PRESIDENT

Filmmaker, Installation Artist, Educator,

Toni-Lynn Frederick is a filmmaker, writer, and installation artist from Vancouver, British Columbia. Her academic credits include degrees from Capilano U, UBC, and SFU, and she is currently on-leave from the final year of a practice-based PhD at the University of Reading, England, where her research examines the representation of Holocaust-related landscape and the use of witness re-enactment in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah. She has taught both film production and history and is the founder of the Vancouver Free School. In addition to working on her own digital video and analogue film practice, Toni-Lynn works as the Video Testimony Project Coordinator for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and is the recent recipient of a SSHRC Doctoral Award. Since joining the Cineworks Board in 2015, Toni-Lynn has largely focused on governance work, including board succession and bylaw compliance.

Tenure with Organization: joined Cineworks in 2015

VICE PRESIDENT

Filmmaker, Installation Artist, Educator

Christoph Runné is a Vancouver-based experimental film, video, and installation artist. Through his work, he explores the unhidden yet seemingly invisible world around us. He creates visual tone poems with a humanitarian heartbeat whose minimalist and impressionistic methodology contradicts the complex human conditions with which Runné engages.

Tenure with Organization: joined Cineworks in 2016

DIRECTOR

Provincial Practice Consultant

Melanie Aulin holds a Master’s of Social Work from Dalhousie University. She has worked in various positions within the Ministry for Children and Family Development for the last 22 years. She currently works as a Provincial Practice Consultant. She is also a lead for the Ministry’s Provincial domestic violence portfolio. She is involved in policy development and best practice approaches around child protection and domestic violence across the Province. In the past she has been involved in fundraising for the Red Cross, Surrey Women’s Centre, Frontier College and 60 Million Girls Foundation. Melanie is also a Certified Sommelier and regularly runs wine education sessions as well as private and corporate tasting events throughout the lower mainland.

Tenure with Organization: joined Cineworks in 2020

DIRECTOR

Graphic Designer, Art Director

Illene Yu is a graphic designer and art director with over 17 years of experience in branding, packaging, layout, exhibit and web design, and project management. Her past clients include Greenpeace, the Rockefeller Family Fund, DeSmog Blog, Air Canada, Tropicana, and Bosa Development. She received the Bronze Quill Award of Excellence from the International Association of Business Communicators, BC Chapter; the Award of Merit from the Canadian Public Relations Society; and an award for Editorial Magazine Design in the 13th Applied Arts Design and Advertising Annual. Illene’s formal training includes UX Design at RED Academy, Marketing Communications at BCIT, Graphic Design & Illustration at Capilano University, and the Display + Design Program at Langara College.

Tenure with Organization: joined Cineworks in 2020

DIRECTOR

Journalist, Producer

Eric Chi Keung Chan has worked for over 20 years in journalism for newspapers, magazines and television. He is the former producer of the Shaw community channel show “Saltwater City TV.” He is currently the News Editor of Ming Pao Daily News. He is also the current producer of the daily video news broadcast “Ming Pao 530 News.” Born in Hong Kong, China, he became a citizen of Canada in 2000 and is fluent English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Tenure with Organization: joined Cineworks in 2021

DIRECTOR

Chartered Professional Accountant, Certified General Accountant

Carole is a Vancouver based designated Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CGA). After graduating from Kwantlen Polytechnic University with a Bachelor of Accounting Degree, she has been active and working in the accounting field for over 10 years. She has full cycle accounting experience and knowledge in the non-profit, retail, restaurant and property management industries.

Tenure with Organization: joined Cineworks in 2017

TREASURER

Certified Management Accountant, Manager of Finance

Irwin Lee is a Certified Management Accountant and Manager of Finance for a non-profit organisation with an annual operating budget of 55 million dollars. He has a long-standing interested in non-profit and has been employed with a community organisation that provides housing, healthcare, and supports for extremely marginalised individuals since 2017. From 2015 to 2017, he was the assistant controller for EcoTrust, a charity dedicated to offering economic alternatives for individuals hoping to own their own homes. Prior to that work, he was involved in a variety of accounting or senior accounting roles for a decade. He served as treasurer and director for the Royal City Curling Club for a six-year period (2009-2014). On a personal level, he has seen the positive impact of the non-profit sector through the experience of his brother who lives with a disability and who has benefited from the supports provided by socially conscious organisations. As a designated accounting professional with 16 years of experience across multiple industries in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, Irwin hopes to share his skills, knowledge, and experience regarding financial statements, budgets, and financial reporting for non-profits.

Tenure with organisation: joined Cineworks in 2021

SECRETARY

Director, East Van Roasters Social Enterprise

Shelley Bolton has a 10-year background in and longstanding passion for independent filmmaking. Since 2001, her community work has built connections between local business groups and the low-income community in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. She has operated various social enterprises including the Window Community Art Shop and East Van Roasters (EVR). As the Executive Director of the EVR, she oversees a program that provides women experiencing intersecting obstacles to their social tenure—such as addiction, mental illness and homelessness—with employment opportunities in fair-trade coffee roasting and bean to bar chocolate production. Before beginning with EVR, she worked as a Project Director at Esemkwu Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Society (located on the Squamish First Nation). Shelley is of Indigenous (Kwantlen and Squamish: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), Hawaiian, and European ancestry. She is excited to draw on her work in independent film and experience in the non-profit sector to make contributions to Cineworks.

