Tamara Scherbak

Fiction + Commercial Reel

Documentary + Experimental Reel

About

Tamara Scherbak has won awards for Best Director and Best Film for “Dedashka”. Her other works, “I U SHE” (a collaboration with music artist Peaches for Pop Montreal), “Only Sky & Water” (part of the TIFF Emerging Filmmakers Competition), “Recycle, Reuse, Remix” (produced by the National Film Board of Canada), and “Raya” have screened in numerous film festivals nationally and internationally including in competition at the Hot Docs Film Festival. She has also directed a number of music videos and branded content which have aired/streamed on the Bravo Network and Vice Canada among other outlets. In 2018, she was 1 of 51 finalists for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s Apprenticeship for Women Directors. Most Recently, she was 1 of 100 creators selected for the 2019 Netflix-Banff Diversity of Voices Initiative.

Tamara was 1 of 9 filmmakers selected for the Berlinale Talents Short Film Station with her script “Is Your Teen a Homosexual?“. She has also been selected as a writer/director for the Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab, the Reykjavik International Film Festival Talent Lab, the RIDM Talent Lab, The Festival du Nouveau Cinema Talent Incubator and as filmmaker-in-residence at 33 Officina Creativa in Italy.

While getting B.F.A in Film Production from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema she did exchanges at the E.I.C.T.V. in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba and at the Centre Imagine in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Aside from her fiction and documentary work, she has created interactive multi-media installations with The Other Theatre such as Etiquette 4 Lucid Dreaming, presented at the New Museum Ideas City Festival in New York.

Previously, she has enjoyed bringing to life the projects of other talented filmmakers through the magic of editing. She attended the Post-Production Studio for editors at the Berlinale Talent Campus and has worked on numerous productions in film and television such as “Surviving Bokator” which had its international premiere at the Austin Film Festival, the Canadian Screen Award & Prix Gémeaux nominated “Burgundy Jazz” and “Musically Medicated”, nominated for best first-time documentary at the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québecois. As well as for broadcasters such as CBC, Évasion, YTV & Syfy.

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In Development

Cazzarola! (Dammit!) (Feature)

Synopsis

A feature-film adaptation of the novel by Norman Nawrocki, titled “Cazzarola!”.

Dammit! (working English-language title) is a raucous drama set in contemporary Italy under the turbulence of a rising far-right movement and the refugee crisis. It explores the themes of freedom and conformity through the world of the counter-culture scene.

Antonio, a lackadaisical punk rocker, gets his world blown apart when he falls in love with Cinka, a Romani refugee violinist trying to adjust to life in Italy. Both are forced to reevaluate their lives and contend with cultural taboos as they try to find a place for themselves and each other within their communities.

Language: Italian and Romani.

Status

In development.

Sinossi

Un adattamento cinematografico del romanzo di Norman Nawrocki, intitolato “Cazzarola!”.

“Cazzarola”! è un film drammatico ambientato nell’Italia contemporanea sotto la turbolenza di un movimento di estrema destra e della crisi dei rifugiati. Esplora i temi della libertà e della conformità attraverso il mondo della scena della controcultura.

Antonio, un punk rocker spregiudicato, fa esplodere il suo mondo quando si innamora di Cinka, violinista rom di rifugiati che cerca di adattarsi alla vita in Italia. Entrambi sono costretti a rivalutare le loro vite e lottare con tabù culturali mentre cercano di trovare un posto per se stessi e gli altri all’interno delle loro comunità.

Lingua: italiano e rom.

Stato

In sviluppo.

Lessons from a 7ft Penis (Web Series)

Synopsis

Norman  Nawrocki  is  a  musician,  writer,  performer  and  an  all‐around  entertainer  and  for  years  he  has  been  touring  North  America  with  what  he  has  dubbed  ‘sex  comedy cabarets’.   These  shows  with  titles  such  as  ‘Sex  Toys”, “I  Don’t  Understand  Women”  and  “Stories  from  a  7ft  Penis”  are  sex‐positive,  anti‐homophobic  and  anti‐misogynist  shows  have  Norman  acting  as  over  20  different  characters  such  as  a  high  school  sex  education  teacher  called  Mrs. Robinson,  a  singing  and  dancing  butt  plug,  a giant vagina named Virginia Vagina, and  a  giant  purple  penis named Dickhead. While many of his characters are comical, using humour as a method of diffusing  embarrassing  or  hot  button  issues surrounding sexuality and sexual politics, Norman doesn’t joke about serious issues, and tackles subjects such as violence against women, sexual harassment and gay-bashing.

Status

Post-Production