Film Arts Faculty
Alyson Drysdale was born in the East Kootenays of British Columbia. She was educated in Calgary, Alberta and Denver, Colorado before moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1977 where she completed a dual Masters Degree in Film and Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
Alyson trained as a producer in the Drama Lab at the National Screen Institute in Edmonton, Alberta and the National Film Board in Montreal, Quebec prior to forming her own company, Tamarac Filmworks Ltd. in 1986.
Alyson’s industry experiences include a three-year contract at Telefilm Canada and two years as series script editor on The Beachcombers. Among other credits, she produced and directed the documentary Girls of Summer for Global Television and created the pilot show High Country which went on to be a successful series for CBC as Destiny Ridge. Alyson wrote the screenplay for the film Cicely’s Divorce which won second place at the Legacy Filmworks and WIFVV 2nd Annual Film Festival in 2007. Most recently, Alyson was Screenwriter, Executive Producer and Producer for the film, Rain Down, which received just under $1/4 million in funding from Telefilm Canada.
In 2000, Alyson began her career as a film educator at UBC where she taught film directing, screenplay writing, and the senior class production course. She moved to Langara College in 2003 to head up its new Film Arts program and create curriculum.
A hands-on instructor with a passion for story-telling and a commitment to passing on practical skills and know-how, she has inspired countless students to pursue their dreams in the industry, with many going on to win prestigious awards for their work produced under her tutelage.
Gary Fisher studied at UBC, SFU’s Praxis Film Development Workshop, the Canadian Film Centre (TV Drama Program), and the National Story Editors Training Program. For many years he was a script analyst for Telefilm Canada and private companies.
Gary has written for film and television for 20 years, including the live-action series The Odyssey (CBC) and the animated series Nilus the Sandman (Family Channel). Gary was Executive Story Editor for Incredible Story Studio (YTV, Disney Europe) where he wrote or edited 41 episodes of this popular series (Gemini - Best Children’s or Youth Program).
Gary has written the feature-length screenplays "Go Down Lightly", "Red Rain", "Little Bones”, "The White Ape", and "Hungry Hills". “Go Down Lightly” placed 5th out of over 1200 entrants in the Slamdance screenplay competition. His current feature script is "The Things We Don't Know" which he is co-writing with financial support from Telefilm.
Through his working group Helicon, Gary pioneered the use of professional writers for dialogue in video games, most recently for "Scarface: The World Is Yours"; and in 2007 he wrote the treatment for a new franchise game being developed for Vivendi-Universal.
Gary continues to write, edit, and develop feature film and television projects. He teaches Feature Film Screenplay and Adaptation for the Screen in the Writer’s Stream of Film Arts.
Garwin Sanford is a graduate of Langara’s Studio 58 and in the ensuing years has been active on the Vancouver film scene. He has been cast in hundreds of projects including recurring roles in over 15 series and has been nominated four times for best actor. He is very proud to return to his school and to have been part of creating the Film Arts program. He is the head of all things acting and is involved in helping the directors, writers and actors through the process of creating their short films. He is convinced that this new program, now in its fourth year, is well on its way to becoming one of the best film programs in the country. “To be part of carrying on Studio 58’s legacy of excellence is immensely rewarding and to try to live up to the examples set by the instructors I had while training is the goal I have set for myself.” Garwin also serves on the Board of Moving Pictures – Canadian Film On Tour. Garwin is presently filming recurring roles in two series and when not filming or teaching, home schools his daughter at his home on the Sunshine Coast.
Byron Lamarque is an award winning film director who has always had a passion for filmmaking having joined his first film club in Cape Town, South Africa, when he was ten years old. After graduating in 2001 from the University of British Columbia with his MFA in film production, he worked as an assistant producer with Electronic Arts Canada before attending the Canadian Film Centre in 2003.
Byron has directed a number of short films programmed at worldwide film festivals including AFTER (01), STILL LIFE WITH SCISSORS (02) and ONCE UPON A TIME ON THE BEACH (03) which garnered two LEO awards including Best Direction in a Short Drama. Most recently he directed HIDE (05), which was programmed at the Toronto, Vancouver and Whistler International Film Festivals. He is currently developing feature length scripts.
Byron taught at the University of British Columbia's undergraduate film program for five years and is now an Instructor with Langara College’s Film Arts Program in Vancouver, British Columbia, specializing in the Directing and Production streams.
Michelle Bjornson is an award winning Writer, Director, and Producer of drama and documentary (A Round Peg, It Will Not Last The Night, The Mailboat Doesn't Stop Here Any More, End of the Game, Cheek to Cheek) whose work has screened and/or broadcast in Canada, the US and Europe. She also has drama credits as feature film editor (The Burning Season, Time Runner), producer (theatrical shorts Dents in the Sky and Beau), and producer Intern (CBC series Nothing Too Good For A Cowboy, Season II). Documentary credits include story editor, creative consultant and narration writer for such acclaimed projects as the Gemini- winning Made in China, Through a Blue Lens, Tokyo Girls, Britannia: Company Town, and From Harling Point. A graduate of the University of Toronto (BA) and University of British Columbia (MA Theatre and post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Film), Michelle has served on many Vancouver and/or national arts boards some of which include Documentary Organization of Canada, Moving Pictures: Canadian Films on Tour, Independent Media Arts Alliance, Women in Film & Video, PI Theatre and Women in View Performing Arts Festival. Prior to film, Michelle worked in theatre as a designer.
Ian Raffel is a long-serving teacher of speech and voice. He was trained in the Drama Department of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he was graduated in 1966 with a BFA in directing. At CMU, Raffel studied speech under the influential teacher Edith Warman Skinner. Since coming to Vancouver in 1980, Raffel has taught on the faculties of Studio 58 Langara College, The Vancouver Playhouse and The Film/Theatre School. In addition to teaching at Studio 58, he serves as Head of Voice at the Vancouver Film School. From 1989 to 1994, he served as an assistant professor in the Theatre area of Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts. He has been the instructor of Speech for the Canadian National Voice Intensive, a highly successful training program for professional actors and teachers held in Vancouver for the last 17 years. Raffel has appeared in the Vancouver Fringe Festival in his original one person show, Not My Army, and has been both dialogue and dialect coach for feature films. He most recently acted as Dialogue Coach to the Fox Network television series John Doe, and the WTV series Just Cause.