Director | Shelly J. Hong
Shelly J. Hong is a writer/director living in Hamilton, Ontario. She began her career as an actor in theatre and then moved into film production where she spent the last 15 years peeking behind the curtain.
Her career took another turn when she was presented with the opportunity to direct and she took it. Her directorial debut, Such a Small Thing (written and starring Juno Rinaldi), played at festivals around the world and won several awards including Silver for Best Short at the Queen Palm Film Festival.
Shelly is an alumnae of the Women in the Director’s Chair Career Advancement Module and Story and Leadership programs. She looks forward to learning and growing as a director, now that she has found her way.
Writer. Producer | Lynda Simmons
It took a pandemic to throw everything Lynda knew about writing, creativity and herself upside down.
When it seemed like everyone else was discovering their creative well through everything from photography to baking, Lynda’s creative well dried up completely. After thirty years writing and teaching others to write, she followed the advice she gives her students, putting her butt in the chair and her fingers on the keyboard. But for the first time in her life, nothing came.
This went on week after week, month after month, to the point where she started to question whether she had ever had a creative thought in her life. The answer that kept coming back was ‘clearly not.’ Why not put the writing aside and try out some gardening gloves?
But those gloves made it hard to type, and being ornery by nature, Lynda tossed them aside and did what she has always done when facing an obstacle - put on a little lipstick and run headlong in a new direction, starting with a collection of pandemic stories written by people from her home town and beyond, published in September 2021 as Writing The Rollercoaster.
From there, she headed off again, running straight into screenwriting and coming up with an award winning short screenplay, The Light at The End. The creative well was overflowing.
As she turns 70, Lynda and Shelly are about to turn that screenplay into the film titled Ed and Alfie. Who knows what 71 will bring.