Becka Barker - Emerging Artists Development
Becka Barker is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who has taught animation in a
wide variety of contexts including public schools and universities in Canada and Korea,
film festivals, and community-driven organizations. She is regular part-time faculty at
NSCAD teaching animation, film, and design.
Sobaz Benjamin - Outreach
Sobaz is a storyteller, and Founder/Executive Director of an arts-based, nonprofit in Halifax, called In My Own Voice (iMOVe) Arts Association. He is a documentary filmmaker, a community developer, advocate, mentor, program director, facilitator and public speaker. His films have screened across Canada and in festivals in New Zealand, Bermuda and New York. He has completed documentaries for the NFB and the CBC. Sobaz uses his experience as a filmmaker in his community-based work with marginalized youth, adults and community.
Shannon Brownlee - Panels & Q&As
Shannon Brownlee teaches in the Cinema and Media Studies program and the Gender and Women’s Studies program at Dalhousie University. Her research areas include animated film, with an emphasis on stop-motion animation. She is passionate about public outreach and social justice activism through film screenings and festival events.
Siloën Daley - Artistic Director
Siloën Daley is at home with a studio where something is always in the works. Her short expressionistic animated films have screened internationally. As founder and director of both Halifax's art house cinema, Carbon Arc, and The Animation Festival of Halifax, Siloën enjoys regularly watching films with the cultural community.
Dylan Edwards - Education & Career Development
Dylan Edwards has been working in the animation industry for many years at DHX, CBC, Halifax Film, Copernicus Studios and as a freelancer. Dylan has taught animation, storyboarding and drawing at the Centre for Art and Technology & daVinci College and has been an animation mentor for the Centre for Art Tapes. His independent animation work has been selected for festivals and television.
Rachel Franco - Programmer
Rachel is a Producer at Halifax's Jam Filled Entertainment, and has an Honours Degree in Dance. She worked as a motion capture artist and green screen performer for animated and hybrid projects. She developed a unique Movement for Animation workshop in 2012 and has taught it at 2D and 3D studios in Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax.
Kenny Lewis - Technical Assistance
Kenny Lewis is the Chair of Carbon Arc’s Board of Directors. He has over 30 years experience as an audio visual technician supporting artists and arts organizations.
Jenna Marks - Shorts Programmer & Animation Circus Facilitator
Jenna Marks is a filmmaker residing in Nova Scotia, Canada whose work is greatly inspired by the world around her and from her own experiences. Her films are often visual poems inspired by a single moment in her life. Jenna’s films have played internationally and have gained awards at Germany’s, Internationale Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart and Canada’s own Atlantic Film Festival.
Fallen Matthews - Programmer
Fallen Matthews is an interdisciplinary doctorate candidate whose main subject of interest is Cinema and Media studies at Dalhousie University. During the mid-90s, Animania fostered her love for Canadian animation. Her specialties are psychoanalytic film theory, artificial intelligence, brutalism, literature, and mythology.
Illustration by Mary Syloria
Sally Morgan - Administrative Coordinator
Sally Morgan is an interdisciplinary artist and educator with research areas in dance and performance studies, environmental humanities, and environmental/place-based education. She has extensive teaching experience in a variety of educational settings and has been teaching as a contract academic for the last several years. Sally is passionate about community arts outreach and education. She sits on the Board of Directors of Wonder’neath Arts Society, is an active volunteer in her community at Veith House, and teaches somatic movement education, yoga, and Pilates, in the community. She is also a mother and step- parent and lives with her family in the north end of Halifax.
Nicole Oldreive - Volunteer Coordinator
Nicole is a Production Coordinator at IoM Media, where she assists with the day to day operations and project management of animated series. As a coordinator Nicole has had the opportunity to work on several locally produced childrens and preschool series.
Phillip Stamp - Industry Liáson
Phillip Stamp, Island of Misfits Vice President, has a career encompassing more than two decades in film and TV production. His diverse background includes writing, directing both live action and animation, executive producing, producing, managing studios and overseeing multiple productions.