Joan Prowse – President and Co-Founder

Joan Prowse is a documentary-maker with more than 15 years of experience as a writer, producer, director and video editor. She co-founded the Toronto-based independent production company, CineFocus Canada in 1991 to make thought-provoking, insightful television shows and documentaries. Since then she has produced and directed more than 20 hours of prime-time arts, biography and social issue programs.

Joan's credits include the international documentary hit Beauty and the Beach. This film explores women's body image through the history of the bathing suit. Released in 1997, it aired across Canada and was sold to broadcasters in twelve countries on four continents. For two seasons she produced and directed the biography series Lucky Breaks that aired on A&E’s Biography Channel and CHUM Television.

More recently, Joan produced, directed and edited a series of celebrity profiles for Global Television and a biographical film – Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life. She also produced a three-year interactive project based on the award winning television documentary Visions from the Wilderness: The Art of Paul Kane. It features an interactive version of the documentary on DVD and an exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum. The project, developed through the Banff Centre and Habitat at the Canadian Film Centre, uses the power of the new media to explore Kane's controversial artwork of First Nations people in the mid 1800s.

Joan is a graduate of Ryerson’s Radio and Television Arts program and is an alumnus of the Interactive Project Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. In 2001 she went to MIPTV in Cannes as part of the National Screen Institute’s Global Marketing Program and received a CTV Fellowship in 1993 to attend the Banff Television Festival. Prior to CineFocus, she spent three years with TVOntario’s literary series Imprint, hosted by Daniel Richler.

John Bessai has been producing, writing and directing television documentaries and videos for over fourteen years. Through CineFocus Canada, the Toronto-based documentary production company he co-founded, John has produced a body of work that has garnered public attention and recognition with broadcasts and screenings in festivals and forums across the country.

John’s latest project From Field to Studio: The Art of Paul Kane is an interactive DVD based on his award-winning television documentary, Visions from the Wilderness: The Art of Paul Kane. This groundbreaking project fuses the documentary form with interactive technology, enabling the user to gain greater insight into the mind, work and times of one of Canada’s most culturally influential and controversial artists. From Field to Studio: The Art of Paul Kane was one of just six projects chosen in 2003 for development through the Interactive Project Lab at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre. An interactive exhibit created out of the DVD is also slated for long-term display at the Royal Ontario Museum's Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples.

John has produced documentaries for Bravo!, Discovery, Knowledge Network, Vision TV, SCN and the CBC. His recent production, Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life, is the first-ever screen biography of the well-known activist, singer-songwriter and digital artist.

In 2005 John directed and produced C.W. Jefferys: Picturing Canada, a documentary on the Canadian artist and historian for TVO and Bravo!. In 2001 he completed Visions from the Wilderness: The Art of Paul Kane. This documentary made its Canadian television debut on Bravo! and its international debut on TG4 in Ireland. It was featured at the International Festival of Films on Art in Montreal and has won two international documentary awards.

Before turning his attention full-time to his work at CineFocus Canada, John was a researcher for both CTV News and the CBC. He has a Master's Degree in Political Science from York University and a BA in History from Carleton University. John also attended Ryerson University's School of Journalism.

Stella Hawke comes from a varied background in the broadcast, educational, and corporate sectors.

Stella has 18 years of experience in the television industry, beginning in the 70’s with on-air television operations in Sault Ste. Marie, continuing in the 80’s with video production for the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and then freelancing as Stellavision Production Services. During the 90’s and into the new millenium Stella worked in the dot.com sector as a Sales Support Administrator for Cisco Systems Canada.

In her spare time, Stella enjoys African drumming (djembe). Over the past 7 years she has been performing in the GTA with Muhtadi’s World Drummers, Rhino Rhythm Drummers, and the West End Drum Circle. She also studies Afro-Cuban dance with Sarita Leyva. Stella is a volunteer tutor in the Adult Literacy Program at St. Christopher House and serves on the Board of Directors of the Housing Co-op where she lives.

Jessica Lee is CineFocus's graphic designer. She is in her graduating year of the York/Sheridan Bachelor of Design program. With creative and marketing credentials developed during the course of her education she has assisted in the promotional materials and creative direction in Cinefocus's recent projects such as Museum Maestros.

Amy Davis is CineFocus Canada's assistant editor and production coordinator. A graduate of York University’s BFA Film program, Amy specialized in production planning and video editing. She recently directed her own short film, Amazing Potatoes and also worked as assistant editor on Museum Maestros by John Bessai.