Biography of filmmaker Ezra Soiferman

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The village of St. Paul's River is reeling after the 2003 moratorium on cod fishing. What will become of their way of life if they can't fish?

The fate of tiny St. Paul's River hangs in the balance after the closure of the East Coast fisheries. This isolated hamlet on Quebec's Lower North Shore depended entirely on cod fishing for its existence. Now the community that feels like "paradise" to its residents is losing its young people, its ancient skills, its very identity as it searches for a way to survive until the fish come back. Questions of responsibility fuel their discussions: Who is at fault? The government? Foreign fleets? Or maybe the fishers themselves? Tenacity, make-work programs and limited-quota seasons allow St. Paul's River to cling to life on this rocky coast, "The land God gave to Cain". But for how long?

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Biography of filmmaker Ezra Soiferman

An honours graduate of NYU Film & TV, Montreal-based Ezra Soiferman, has produced and/or directed numerous documentaries and series for television, including Man Of Grease (2001 Jutra Nomination - Best Documentary), Tree Weeks, Cod Help Us (NFB Citizenshift), Dogs With Jobs, Past Lives, Au Courant and Cirque Du Soleil: The Fire Within (co-director) and Posthumous Pickle Party.

Ezra's productions have played at over 30 film festivals worldwide and have appeared on outlets including CBC, CBC Newsworld, CTV, RDI, Société Radio-Canada, Global, TV5-France, TVOntario, CBC Country Canada, National Geographic, Life Network Canada, Air Canada and Oprah.

In 2004, Ezra co-founded the Montreal Film Group, a collective now comprising over 1000 Montreal film and TV industry producers, directors, animators, actors, technicians and more.

His full bio can be seen at: http://montrealfilmgroup.com/ezra.html

His Ez Sez blog can be seen here: http://ezsezblog.blogspot.com/

Contributed by Citizen Shift