Rita Leistner - Director, Producer, Director of Photography
Rita Leistner is an award-winning visual artist, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. She is known for her intrepid work in conflict zones and her in-depth portraits of communities in extreme conditions — such as soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, women wrestlers in the United States, and loggers in Canada — exploring themes of purpose, struggle, and belonging. Each unique world shapes her conceptual approaches and aesthetic styles, resulting in distinctive, large bodies of multi-media work that merge art and documentary. In addition to a film, Forest for the Trees is also a photo book and a collection of large-scale fine-art photographs, several of which were acquired in 2021 by the National Gallery of Canada for their permanent collection.
Her other books include, Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq, The Edward Curtis Project: A Modern Picture Story and Looking for Marshall McLuhan in Afghanistan. Rita has a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature, lectures worldwide in English, French and Spanish, and writes extensively on documentary photography, art, and war. Her work has been published in hundreds of outlets, exhibited in nine countries, and is in prestigious art collections including The Royal Ontario Museum, The Canadian War Museum and The National Gallery of Canada. Rita is a 2018 World Press Photo Digital Storytelling Award-winner and has won three Canadian National Magazine Awards Gold Medals. During her ten-year career as a professional tree planter, Rita planted over a half a million trees and supervised the planting of many millions more. Her work is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery.
Henry Leistner - Executive Producer
Henry and his three brothers came to Canada from Communist East Germany in the 1950s. They spent their lives building a successful tool and die business, Sigma Tool & Machine and Falcon Fasteners, in Scarborough, Canada. When Rita started planting trees in the 1980s Henry was proud of her for doing such hard work, but by the time she was in her tenth year he began to worry if she would ever stop. Almost thirty years later, he’s proud to be backing her return to the cut block and her film about tree planting, Forest for the Trees, as executive producer. Henry is an avid lifelong alpine skier who, in his mid-80s, still carves some of the best turns on the slopes. He has won club championships in his age category too many times to count.
Darby MacInnis - Editor
Darby’s work as a film editor has been celebrated internationally at film festivals as well as in his native Toronto at the Toronto International Film Festival, Reel Asian International Film Festival and the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival. Notable credits include SponsorLand (2017), Wexford Plaza (2016), Anatomy of Violence (2016), Secret Trial 5 (2014), Soap (2009) and Banana Bruises (2007). Darby was also the editor of Rita Leistner’s short film Miklat (2013).
Linda Leistner - Executive Producer
After many years in the banking industry, Linda now manages several of the Leistner family businesses, most notably Berkeley Castle, a historic factory in Toronto converted to an office complex by renowned architects A.J. Diamond & Associates. Linda planted trees in the early 1980s and got Rita her first planting job in 1984. Tree planting was a major influence on Linda’s life and she has been waiting for someone to tell this story and give it justice. All the better it be her younger sister who she’s been giving support and advice to her whole life. Linda is excited to be part of Forest for the Trees’ journey in the role of executive producer and co-manager of Leistner Pictures Inc. Like her dad, Linda is a committed alpine skier as well as a master skiing and snowboarding racer. She loves everything to do with the outdoors and when she’s not working or skiing with her husband Daniel Lavoie, is often out running or biking in the Don Valley.
Kevin Quain - Original Score
Kevin Quain is a singer-songwriter, self-taught musician, producer, leader of the garage jazz cabaret ensemble Mad Bastards, and an award-winning playwright. He has been operating out of Toronto’s historic Cameron House for over two decades, performing in the downstairs bar, and writing and creating recordings for himself and scores of other artists in dozens of genres in his studio upstairs. He received the 2004 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Musical for his play Tequila Vampire Matinee. He has seven albums to his name, has written music and songs for film, theatre, dance and television, and has performed in dozens of bands in a wide range of genres (folk, country & western, Tex-Mex, and Celtic Punk). During the pandemic, he took to performing online for his worldwide following.
Alex Komza - Animation
Alex graduated from the prestigious animation program at Sheridan College in 2019. She has been a tree planter since 2011 with no plans to retire anytime soon. Forest for the Trees is her first feature film project as lead animator and was a cool way of bringing together the two great passions of her life, tree planting and animation. Alex likes to use elements and patterns of nature in her art, finding inspiration in the British Columbia wilderness and in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, where she lives in the off-season with her tree planter boyfriend, also named Alex.
Chandra Bulucon - Sound Mix, Sound Design & Additional Score
Chandra played music on-stage as a kid but discovered her real calling was behind the scenes when, in art school, she was introduced to the complexities, intricacies and pleasures of multi-track audio. Based in Toronto and New York, Chandra has been a sound engineer, sound designer, composer, and mixer for film, television, and podcasts for over two decades. Her work can be found on CANADALAND’s one-off podcasts like Thunder Bay and Cool Mules; in promos for shows like Shameless, VICE, and Desus & Mero; and throughout the entire imagineNATIVE film + media arts festival catalogue of trailers. Her soundwork has been part of over 70 different multi-media exhibitions. She was the host and producer of the audio art-based radio show, Quick Stop Art Spot, on CKLN. She’s been a member of art committees and boards such as YYZ Artist-Run Centre and Inside Out Film + Video Festival. And she has worked at various art magazines such as Prefix Photo and MIX Magazine. The winner of numerous artist grants and awards, Chandra recently won a bronze Clio Entertainment award for a “Billions” promo with her team at Showtime Network.
Nick Sewell - Animation (Title and Time Lapse)
Working in broadcast design since 1999, Nick has created work for a diverse range of clients including MTV, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Warner Bros., Sports Center, and PBS as well as advertising agencies such as FCB, JWT, and Taxi. His film work includes title design for David Cronenberg’s Spider, Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy, William Shatner’s The Captains, Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children and the Donald Brittain Award-winning Sugar Coated. Nick’s design work has appeared in numerous graphics and post-production publications such as Stash, Design In Motion, and Applied Arts Annual, as well as media outlets such as Rolling Stone and NME. His work has also earned acclaim internationally, including over 16 ProMax Broadcast Design Awards.
Dondrea Erau - Music Supervisor
Dondrea is an award-winning music supervisor at Instinct Entertainment, founded by Michael Perlmutter. Originally from Toronto, but now residing in Los Angeles, Dondrea has worked on a number of television series such as Spinning Out (Netflix), Beauty and the Beast (Showcase/CW), Degrassi (Netflix/Family Channel), Private Eyes (iON/Global), and the films Firecrackers, The Kid Detective, and The New Romantic. In April, 2021, she was presented with a Guild of Music Supervisors Award for Best Music Supervision in a Film Budgeted Under $5 Million for her work on The Cuban. Dondrea also co-produced the Canadian Music Café during the Toronto International Film Festival (2014 – 2018). In addition to being a Guild of Music Supervisors affiliate, she is a member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Guild of Music Supervisors.