Special guest artists

Two special guest artists are sharing stories from another storytelling project called Vancouver Stories.

Thanks to Brian and Odessa for sharing with Kerrisdale Collective Memory!

Brian Lye was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1980. His love for filmmaking grew from making skateboard movies with his friends in high school.  He has worked, studied, and shot in Canada, Japan, Uganda, Australia, and the Czech Republic.  As a filmmaker he uses imagination and humour to reflect on life experiences.  He has written and directed many award-winning short films.  With the Vancouver Stories Project he is excited to learn different perspectives on the city and meet new people and help them share their stories.

Odessa Shuquaya has been working as actor, director and producer in Vancouver for the last ten years. She studied acting at Douglas College and continued her acting training at UBC where she earned a BFA in Acting with a Minor in English. While working as an actor, she became fascinated with filmmaking and went to Capilano University to earn a certificate from the Aboriginal Film and Television production program. Since that time she has enjoyed working on both sides of the camera and learning as much as possible in both Aboriginal and mainstream media. She has worked as a location scout for commercials, series and feature films for several years and has assistant directing experience. Her production experience involves her own 15 minute documentary that garnered her an award from the NFB as “Most Promising Aboriginal Filmmaker”, segments for Telus TV, and two short films last summer one of which she wrote and directed.

For 17 years, Suzanne Ahearne has been a photojournalist and magazine writer and has written and produced radio documentaries for CBC Radio. 

As a natural extension of her passion for photography, writing and her desire to help others find their voice, she is also working with community, educational and media organizations in using digital media to create opportunities for new stories, story forms and storytellers. 

Suzanne co-teaches a Digital Storytelling workshop through Continuing Studies at Emily Carr University of Art & Design and in the fall, Suzanne will be starting the Master of Journalism program at UBC.

We are the artists!

Hello! Let us introduce the two artists who will be working with the community and collecting personal stories of the Kerrisdale Neighbourhood.

Artist in Residence Lisa g Nielsen: 

Lisa g is a life-long multidisciplinary artist who has enjoyed expression through photography, performance and the written word. As a graduate from Vancouver Film School Lisa g has been focused for the last 10 years in the digital media realm. Her short videos (live-action and animations) have traveled the globe and collected awards along the way. 

Lisa g is obsessed by real stories by real people. 
An ongoing project explores the history of Riverview Mental Hospital through a series of tales combining Super 8 film and interviews. 
Asylum

Bedlam

Lisa g has been teaching digital storytelling workshops with the National Film Board of Canada all over BC and the Yukon for the past 5 years.These project focus on the first language of the locations she visits. 
Our World

In 2010 she was the artist in residence at Riley Park Community Centre where over 120 stories were collected! 
Riley Park Stories

Conversation with Daphne 

Lisa continues learning about different communities in Vancouver and helping to tell their stories. 
Hard to Believe (Roundhouse Community Centre)

The Sunset Story 1941-1950

The Sunset Story 1951-2008  

Artist Intern Ariel Kirk-Gushowaty:

Ariel is a photo-based artist and film-maker who lives and works in the city of Vancouver.

She has a BA in Philosophy and Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto, and a certificate in Photography from Langara College. Her photography work has been shown in Japan, Toronto and Vancouver, and she is a member of several artist and film collectives.

Ariel approaches her photo-based projects as a series of experiments into perception and consciousness. At the same time, each project is a performance in many ways – even if the only audience is a camera. Although her projects vary in tone from solemn to absurd, her themes are frequently focused on the balance between oppositional categories such as absence and presence, or self and other.  She often involves multiple people in her projects and, when working together, thoroughly explains the conceptual elements involved, allowing her subjects to ask themselves the same questions that she’s raising within the images. In the end, the finished piece is a trace of something that has really happened, even if it only came into being for the purpose of being documented. 

Ariel's Website