EZRA SOIFERMAN - Bio

Producer, Director & Cameraman
Director and Co-Founder of the Montreal Film Group
Director of CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre

Ezra Soiferman, born in 1972, graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1994 with an honors B.F.A in Film and TV Production. There, he directed numerous short films and videos, including PRESSURE DROP, his senior thesis film.

PRESSURE DROP (18 mins, 16mm, 1993) was co-directed by Ezra Soiferman and Los Angeles filmmaker Marc Ostrick. The controversial short comedy about a Jewish grandfather who resorts to smoking marijuana to save his eyes from glaucoma won awards and appeared at eighteen film festivals worldwide. The film was the recipient of a Warner Bros. Pictures Production Award at NYU and in 1998 toured 20 US cities. Watch the film here.

While at NYU, Ezra held internships at Jim Henson Productions, Limelight Films, TeleVest and Turtleback. After graduating, he produced and directed videos in New York for companies including Reebok and Ralph Lauren Polo For Boys.

Upon returning to Montreal in 1995, Ezra served as Assistant to the Director of Creative Affairs at Robin Spry's Telescene Film Group. In 1996, he left Telescene to co-found PERPETUUM PRODUCTIONS with filmmaker Adam Steinman. (Steinman left Perpetuum in 1998 and now works in television development in New York.)

For Perpetuum Productions, between 1995-1997, Soiferman and Steinman produced videos for the Ottawa Board of Education, Pripstein's Summer Camp, Options II High School, singer Gail Issenman, Travelodge Hotels, The March of the Living and Canon Canada.

Perpetuum's first TV documentary, TREE WEEKS, is a quirky 44-minute film produced and directed by Soiferman and Steinman and edited by Mika Goodfriend. It examines the obscure phenomenon of entrepreneurial young Quebecers who sell Christmas trees on the streets of Manhattan. The film had its premiere at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival and aired on CBC Newsworld's "Rough Cuts" series, Radio-Canada, RDI and New York’s MetroChannel.

In 1998, Ezra was featured as a Quebecer of the Year on the cover of Quebec's L'Actualité magazine. Later that year, he was selected as the media category winner of the Tribute to Successful Quebec Anglophones sponsored by YES Montreal, The Montreal Gazette and CJAD Radio.

In 1998 and 1999, Ezra served as Associate Producer and then Producer of EAT MY SHORTS!, the short film festival division of Montreal's Just For Laughs comedy festival.

In 2000, he directed episodes of the Life Network/CBC/PBS documentary series DOGS WITH JOBS. One of the episodes he directed, about Willie Weber, a remarkable seizure prediction and response dog, was featured on OPRAH in June, 2000.

MAN OF GREASE (50 mins., 2000) is a humourous and touching documentary profiling Tony Koulakis, owner/chef of legendary 11-stool Montreal greasy-spoon, Cosmos. The film, produced, directed and filmed by Ezra and edited by Mika Goodfriend, follows Koulakis back home to Greece for his first trip back in nearly 30 years.

Man Of Grease premiered to three sold out audiences and rave reviews at the Montreal World Film Festival and subsequently played at eight other film festivals in Canada and the USA. To date, the film has shown nearly 50 times on TVOntario, CBC Newsworld's "Rough Cuts" series, the B.C. Knowledge Network, CBC's Country Canada Channel, CBC-Montreal's Distinct Docs series and CTV-Montreal. It was also shown on Air Canada flights worldwide. In 2001, Man Of Grease was nominated for a Quebec Jutra Award for Best Documentary.

In 2000/2001, Ezra produced, directed and hosted BURLYVISION, 13 episodes about the world of short film directors. The show, edited by Mika Goodfriend, aired on The Burly Bear Network, at the time America's largest college TV network and owned by Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien), and broadcast to over 550 US colleges.

In late 2001, Ezra served as an Additional Director on three episodes of the Emmy and Gemini award-winning Global/BravoUSA documentary TV series, Cirque Du Soleil: THE FIRE WITHIN.

In late 2002, in Quebec City, he filmed behind-the-scenes footage of Peter Gabriel for the documentary GROWING UP ON TOUR by Anna Gabriel.

In 2003/2004 Ezra directed six episodes of the Global/Prime documentary series PAST LIVES which has Canadians retracing their genealogical roots.

In April 2004, he served as cameraman on the behind-the-scenes DVD for the summer 2005 New Line comedy KING'S RANSOM.

In fall 2004, Ezra directed VOILA MONTRÉAL, a short French-language documentary for the TV5 Network. The movie, edited by Mika Goodfriend, showcases Montreal from the point of view of an Iranian ex-architect cab driver and features a sountrack by The Arcade Fire.

In summer 2004, Ezra directed a 3-DVD set for Lipton and Just For Laughs called BOWL OF LAUGHS.

In December 2004, Ezra's “art-news” short SLIDEWALK aired on CBC-Montreal's nightly 6 o'clock news show with Dennis Trudeau. Part protest film, part ode to Charlie Chaplin, the 45 second musical documentary edited by Mika Goodfriend revolves around Ezra skating down an actual 100m stretch of icy Canadian sidewalk that hadn’t been cleared in close to a week. SLIDEWALK has the distinction of being the first short movie to ever air on the popular supper-hour news show. Watch the film here.

In January-June 2005, Ezra served as a Segment Producer on 20 episodes of CBC Newsworld's AU COURANT, hosted by Quebec icon Mitsou Gelinas. The nationally broadcast English-language series examines the news and culture in Quebec for the rest of Canada to see.

