TORONTO, September 6, 2000 -- If you are on deadline and in search of a "quotable" quote or analysis on one of the 329 films being shown at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, call on the expertise of the film and video professors at York University. Need an authoritative panelist speaking French, Italian, Romanian or Chinese? We can help out.

Tereza Barta teaches film production and has extensive experience as a director, writer, researcher and editor. She has written and directed for the Romanian and Austrian film boards, and at CBC Radio-Canada in Montreal. Her films have been screened at festivals in Spain, Germany, Bucharest, Chicago and Montreal, and she won a Gemini award in 1994 for her documentary, Chez nous, c'est nous ici. She is available to discuss European cinema (particularly Eastern European and French film), and Canadian cinema. She can also comment on women in film, political film, and social documentaries. Barta is fluent in French, Italian and Romanian and will be attending this year's Festival. Barta can be reached at: (416) 736-2100, ext. 22168; (416) 767-9200 (home); (416) 986-0653 (cell phone) or by email at: tereza@yorku.ca.

Seth Feldman is a film historian, media critic and broadcaster who teaches film and television studies at York. A past president of the Film Studies Association of Canada, he has edited three anthologies on Canadian film and has published widely on national and international cinemas. His academic work includes two book-length studies of Soviet director Dziga Vertov. He is a frequent commentator on arts and media for Canadian broadcasters and print media. Feldman can comment on film festivals in general, and the impact of the Toronto Film Festival on Canadian film culture and the film industry. Feldman can be reached at: (416) 736-2100, ext. 33485 or by email at: sfeldman@yorku.ca.

Scott Forsyth, chair of the Film & Video Department in York's Faculty of Fine Arts, is a film critic, editor and historian. The author of several documentary films, he has published widely on film and politics in journals such as CineAction, Canadian Journal of Film Studies, and Canadian Dimension. His academic work focuses on applying Marxist cultural theory to genre, documentary and experimental film and the state of the Canadian film industry. You can reach him at: (416) 736-2100, ext. 33245 or by email at: sforsyth@yorku.ca.

Philip Hoffman teaches film production and theory. A filmmaker with an extensive list of productions, he apprenticed in Europe with filmmaker Peter Greenaway. His short experimental films, often on personal autobiographical themes, have won many awards, including three in 1998 for his documentary Destroying Angel. Hoffman has given seminars and production workshops and presented screenings of his films on four continents, including retrospectives at international festivals in Holland and Australia, at Cinematheque Canada in Ottawa, and at the Chicago Art Institute. Hoffman can comment on innovation in experimental and documentary films. Hoffman can be reached at: (416) 736-2100, ext. 22175; (416) 657-7722 (home) or by email at: phoffman@yorku.ca.

Janine Marchessault teaches film theory at York. She is president of the executive of the Film Studies Association of Canada, and has published in the fields of Quebec, feminist and Canadian cinema, and cultural theory. Fluent in French, she can comment on a wide range of topics relating to Quebec cinema, Canadian film, experimental film, and women in film and video. She can be reached at: (416) 736-2100, ext. 22178; (416) 657-0321 (home) or by email at: jmarshes@yorku.ca.

Suzie S. F. Young is a film scholar and cultural theorist specializing in Asian cinema, the horror genre and feminism and popular culture. She can comment on a variety of topics including the New Wave Cinemas of the three Chinas, and the oeuvre of Canadian director David Cronenberg. She speaks fluent Cantonese and some Mandarin. She will be attending the Festival and is prepared to comment on films from established masters as well as the latest-generation filmmakers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Peoples' Republic of China. Young can be reached at: (416) 736-2100, ext. 22177; (416) 733-8922 (home) or by email at: syoung@yorku.ca.

Colleen Wagner has just joined York's Department of Film & Video as a part-time instructor of screenwriting. Her play The Monument, which won the 1996 Governor General's award for drama as well as being nominated for a Dora Award, has been produced in North America and Australia. It is slated to open in translation in China, France and Germany in the fall. Professor Wagner's current projects include a film adaptation of The Monument plus the development of two other feature film scripts for Canadian production. She will be attending selected viewings at the Festival and can speak about what makes a good script. She can be reached at: (416) 736-2100, ext. 44776 or (416) 538-2644 (home).

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For further information, please contact:

Carol Bishop
Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts
York University
(416) 736-2100 ext. 20421
email: cbishop@yorku.ca

Sine MacKinnon
Director, Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22087
email: sinem@yorku.ca
YU/088/00