Tenure with Organization: joined Cineworks in 2021

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dan Small joined Cineworks as the Executive Director in 2021. He brings over two decades of experience within the non-profit sector, in addition to a wide range of academic accomplishments.

Dan has had a long-standing interest in film, culture and narrative. He is particularly interested in community-based collaboration, independent filmmaking, strategies to remove barriers to filmmaking and the power of film to challenge otherwise accepted assumptions about the social world. Dan’s expansive career in not-for-profit began in the mental health field in the 1980's and has included extensive proposal writing and fundraising within both the government and private sector, as well as the set-up, implementation and management of "low barrier" healthcare and housing projects designed to reach marginalized populations facing intersecting inequalities which put them at risk for social and healthcare exclusion.

Dan has made it his professional goal to use sociocultural analysis to unpack professional, institutional and societal narratives in order to help create more person-centred approaches to the delivery of community services. As an honourary research associate at the University of BC, Dan has a PhD in medical anthropology (UBC), an MPhil in circumpolar studies (Cambridge), and undergraduate degrees in sociology and anthropology (SFU) as well as psychology (SFU).

PROGRAM COORDINATOR

Luis “Luigi” Alvarez grew up in his twenties between his native Culiacan in the Northwest of Mexico and his adoptive home, Monterrey, in Northeast Mexico; the latter where he completed and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM). In August 2012, he travelled to Vancouver, Canada seeking new opportunities through a student visa. There, he completed and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film Production at Simon Fraser University in 2018. In late 2021, he joined Cineworks as the Program Coordinator. On January 2025, he was pleased to gain his permanent resident status, part of his long-range goal to become a citizen of Canada.

Luigi has always had a deep fascination for stories as far back as he can remember, believing in the transformative power that stories hold in our daily lives, helping us understand the world, and ourselves, as well as bringing communities together through their shared experiences. An avid writer, Luigi enjoys writing speculative short fiction, though he plans on writing a novel or two down the road. Among his projects are a collection of short stories set in a fantasy world inspired in Mesoamerican cultures from his native Mexico. He is fascinated in stories set in worlds alien from our own that explore the moral dilemmas and humanity of his characters.

Among his other interests, Luigi is also a lover of photography since he picked up an analog camera as a teenager, with a particular fascination with black & white photography. He’s had the opportunity to engage since 2017 in freelance photography, with an inclination towards portraiture, urban landscape and event photography, the latter which has allowed him to collaborate with organizations such as Indigenous Matriarchs 4 Media Lab, Out on Screen, Vancouver Pride, Performing Circle and others. Luigi also has a passion for animation and video games, both as entertainment, but also as fully-fledged mediums for innovation and storytelling, and is always happy to receive new recommendations from either one.

He is honoured and excited to be a part of the Cineworks crew. Drawing on his BIPOC experience, Luigi is keen to engage diverse communities of artists and emerging filmmakers and to develop educational programs that are culturally safe, affordable, accessible, inclusive, low barrier that reach under-represented populations facing intersecting inequities, by providing them with tangible opportunities to showcase their work and take leadership positions in workshops.

ANALOG FILM TECHNICIAN

Gregory John Beatty (Jack) has been an experimental photographer for almost thirty years and has extensive knowledge of analog technology. Jack brings extensive skills, knowledge, and experience to the role of Analogue Film Technician (AFT). His background includes experience as the Quality Control Supervisor for Alpha Cine Motion Picture Laboratory / Technicolor Creative Services Ltd for 12 years (from 1988 to 2010). From 1985 to 2005 he completed custom enlarging in his own facilities for many artists, including Rodney Graham, Roy Arden, and Chris Dikeakos. This included specialized processes, such as negative intensification and producing mural sized enlargements, that were not available from commercial labs. He is deeply committed to developing and preserving infrastructure so that the arts and sciences of analog filmmaking can continue to be practiced.

Throughout the course of his career, he has perfected his analytical, quality assurance and teaching abilities for individuals interested in learning about analogue film. In his previous roles, he has contributed problem-solving, innovation and improved practices related to analogue film processing. In addition to his historical knowledge, Jack keenly interested in new developments in the field.

Jack built his first darkroom in the basement of his parents’ home and has kept a series of industry standard darkrooms for over 5 decades. He has over 50 years of experience in film processing, photographic printing, and custom enlarging. He can process film of all formats to the highest standards and has a deep understanding of photographic processes and chemistry. He is looking forward to working with the Cineworks community of photographers, filmmakers, and artists as they explore the many realms of analogue filmmaking.

FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT MANAGER

Colette holds a BA in Film Production from Catalyst Institute for Creative Arts and Technology in Berlin, where she gained practical hands-on experience in filmmaking. Since graduating, she has gone on to direct, edit, and produce podcasts, short films, and experimental, non-commercial, and commercial work. As a member of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, she is passionate about applying principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism to her work. She is excited to undertake the role of Facilities and Equipment Manager to support the community with their creative projects. She is committed to supporting low-barrier access to facilities and equipment within the realm of independent film and media arts.