In June 2005, Ezra directed a series of 6 TV spots for Montreal's Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts at the Saidye. The ads, edited by Mika Goodfriend, aired on CBC-Montreal throughout 2005/2006.

In August 2005, Ezra completed COD HELP US (23 mins.) a CBC/NFB-funded documentary about the dire fishing crisis in St. Paul's River on Quebec's Lower North Shore. It is distributed on DVD by the National Film Board of Canada and can be seen online at NFB’s CitizenShift web site. The film, produced, directed and filmed by Ezra and edited by Mika Goodfriend, had its premiere at the 2006 San Francisco Ocean Film Festival. Ezra also presented the film at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific and the Gray's Reef Ocean Film Festival in Savannah, Georgia. Watch the film here.

In December 2005, Ezra joined a team of filmmakers to serve as camerapeople on TOO HOT TO HANDLE, a multimedia climate-change event hosted by Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.

In January 2006, Ezra and Val Lonergan launched the website for the Montreal Film Group, an events-based collective for members of Montreal’s active film & TV industry. The MFG, co-founded in August 2004 by Ezra Soiferman, John Christou and 10 other filmmakers, currently has over 1900 professional film and TV industry members. In January 2007, the MFG was featured on the cover of the Montreal Mirror as one of the "Noisemakers of 2007". Read the full Mirror article here. Ezra currently serves as Director of the Montreal Film Group.

During summer 2006, in addition to directing six new CBC-Montreal TV spots for Montreal's Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts at the Saidye and a legacy documentary for Clay's Pharmacy in Montreal and Winnipeg, Ezra served as documentary cameraman on the behind-the-scenes DVD documentary for the New Line feature JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3D starring Brendan Fraser and shot in Montreal.

October 2006 saw the premiere of POSTHUMOUS PICKLE PARTY. The whimsical and salty 46-minute documentary features a motley group of Simcha's Grocery Store customers who return to the famous institution on Montreal's St-Laurent Boulevard to pay tribute to the late Simcha Leibovich and eat his very last batch of homemade dill pickles. The film - conceived by Matt Zimbel, filmed and directed by Ezra, edited by Andrew David and featuring music by klezmer/hip-hop maestro Socalled - played to a sold out crowd at the October 2006 Film Pop Festival in Montreal. In February 2007, POSTHUMOUS PICKLE PARTY played to another sold out crowd at Montreal's NFB Cinema as part of the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québecois festival. The film aired on Canal D in winter 2007 and was awarded the Ville de Montreal Prize at EUROfEST 2008.

In October 2006, Ezra won the Penny Idol contest. Read more about this exceptionally strange honour.

In February 2007, as part of his HEMP FOR THE HOMELESS project, Ezra distributed 50 'hemp help kits' (food, soaps, clothing, etc.) to homeless shelters and individuals throughout the city of Montreal. The project was featured on CBC Radio and the Montreal Gazette. Read the Yahoo.ca article on the project here.

From March to October, 2007, Ezra worked at the POP MONTREAL International Music Festival as the co-producer of the FILM POP section which took place October 3rd to 7th, 2007.

The Socalled promo video Ezra filmed and directed was featured in the top spot as the YouTube "Featured Video of the Day" on May 22, 2007. The video, edited by Mika Goodfriend, features Montreal klezmer/hip-hop artis Socalled live on stage.

In March, 2008, Ezra served as a member of the The Greater Montreal Community Development Initiative's Arts, Culture and Heritage Sucommittee. The GMCDI is an initiative of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN).

In February, 2008, Ezra was a guest speaker at Doc Shop. Doc Shop, created by the NFB and CBC, is a novel filmmaking project aimed at students enrolled in film, video or communications programs in Montreal and Ottawa. Ezra was invited to talk to the students about the value of networking.

Ezra has recently teamed up with his old friend Dylan Silverstein to begin working on a new country-folk CD. The CD will feature Dylan's singing, guitar-playing and musical compositions and Ezra's lyrics and harmonica playing. Together, the two are also producing new songs by Los Angeles singer Dan Rinsch. Ezra has recorded three full-length CDs. To hear a song sample, click here.

Since May 2007, Ezra has served as the Director of CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts. In addition to being a state-of-the-art room featuring an HD projector and surround sound, CinemaSpace is proud to be Canada's first cinema to feature hemp fabric covered seats. The new boutique screening room showcases local and international independent film screenings, film festival collaborations, filmmaker Q&As and much more. Read about CinemaSpace in the news: here (CJN) and here (Monitor). Visit the official CinemaSpace page here to read more about the room and see show times.

In January, 2009, Ezra's 3-minute short film Broadway New Year's Day was selected to appear on new L.A.-based web video site eGuiders.com. The stop-motion documentary film features a 252-block walk Ezra took down the entire length of Manhattan's famed Broadway. The film features the song "Shalakho" by Ashkhabad, a Turkmenistani band on Peter Gabriel's Real World Records.

Ezra was recently selected as a core eGuider at eGuiders.com, an innovative new web site that features "trusted voices who find and recommend the best original online videos and share them with you." To watch some of Ezra's video picks at the site, please click here.

Ezra lives in and loves Montreal where in addition to all the above, he also writes poems, draws drawings, blogs at EzSez.com, creates picture-books, shoots and archives his EzraPix documentary photographs and researches/eats/wears lots of hemp.

Ezra is an official "Hemp Fuelled Filmmaker" sponsored by Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils.

Contact Ezra

Ezra doing an interview on CBC Newsworld's Au Courant
Photo by Max Beer.

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