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Montréal:

Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes
Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes is a multidisciplinary video artist based in Montréal. Her practice involves animation and installation, through which she investigates the mimesis of technological and biological life forms by constructing virtual worlds that have their own digital ecologies. She holds a BFA in Film Animation from Concordia University, where she is currently an MFA candidate in Intermedia.

Mélanie O’Bomsawin
Mélanie O’Bomsawin uses video in all its forms. Born to one W8banaki parent and another one quebecois, she uses her installations, her documentaries and her projections to explore her connexion to the ones who were here before her and the ones who will come after.

Maude Thibodeau
Maude Thibodeau has been creating interactive and engaging projects for more than 10 years. Her career as an art director and interactive experience designer led her to some of the top creative agencies in Montréal, including Sid Lee and Urbania Media. She has spent the last five years at Dpt., an innovative Montreal studio that explores the intersection of cinema and gaming, art and code, research and design. Her role allows her to be involved in the conception, design, writing, and art direction of a variety of immersive experiences. Whether she’s working on documentaries (The Enemy, Testimony, Roxham, These Sleepless Nights), at cultural organizations (AGAC, OSM, Cinémathèque Québécoise) or museums (GSM Projet, Musée de l'Énergie), or on entertaining projects (Passagers, Sherlock AR), her focus is developing strong, relevant and relatable narratives.

Miami:

Olivia Klawonn
Olivia is a graduate of Hofstra University’s Film Studies/Production department and was the co-host of a talk show on film called The Screening Room at Hofstra’s radio station, WRHU. Her first experience on a film set was working as a production assistant on X-Men: New Mutants in Boston, MA. Since then, Olivia has expanded her scope to fine arts, working as an associate at a fine art gallery where she explored contemporary art curation, collections, and sales work. Her interest in augmented reality and artificial intelligence in the arts is a result of watching her inhumanly smart brother pursue his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Olivia is about to pursue an education for a career in film preservation and restoration, while still learning and exploring generative adversarial networks and applications for augmented reality on the side.

Monica Lopez De Victoria
Monica Lopez De Victoria is a Miami based multi-disciplinary artist and performer/choreographer in Artistic (Synchronized) Swimming. Graduating from Florida International With a BFA in Photography/Video in 2002, she has worked for two decades weaving these two art forms together. She is both Puerto Rican Latinx and Caucasian German/Swedish American.

Monica is investigating the rippling movements of emotional volume, supernatural connection, and optical illusions in the 4th and 5th dimensions. Her colorful geometric aquatic videos, performances,installations, augmented reality, costumes, textiles, and experiments visualize the unseen layers around us. Lately this translates through the dreamy hypnotic visual language of water, waves, and sunset color smears. Psychologists state that there is a transcending power in water, one that heals our bodies and minds when we are submerged. These ideas and the aesthetics of Art Deco, kitschy Florida beach life, pastels, the Everglades, mid-century tropical minimalism, Bauhaus theories, and Miami neon nights have influenced Monica’s work and life.

Fereshteh Toosi
Fereshteh Toosi is an artist of Iranian and Azeri ancestry whose projects foster animistic connections through encounter, exchange, and sensory inquiry. Fereshteh lives and works in Miami, Florida, on Miccosukee, Seminole, and Tequesta land. Fereshteh designs experiences augmented by electronics, audio, video, and media transmissions. These intimate live-art events often take place outdoors in gardens, parks, and waterways. The immersive performances are produced in conjunction with sculptures, short films, installations, and poetry. Fereshteh is an Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department of the College of Communication, Architecture, and the Arts at Florida International University. Fereshteh earned The Ellies Creator Award from Oolite Arts in 2018 for Water Radio, a series of contemplative canoe and kayak outings. Find samples of the artwork at http://fereshteh.net.

The Montreal / Miami New Narratives Lab is organized by FilmGate Miami, MUTEK, the National Film Board of Canada and O Cinema, in collaboration with the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Miami Dade Department of Cultural Affairs.