Patricia Gruben
Patricia Gruben
Noema
Productions
About Us
Patricia Gruben has written and directed three dramatic feature films (Low Visibility, Deep Sleep, Heart of Gold) and a feature-length documentary (Ley Lines) as well as a number of experimental and dramatic shorts. Her films have been screened in many international festivals, including TIFF, VIFF, the New York Film Festival and Sundance, and are in the permanent collections of several universities and galleries in the U.S. and Canada. Her work has been written about and cited in publications including Take One’s Guide to Canadian Film and Women in Film: An International Guide.
In 2013 Patricia's play The Secret Doctrine was produced at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts in Vancouver, starring Gabrielle Rose, produced by Martin Gotfrit, with a musical score by Gotfrit and digital effects by Robert Gardiner. It was accompanied by The Veil of Nature, an interactive installation that Gruben co-created with Gotfrit and Marian Wihak, funded by BC Film and the BC Arts Council.
Patricia has recently completed her tenure as Associate Professor of Film in the School for the Contemporary Arts Simon Fraser University (link - www.sfu.ca/sca.html), where she taught film production, film studies and screenwriting; served for a year as Interim Director; and led three SFU field schools on the art and culture of contemporary India. She is founder and long-time director of Praxis Centre for Screenwriters (link - www.facebook.com/PraxisFilm/), a national professional development initiative which is now affiliated with the Whistler Film Festival (link - whistlerfilmfestival.com/talent/screenwriters-lab/).
She has contributed numerous articles, book chapters and conference papers on Canadian, Indian and US independent filmmakers, most recently giving talks about her archival material and festival research at zoom conferences in Teheran and Chennai. She has served on numerous advisory boards and arts council juries, and has been on the executive of the Hari Sharma Foundation since 2012. In 2015 she was named Woman of the Year by Vancouver Women in Film and Television.
Martin Gotfrit is a composer/performer living in Vancouver with his wife, filmmaker Patricia Gruben. He recently retired from the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University as a full professor. During his tenure he was the Director of the School for Contemporary Arts and later the Associate Dean in the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology.
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As a composer his work includes electroacoustic and acoustic scores for feature and documentary film, video, theatre, dance and the concert stage. As a sound designer he has worked as a practitioner, consultant and teacher. Actively engaged in computational art for many years, Gotfrit was one of the founders of the federally funded Centre for Image and Sound Research (1988 - 1992). The designer and curator of the Music Machines show (B.C. Science World, 1989), as well as the facilitator of the "Computed Art" and “Film Sound” Professional Summer Intensives at SFU in the 1990s.
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Martin continues to work as a composer for moving pictures, his most recent score being Patricia Gruben’s 2022 feature film “Hear of Gold”. During his career he has scored four feature films and several documentaries. An improvising musician since the 1970s, he is active in several different ensembles as a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, violin, keyboards) and arranger.