About The Film

Jonathan was the CEO of SK Films, which he founded 20 years ago with Bob Kerr, co-founder of IMAX® Corporation and joined by Wendy. Under his dynamic leadership, SK established a leading presence as one of the stalwarts of the industry, recognized with multiple GSCA awards.

With over three decades of award-winning film and television experience, he was a world leader in 3D film production and distribution, specializing in IMAX/Giant Screen films that combine human drama and natural history discoveries. Jonathan produced and/or distributed a wide array of some of the industry’s most significant films in the past two decades.

Titles include "Into the Deep"; Oscar shortlisted film "Bugs!"; "Flight of the Butterflies", which achieved the only ever clean sweep of the GSCA Awards, won Best Immersive 3D/Large Format Film at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, and is one of the most successful and acclaimed giant screen films of this decade; the award-winning "Amazon Adventure"; "Backyard Wilderness"; and most recently "Volcanoes: The Fires of Creation".

Jonathan was previously President and Co-CEO of Shaftesbury Films for over 12 years, where he was jointly responsible for the company’s phenomenal transformation and growth from a small feature film company into one of Canada’s leading and most successful television production companies.

Prior to creating SK Films, Jonathan began his passion for giant screen films during his tenure running the worldwide film business at IMAX, where he developed the blockbuster IMAX 3D film "T-Rex", oversaw the production and distribution of a number of the IMAX space films, David Attenborough’s "Survival Island", and the hugely successful 3D film "Into the Deep".

Jonathan was previously Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs for Cinexus Group (owners of Panavision Canada and C/FP) and CEO of the Ontario Film Development Corporation (now OMDC). He began his career as an entertainment lawyer and as a member of the bars of Ontario and California. He served on numerous boards and advisory committees, was a Director of Film Ontario, and was a founding Director of the Giant Screen Cinema Association.

Wendy has been in the film industry for over 30 years and is the CEO of SK Films, an award-winning and industry-leading production and distribution company for IMAX®/ Giant Screen films.

She has produced, executive-produced and co-scripted several multiple award-winning films including "Flight of the Butterflies", "Amazon Adventure" and "Backyard Wilderness" for which SK is the worldwide distributor. The company was established in 1998 by IMAX Co-Founder and former Chairman, Robert Kerr and by IMAX’s former Head of Production and Distribution, Jonathan Barker. SK has also had the privilege of working closely with the most prestigious scientific organizations dedicated to science literacy such as the National Science Foundation and Tangled Bank Studios of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI/TBS).

Always fascinated by being in nature, Wendy is dedicated to its sustainability. She feels privileged to be a filmmaker and storyteller in the medium and able to explore remote parts of the planet while working with the world’s leading experts. Wendy’s achievements include the only ever “clean sweep” of all Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA) industry film awards by "Flight of the Butterflies".

She also led the script writing/research team behind "Amazon Adventure" – produced in partnership between SK and HHMI/TBS, which was praised in Variety as being “a large-screen triumph” with “such a high level of writing, acting and production polish”. Most recently, Wendy was Executive Producer and Co-Writer for Backyard Wilderness. Both films received five major GSCA Achievement Awards.

Wendy was also an Executive Producer, Co-Writer, and led the distribution team for "Volcanoes: The Fires of Creation", which was awarded the 2019 Advanced Imaging Society’s Lumiere Award for Best 3D Documentary. And she was the Producer on all 4 seasons of the award-winning eco-adventure TV series, "The Water Brothers", which focused on the sustainable usage and conservation of fresh and ocean waters.

Prior to joining SK, Wendy spent 10 years as Chair/CEO of the feature film development/TV production investment arm of Astral Media (Bell Media). She was also a founding executive of Ontario Creates. Wendy has served on various committees of the GSCA and was Chair of Women in Film and Television. Other boards and committees include the Toronto International Film Festival, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Banff Television Festival, Cinematheque Ontario, the Canadian Film Centre and the Toronto Film Advisory Board.

Mike Slee is a British writer, director and producer with over 50 TV, Giant Screen films and cinema projects to his credit. After graduating LCP University of London, Mike trained in BBC TV’s postproduction on David Attenborough’s first series, "Life on Earth" and "Living Planet". He then partnered with the UK indie Principal Media Group. Over 20 years, Mike directed and produced 50 hours of prime-time factual programming filmed in 30 countries.

From 2001 – 2005 Mike co-wrote and directed the Giant Screen IMAX® ghost story "Legend of Loch Lomond", Discovery’s Giant Screen IMAX® feature "Wildfire" and SK’s multi-award winning giant screen IMAX® release set in Borneo "Bugs! 3D".

From 2010 Mike was Series Director on Discovery’s Atlas 4D, shooting "The Great Rift Valley" and "The Mediterranean", as well as writing, producing and directing the story of "Shackleton’s Whisky" being recovered from Antarctica after 100 years. Recently, for BBC One, Mike directed 2 CGI adventures, "Journey to the Centre of the Planet" and "Journey to the Bottom of the Sea".

Mike’s projects have been generously recognized including: Cable Ace, Gold Iris, Gold Hugo, Gold Eagle & Special Effects Emmy. Mike’s 3D feature film work has been honored with a Wild Screen Panda, Academy Award short listing and the Giant Screen Cinema Association’s – Best Film & Life Long Learning Award.

Myles Connolly has been involved in documentary filmmaking for more than 20 years and has been part of more than 40 film projects. He spent ten years working for MacGillivray Freeman Films, where he was instrumental in such films as "Everest", "The Living Sea" and "Dolphins". These efforts resulted in two Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Short.

In 2000, he ventured out on his own and has since been a key contributor on a number of IMAX® projects, feature documentaries, television programs and commercials for clients that include Panasonic, Disney, The Blue Man Group and BBC Earth. His knowledge of film and digital filmmaking with his comprehensive experience in the areas of development, production and post production have made him an important member of the team on a number of high profile projects.

"Flight of the Butterflies" stands out as one of his favorite Giant Screen films for its unique combination of human interest, natural history and compelling drama.

Myles lives in Laguna Beach, California with his wife Jeanette.

Rafael Cuervo began his cinema career in the 1990ʼs in a number of Mexican films such as "Bandidos", by Luis Estrada and "Dos Crimenes" by Roberto Sneider. Recently he has produced "La Zona" by Rodrigo Plá, "Arráncame la Vida" by Roberto Sneider and "Abel" by Diego Luna.

He has been a key part of international productions shot in Mexico, working on films like "Titanic" by James Cameron, "Jarhead" by Sam Mendes, "Frida" by Julie Taymor, "Master and Commander" by Peter Weir and "Troy" by Wolfgang Petersen. Recently he has finished work on "The Girl" by David Riker and the "Elysium" by Neil Blomkamp.

In 2010 he started his own production company: Sin Sentido Films. Along with his team he has produced titles including "Mariachi Gringo" by Tom Gustafson, which recently won the award for Best Feature and Best Actress for Martha Higareda at the 2012 Guadalajara Film Festival and "Espacio Interior" by Kai Parlange, which won the Audience Award and Best Actor Award for Kuno Becker.

Maria Elena Gutiérrez is President of Chora LLC, a consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and fundraising services for non-profit organizations based in Washington DC. With a prestigious portfolio of national and international clients, Maria Elena has successfully undertaken negotiations for multi-million dollar business and philanthropic ventures and maintains a large rolodex of corporate, individual, and foundation relationships—a prerequisite for a successful fundraising campaign.

Her key strengths are her strategic vision, business acumen, communication skills, talent for networking, and political awareness. She can navigate easily across boundaries between cultures, the profit and non-profit worlds and the entertainment and educational domains. Her ability to build and motivate large networks of partners in order to deliver complex projects has been a common element in her professional successes.

With a background in management and finance, Maria Elena worked for McKinsey & Co., Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking Division, and headed the Investor Relations Department of one of Latin America’s largest publicly traded companies, Fomento Economico Mexicano.

Maria Elena has a BA from Dartmouth College, an MBA from Yale University, and a diploma from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. She received the prestigious Best Latin American Investor Relations Officer Award from Investor Relations Magazine in 2002 and the Smithsonian Institution Special Achievement Award in 2004.

Kym brings with him 25 years of production filmmaking experience, but this is his first venture into the documentary Giant Screen world.

After his first two years in the accounting department on various productions, he moved in-house at Alliance (for 6 years) as their Production Controller. There, he oversaw in excess of $100 million of production annually. He returned to the production world as Production Manager on major television series and features such as "XIII", "Repo Opera", and "Cobu", as well as most of the "Saw" franchise features.

Having studied Biochemistry at Brock University, he now juggles his film work with owning and operating a Hunter/Jumper horse-breeding farm. His scientific background, love of nature, attention to detail and constant need to be busy was a natural fit for this project. It was no surprise that he jumped at this project.

Though he doesn’t seem to have much downtime, he does profess a love of reading, travelling, movies, entertaining and sleeping all of 5 hours a night.

An award winning cameraman, Simon has been involved in 3D filmmaking for over a decade. He began his career in the late 90’s, working under the apprenticeship of the Oscar-winning Peter Parks OBE, and was intimately involved in the production of the IMAX film "Bugs! 3D".

Simon has since worked on a wide variety of natural history productions for television and cinema, including a number of films for the BBC’s Natural History Unit, including "Titus – The Gorilla King" and "The Unnatural History of London". His work has taken him to more than 60 countries, and he has had the privilege to photograph many of the animal kingdom’s most impressive inhabitants.

Simon has increasingly married his background in Zoology and wildlife filmmaking with his expertise in stereography. Recently, he has worked on various 3D natural history projects, including "Flight of the Butterflies 3D", "Kingdom of Plants 3D" and "Enchanted Kingdom", a 3D feature about the natural history of Africa. He has also embarked on an expedition with Sir David Attenborough to film the wildlife of the Galapagos in 3D.

Paul learned the basics of photography and camera operating during his teens, working with his father, who was a photo-grapher and cameraman. After leaving college he joined his father’s company, Trent Films.

In 1976 he joined CTVC’s documentary unit in Bushey as a camera assistant, and advanced to cameraman in 1977. In 1982 Paul and his sound recordist, Chris Stanway, left CTVC and went into partnership as That Crew.

Since 1988 Paul has worked under his own name. As a Lighting Cameraman he has been involved in a range of projects for television that include documentaries, drama and commercials.

He was associated with ICE Film Equipment – the Aaton camera agents for the UK, and co-founded Oculus Ltd, a post-production company whose credits include: "Pride & Prejudice", "28 Days Later" and "Atonement".

Since 2008, Paul has been learning the complicated art of Stereography, encouraged and mentored by Chris Parks of Vision3 – one of the most experienced Stereographers in the UK. Recent 3D credits include: "Pirates of the Caribbean 4", "Horrid Henry" and upcoming "Jack the Giant Killer". In production are some exciting wildlife films in 3D, for TV, Cinema and IMAX.

Paul has spent most of his working life in the London area, and now lives near Hitchin, just north of London.

Peter Parks has an illustrious career, including an Oscar® and working on high-quality 3D Giant Screen Films.

In 1990, he formed his own Company, IMAGE QUEST 3-D, specializing in large format production, research and development. Image Quest 3-D made a major contribution to the technically ground-breaking 3-D film in IMAX/Giant Screen Cinemas, SK’s "Bugs! 3D". Peter designed the advanced optical systems used and directed specialist filming. This film won the Industry’s “Best Large Format Film” award in Los Angeles, against fierce competition.

In 2003 the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honoured Peter with a full Oscar ®, the ‘Gordon E. Sawyer Award’, given to “an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry.”

In 2010, Peter was asked to contribute extraordinary new imagery to Terrence Malick’s film, "Tree of Life", starring Brad Pitt.

In 2011, Peter began research and development on two new 3-D optical camera heads. Before completion of the equipment in August 2011, Peter and his son were asked to use this new system on "Flight of the Butterflies".

Peter Parks is a specialist in marine biology and has been leader of some 25 major marine biological film expeditions since 1966. He is currently writing a fully illustrated and all-inclusive book on the life of the open oceans.

A trained architect, Sandra Kybartas has designed a number of feature films including "Lilies", "Republic of Love" and "Against The Ropes".

She has also designed numerous television series including "Murdoch Mysteries" for Citytv; "The State Within" for the BBC; "ReGenesis" for The Movie Network, Movie Central and Showcase (for which she won two Directors Guild of Canada Awards); and "This Is Wonderland" for CBC Television.

Sandra was also the production designer on many movies of the week including the Emmy Award-winning "Matthew Shepard Story", "Pentagon Papers" and "Sins of The Father". She was also the Genie Award-winning director of her own short film, "Home For Blind Women".

Susan Shipton’s most recent project as Editor is the mini series "Titanic", written by Julian Fellows. Prior, she cut Director Richard Lewis’ acclaimed "Barney’s Version", starring Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman and Minnie Driver.

Shipton is best known for her work with Atom Egoyan, having edited all his films from "The Adjuster" to "Chloe", for which she won a Director’s Guild of Canada Award for Best Achievement in Editing. Susan received a Genie Award for her work on "The Sweet Hereafter", "Exotica" and for "Possible Worlds" by Robert LePage.

Susan has worked with acclaimed Directors Jaco VanDormael ("Mr.Nobody") and Istvan Szabo ("Being Julia"). She won a DGC Award for "Being Julia".

"Flight of the Butterflies" is Susan’s first foray into IMAX, 3D and documentary! She has found it to be a fun and fascinating world.

Susan splits her time between her apartment in downtown Toronto and her farmhouse in eastern Ontario. She shares her life with her husband and their two dogs.

"Flight of the Butterflies" has inspired Susan to turn the three-acre field in front of her farmhouse into a natural wild flower meadow. Plants grown there will include milkweed for the Monarchs, of course!

Peter has been the winner of multiple sound editing awards in all film formats over the course of his career.

He has been involved in the Canadian film industry since his apprenticeship at Crawley Films in 1973. His first project was to recreate the sounds of the Japanese alpine team as they scaled Mount Everest. These effects became an essential part of the Academy Award winning film "The Man Who Skied Down Everest".

In 1987, with the release of the IMAX® film Heartland, Peter produced the first-ever film soundtrack to use digital playback.

Peter has focused almost exclusively on realizing the complex soundtracks for IMAX® films. In 1990, with the birth of IMAX 3D, he became deeply involved in the experimentation and implementation of the personal sound environment system (PSE).

Throughout his career he has embraced the task of creating natural history sound environments that have taken audiences from the orangutans of Borneo to the elephant seals of South Georgia Island.

From the concert experience of the Rolling Stones in "At the Max", a flight through the galaxies in "Hubble 3D", and dives to the ocean’s floor in "Titanica", Peter has responded to the challenge with rich, detailed, and evocative sound that brings the huge, perfect images to life.