Planet In Focus Staff

Staff

• Artistic Director & CEO - Candida Paltiel
• Senior Programmer - Kathleen Mullen
• Program Development Officer - Anne Mark
• Administrative Coordinator – Dagny Thompson
• Bookkeeper - Carl Choy

Office:

55 Mill Street, Building 74,
Studio 402 Toronto, ON M5A 3C4
Phone: 416-531-1769
Fax: 416-531-8985

Staff Bios

Candida Paltiel – Artistic Director & CEO

Candida has been the Artistic Director & CEO of Planet in Focus since 2005 overseeing the artistic programming and expansion of its year round national and international programs as well as the creation of Green Screen Toronto. She has worked as a writer,  field producer, director, and producer on a number of award-winning television documentary series on CBC, TVO, CTV and Vision TV, specializing in social and political issues (Up at Dawn, To Tell a Story, Acts of War, Heart of the System etc.). She has filmed and resided in a variety of international settings in addition to having taught in the film program at the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University. In 2002 she was invited to launch the first screenwriting workshop in Honduras, where she also co-wrote the feature screenplay  Manati with Honduran producer Marisela Bustillo, based on the murder of an environmental activist there. She received her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Film from Columbia University in NYC and her BA in Political Science and East Asian Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Kathleen Mullen- Senior Programmer

For over fourteen years Kathleen has programmed at film festivals internationally including the Toronto International Film Festival, as the Short Cuts Canada programmer, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Vancouver International Film Festival and Provincetown International Film Festival. For five years she was the director of programming at the Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival. She recently completed an MFA in Film Production from York University. Kathleen has directed several short films including you wash my skin with sunshine, Sleep Lines and Still Life with Butterfly. Her latest film is Breathtaking, a mid-length personal investigative documentary about her father and the legacy and present-use of asbestos.

Anne Mark – Program Officer

Anne Mark carries the institutional memory of Planet in Focus having joined the organization in 2003 as the organization’s first employee. Through 2006 she was the Festival Manager and when she returned from maternity leave in 2007 she became the Program Officer responsible for  public and foundation funding of the festival and year round programs. Her specialized knowledge and expertise is applied toward the development of our on-going and new programs. An ardent environmentalist, Anne has an Masters in Environmental Studies from York University as well as a BFA in Film from York University.

Dagny Thompson- Administrative Coordinator

Dagny Thompson is a filmmaker who most recently joined Planet in Focus as our Administrative Coordinator and has held a love for film since she was a wee child. She studied English at the University of Toronto and ended up learning her trade through countless hours of volunteering on short films. Working as a production assistant in the film and television industry in Toronto trained her well for her work as a production coordinator and filmmaker in the independent film scene. She has coordinated over a dozen independent films and written and directed three short dramatic and documentary films, a ten-part educational series, and numerous dance and promotional videos. Dagny was the technical coordinator at the Hart House Film Board at the University of Toronto and she has been an instructor at our Youth Camera Action! program where her considerable skills have left an indelible impact on budding filmmakers.