, in 1976, marked her first film as a production designer.

For television, Spier designed the PBS/CBC series "Anne of Green Gables," for which she won a Gemini Award (Canada's Emmy Award) for Best Art Direction, Showtime's "Gotham", for which she received a nomination for an ACE award for best Art Direction, the CBS movie-of-the-week "Escape From Iran:' and the PBS/American Playhouse production of "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank."

Spier is Canadian-born and studied Interior Design at the University of Manitoba's
Faculty of Architecture. She began her professional career as an interior designer

In Winnipeg, Manitoba. During this period she also worked as a set and costume
designer with various theater groups, including the Manitoba Theater Center.

She began her motion picture career with The Mourning Suit, on which she served as set designer, set dresser, and property master. She then moved to Toronto, where she worked as an Assistant Art Director on several feature films, including Equus and Why Shoot the Teacher, before serving as Art Director on such films as Norman Jewison's Agnes of God and John Schlesinger's The Believers.

WENDY PARTRIDGE (Costume Designer) started off by dressing her dolls at the age of seven and has gone on to design for some of the most exciting films in the last several years including Whiteout, Underworld and Underworld Evolution, starring Kate Beckinsale, Resurrecting the Champ, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett, Silent Hill, starring Radha Mitchell, The Cave, starring Cole Hauser, Marcel Iures and Lena Headey, Fantastic Four, starring Julian McMahon and Jessica Alba, Hellboy, for which she received a 2004 Best Costumes nomination for Best Costumes from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, and Blade II, starring Wesley Snipes. Additional credits include Texas Rangers, Snow Day, Come L'America, for which received a 2001 Genie nomination for Best Costume Design, and Loyalties, for which she won a 1986 Genie Award for Best Costume Design. For televison, Partridge has designed for “Broken Trail” with Robert Duvall and Greta Scacchi, “and “The Secret of the Nutcracker.”

DAVID WHARNSBY (Editor) David is the editor of numerous award-winning films. He recently received a Genie for his work on Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World. David has collaborated with many of Canada’s most important filmmakers. Some of his numerous credits include TIFF top ten films, Away From Her, directed by Sarah Polley, I, Claudia, by Chris Abraham and The Uncles by Jim Allodi. Ken Finkleman’s Gemini and Emmy winning The Newsroom and Foreign Objects. Genie winning short I Shout Love by Sarah Polley. Atom Egoyan’s Gemini winning Sarabande. Emmy nominated The Four Seasons and Don Giovanni Unmasked by Barbara Willis Sweete. David Weaver’s Siblings and Century Hotel. Genie nominated Three Stories by Semi Chellas. David received a Gemini for his work on Jennifer Baichwal’s documentary The Holier it Gets. He has also worked with Jennifer on the Gemini winning The True Meaning of Pictures, the Emmy winning Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles.