Gloria Mercer, director/producer
Gloria Mercer was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. She has a bachelor’s degree from Simon Fraser University, majoring in film and minoring in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies. She is a recent alumna of the Women in the Director’s Chair.
Her film Hekademia was supported by the National Film Board of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts. It won Best Sci-Fi at the Oscar-Qualifying Hollyshorts Film Festival, and garnered two Leo Award nominations. Hekademia is now streaming Canada-wide on CBC Gem. She recently completed Smoke Eater, one of three recipients of the 2021 Harold Greenberg “Shorts to Features” fund, which will stream on CRAVE Canada in 2023. Her film A Safe Distance screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2021, and she is currently developing the feature film version, which received a production grant from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2021. Her short film Bombing screened at over 30 film festivals in North America and Europe, winning best in its category at the Whistler Film Festival, and screening at Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival in 2017. She is a frequent producing partner and collaborator of Aidan West.
Aidan West, writer/producer
Aidan West is a writer and filmmaker, born and raised in the small-town suburbs of British Columbia. He is an alumnus of the SFU undergraduate film program and a recent graduate of the MFA screenwriting program at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, and TV. He wrote and produced Smoke Eater, a short film funded through the Harold Greenberg “Shorts to Features” fund. He was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation screenwriting fellowship for She Sells Seashells, his script about the life of Mary Anning. His screenplays have placed in the top 10% of the Nicholls fellowship and the second round of Austin Film Festival. He was a quarterfinalist in the Final Draft Big Break screenplay competition, the Blue Cat screenplay competition, the Fresh Voices screenplay competition, and a finalist at the UCLA screenwriting showcase. He wrote and produced the short film A Safe Distance which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2021. The feature film version of A Safe Distance has received production funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and is set to begin filming early 2023. Aidan West is a co-founder of See Horse Films alongside his partner and frequent creative collaborator, Gloria Mercer.