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BASHAR
SHBIB Bashar Shbib (Bachar Chbib) has never stopped making films since 1982. The Montreal and Los Angeles based filmmaker has over 40 feature films and 10 short subjects to his credit. He is now producing two television series and documentaries. His films have won more than fourteen awards at select film festivals and competitions to date. Critically acclaimed as an English language filmmaker in his province of Quebec, he is unknown in Canada. Shbib was born in Damascus in 1959 to a German mother and a Syrian father, emigrated to Canada with his family at a very early age. Having spent his youth living and working with his family on a Charolais beef ranch in the Eastern Townships (Quebec), he intended to pursue a career in science. However, after graduating from Montreal's McGill University with a degree in Microbiology and Immunology, he changed his plans and attended Montreal's Concordia University and earned his degree in Film Production. Never one to shy away from controversy and prone, in fact, to stirring it up, Shbib organized a tour in 1986 of ten independent Canadian feature films and ten short films and travelled with them to 60 cities throughout the United States and Europe when he felt that independent Canadian filmmakers were not being given their due. He also organized demonstrations and once even stripped at the Toronto Film Festival to protest the lack of funding for independent filmmakers. Finally, frustrated by the bureaucracy involved in making a film in his homeland, Shbib headed for the sunnier shores of the American west coast where he begun making films in his own inimitable style. After 9/11 his travels were hampered by constant searches at airports, so he moved to Stanstead (QC) close to his childhood farm. There he opened a film training program and has pursued his doctoral dissertation as a candidate at McGill University. Shbib has been a painter of abstract art since 1974 and has sold over 600 works. He will have a solo show of newly produced figurative paintings in May 2008 at the ART DU QC Gallery. Though his past films have been described as a combination of "German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Archie Comics" to "Bertolt Brecht directing 'Risky Business'" Shbib feels that his films are nowhere near as daunting as they first appear. His films continue to bring him critical praise, His romantic comedies JULIA HAS TWO LOVERS and LANA IN LOVE, were premiered at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival and received critical acclaim at both the 1991 Montreal Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival. They were released worldwide. Another of his comedies, LOVE $ GREED, was in competition and one of the highlights at the 1991 Montreal Film Festival. CRACK ME UP, DRAGHOULA and RIDE ME, two others have received rave reviews after its Canadian cross-country theatrical release. Shbib's recent release(s) THE SENSES (five feature films) has been extremely well received by moviegoers and also by the press and have been aired on Radio Canada and several television networks worldwide. Shbib has a penchant for the less commercial works EVISION, Or D’Ur and CLAIR OBSCUR. He is now preparing for the distribution of SILENT MEN, 15 UGLY SISTERS and STRAWBERRIES and WINE. His unique directing style both attracts and inspires actors and crew to follow him from project to project. On casting his films, Shbib notes, each actor is well aware before the start of production of what to expect. We discuss the story and characters and then improvise. It is a challenge to all, but the end result is that I have a unique story and natural performances from the actors". Shbib insists on his independent roots and his passion for film. At a time when independent filmmakers are scrambling (read: compromising) to raise funds for their films, Shbib's prudent shooting schedules enable him to freely direct and produce the modestly budgeted movies that he enjoys making. He is president of his own independent film production company, Oneira Pictures International. He also works for his daughter company Sunset Picture (www.sunsetpictures.ca) and more recently produced for her the theatrical feature FRAUDS IN LOVE directed by the notorious Indie filmmaker Adam Coleman Howard. Current Projects Chbib is currently producing a long-form documentary: BORDER TOWN is an unconventional look at a small border town community in Quebec through vignettes of local entrepreneurs and artists. Completion is scheduled for June of 2008 with subsequent broadcast and distribution. Since his move to the Stanstead area from Hollywood, CA, Chbib has been shooting a nine part miniseries Granite Forks about human smuggling for Sunset Pictures, a company owned by Maia Nadon-Chbib. He is also preparing for his solo art show at the Art Du Qc Gallery where he is exhibiting his most recent acrylic paintings in May 2008. Nationally Broadcast Productions Internationally broadcast
documentaries and features which he produced and/or directed, include: |
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