We were pleased to be able to award $6000 in scholarships this year thanks to you, our dedicated film goers.
Yannie accepted her award at our AGM in June. Parents accepted on behalf of Bo and Malibu who were both out of town. We hope that when you read the following information on these students, you will be as pleased as we are to be able to support them in their studies.
Yannie Yu has the ultimate goal of becoming an accomplished filmmaker. She is an all-round top academic student who is graduating from KSS this June. Her media, film and creative writing teacher feels it is important to state that she is one of the top all-round students that he has encountered in his long teaching career. He feels that Yannie has the skill set in place to thrive in any filmmaking program and beyond. She is competent in all the areas of filmmaking where she researches, writes, acts, films, edits, produces and directs. She has an innate sense of how to tell a story. Yannie has creativity, initiative and utter reliability. She has incredible potential as a young film artist where her dedication matches her ambition and passion.
Yannie has been accepted into Capilano University’s Motion Picture Arts Program where she will start her courses in September. She hopes to raise funds for her tuition during the summer continuing her work as a freelance videographer.
We wish her well and hope that the scholarship from KFS will help her on her way to a successful career in film production.
Braydon (Bo) Rouck is a first year Motion Picture Arts Degree student at Capilano University in Vancouver. He was a recipient of a KFS scholarship last year which he acknowledges has been a tremendous help in achieving his goals to further his education in the film industry. From being an excellent Grade 12 student, he has gone on to achieving top marks in Cinematography and Production design at university. He has worked on multiple motion picture projects as part of the curriculum and, in addition, has supplemented those experiences by volunteering his time for numerous extra-curricular projects.
His instructors note that Bo has excelled whilst working in a collaborative atmosphere that is modelled on real life film industry experience. Bo is exceptional in academic and creative performance as well as being an excellent communicator. He is a very attentive, hardworking and punctual student who manages to grasp concepts quickly and thoroughly and, importantly, he is also able to accept advice and suggestions readily and remains open to constructive critique.
Kelowna Film Society is happy to award a scholarship to a student of this standing.
Malibu Taetz is a local film student currently enrolled at UBCO. Last year he won an academic scholarship from KFS, a bursary for a film project and the use of the society’s camera for a week. He has made good use of all these awards. He has maintained his high academic standard. His short movie, “Gareth’s Account” was shown to the Film Society audience in April and highlighted his creativity, dedication to hard work and all round filming ability. He has been involved in making promotional videos for the Okanagan Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Sadok Ukrainian Dance Ensemble. He is set to make videos for the Fine Arts Bartending School and another one for Sadok Dance as part of their Canadian WW1 Interment Recognition Fund. His recent video for the Kelowna City Band involved creating film to be shown behind the performers that would match the musical pieces. He used a mix of animation and live action for this.
As for next year, Malibu says that he is very grateful to have found multiple opportunities for filming around the Okanagan Valley and that this is largely due to the Kelowna Film Society through which he has been afforded many different fantastic opportunities. He feels he is on a strange journey and no one knows how it will turn out. He has been offered a place at Capilano University and will start his studies there in September. KFS hopes that the scholarship money Malibu receives will help him, in a small way, to pursue his filming dream.
Stefan Matis is a local filmmaker who has a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. He owns and operates a video production company and works independently as a commercial and wedding photographer. Wendy Ord, the film expert on our scholarship committee, says that Stefan has a great deal of creative talent and she has been impressed with work that he has produced. In recognition of his potential as a filmmaker, we offer him the use of the Kelowna Film Society’s camera for two one week periods.
We wish him good luck in his endeavours.
