Board of Directors

The SAW Video board of directors consists of 12 members, each elected for three-year terms. Elections are held annually at the members’ annual general meeting. Board members may serve consecutive terms but must stand for re-election by the membership.

Board Member Profiles

Nikhil Adnani

Nikhil Adnani is co-founder and CEO of ThinkRF Corp., a wireless technology company. He has held engineering positions at Nortel and Communications Research Centre Canada. Adnani has also worked as an artist and animator. His animated films have screened at many international film festivals, including the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, the European Media Arts Festival, SXSW and Aspen Shortsfest. Adnani was a member of the Available Light Screening Collective from 2003 to 2007. During this time he curated a show on web animation. Adnani has a BSc and an MSc from the University of Manitoba and a PhD from Carleton University, all in electrical engineering.

Ashraf Asfour

Ashraf Asfour is a member of SAW Video and participated in its (former) Voices from the Margins youth program in 2005-2006. Currently, he is completing professional training in Toronto and Ottawa as an industry apprentice with the International Cinematographers Guild. Asfour continues to create his own videos through a cinematographic approach, and is involved in other independent productions in the Ottawa area.

Maria Belisario, Secretary

Maria Belisario has been a member of SAW Video since 1994. She came from Venezuela only two years earlier. She considers SAW as very close to her heart as it opened a door when many had closed. She was looking for a work placement locally where all the companies said no, SAW opened the doors for her. She started at SAW by helping to coordinate Available Light members and equipment at it's very beginnings working with 8mm film making. She then participated in the very first Jumpstart program which allowed her to find work within local independent production companies in documentaries and live action films as well as to produce some of her own videos: El Secreto, Moliendo Cafe, Ni Aqui Ni Alla. Maria moved on to working in the field of animation in 2000 and has been working as a Production Manager since then. Maria also worked as the Head of Production in Venezuela for the main national broadcaster TV station and two other TV stations during the past 6 years. She has worked on all genres of production in both commercial and independent industries, but always comes back to her beloved roots: SAW Video. Maria is currently forming her own production company as well as writing again for her own projects and ideas.

A. Sabastien Callendar, Treasurer

A graduate of the sound engineering program at Raven Street Studio, Callendar has also studied business at the University of Ottawa. He is a producing member of SAW Video and currently toils with audio and video experiments in his laboratory when opportunity allows. Another of his interests is writing, and he is continually involved in visual design projects through Canvas Culture.

Kerry Campbell, Chair

Kerry Campbell is a video artist and a 2001 graduate of SAW Video's (former) youth program. She currently works for Elections Canada and lives in Hull. Campbell is a VJ and a DJ best known for her solar-powered parties and electronic experiments. She has been an active member of SAW Video and Galerie SAW Gallery for nine years, and hopes to be involved for many more.

Phil Caron, Vice-Chair

Phil Caron is a filmmaker, writer and civil servant. His artist career began with a SAW Video JumpstART grant in the late 1980s. Since then, his award-winning films and videos have been shown nationally and internationally. Caron’s written work has appeared in Canada's major newspapers (The Globe and Mail, Canwest Media, etc.), on CBC Radio One, and in literary journals. He graduated in 1995 from Concordia University with a BFA in Cinema.

Edward Folger

Edward Folger studied physics and literature at Columbia University in New York and decided to become an artist instead of a scientist. He has worked as a still photographer/filmmaker, editor, and writer; apprenticed in feature films with John Cassavettes, Alain Resnais, Milos Forman, et al.; and wrote and directed a dramatic feature film for PBS in the Canadian Arctic (Nanook Taxi, 1975). He moved to Baffin Island to teach and produce the earliest Inuktitut TV programming and used all his skills (video, computer programming, etc.) in the fight for Inuit land claims and the establishment of the Nunavut Territory. Folger moved to Vancouver in 1991 and to Ottawa in 2004, where he is still writing and making videos.

Monique Fuller

Originally from Montreal, Monique Fuller has called Ottawa home for the last eight years. She currently works full time as an administrator at a community health centre, volunteers with the One World Film Festival selection committee and with CKCU FM. Fuller is a member at SAW Video and hopes to produce short videos and films in the future.

Alex Massaad

Alex Massaad has been involved with SAW Video since moving to Ottawa in 2006 to study film at Carleton University. Around that time, he produced a short film with the assistance of SAW Video’s (former) New Voices Fund, which gave him the chance to discover his true passion, electronic music composition. These days, Massaad divides his time between recording music, performing magic shows and working at the front desk of Arts Court.

Susan Murphy

Susan Murphy has been working in media and communications in Ottawa for nearly 20 years. She began her career in broadcasting in 1990, producing and directing local television programs for Skyline Cablevision, now Rogers TV.

Today, Murphy is a partner at Jester Creative Inc., where she helps people discover and tell their stories in a variety of media, including video and new media. Her interest in social and new media is extensive (i.e. she's a total geek), and she contributes to the online community though her personal blog at www.suzemuse.ca, on various social networks, and as a teacher of video production and web media at Algonquin College. Murphy is also a member of the creative team of 12for12k.org, a social media-based fundraising project that is creating a buzz in the online world.

In her spare time, Sue enjoys spending time with her family and friends, singing and playing guitar, and travelling with her husband.

Vera Wabejigig

Vera Wabegijig is Anishnaabe from the Odawa and Ojibway tribes and a member of the Mississauga First Nation. She is a multi-disciplinary artist that uses the written and spoken word, photography, and media art to express the creativity thriving from deep inside. She draws upon the energy from the earth and is thankful for all the other Indigenous artists who continue to flow and follow that same place that urges one self to create and to be a voice.

Vera studied Creative Writing at the En'owkin Centre; Fine Arts and Women/Gender Studies at the University of Victoria; Film and Video Production at Capilano University; and Media Arts Professional Development at Indigenous Media Arts Group.

Ben Walker

Ben Walker is an emerging filmmaker and video artist. He has been a member of SAW Video since 2005, participating in many workshops, programs and screenings. This year, Walker joined the equipment committee, instructed video workshops through the centre’s Far Out Locations program, and screened his film A Spring Day in Toronto at Resolution 2009.

Board Committees

Board committees are comprised of board members, staff, general members, and sometimes also non-members with a particular interest or expertise. Committees report to the SAW Video board of directors. Members of SAW Video are encouraged to contribute to the livelihood of the organization through active participation in committees.