It all began with a disaster.

When I was 13, a couple of friends and I decided to make a feature-length sci-fi film, The Landing. We envisioned an epic intergalactic adventure of intrigue and discovery. How hard could it be, we thought, to bring our dreams and fantastic worlds to life? We were in for quite a ride.

We came back from our first day of shooting to discover that a hurricane had destroyed the forest we were filming in. How timely. Cue the reshoots.

Three years later, after much struggle, the film was finally finished, all 62 minutes of it - perhaps a little less ideal than we would have liked. But we had taught ourselves the craft of filmmaking, if not with the greatest finesse. Editing, lighting, visual effects, original music...all this, we did.

From there, I began to make smaller (and better) short films with my friends. They played at some festivals and won some awards. Thus, the journey began. I took some time away from film to study piano, but it kept calling me back. Finally, I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in Music, and my first professional short film, Duet, premiered the next year. Produced through AFCOOP's FILM 5 development program with the support of Telefilm Canada, it's been very well received. I have several more projects currently in active development that have come from it, and it's amazing to look back to all those years ago when the odds seemed so insurmountable...