Stephano Barberis

Stephano Barberis is a multiple award winning Canadian director of music videos. Stephano is noted for an epic cinematic style, often executed with strange, unique, and beautiful imagery, dynamic lighting, and abstract themes.
Biography
Stephano Barberis was born in Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada. Previously, his mother and father both migrated from Athens, Greece, in 1965, along with his older brother Evan, in order to escape the political and economic situation Greece was in. Stephano was born years later and was also raised in this industrial northern BC coastal town.
The entire family was employed by the Aluminum Company Of Canada (Alcan) smelter. At age 18, Stephano moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada, to attend various post secondary institutions for an ultimate goal of becoming an urban planner.
As a child, Stephano always put on shows for his friends using found organic objects, broken machinery parts, and toys, employing spoken narrative to describe scenes as though they were playing out in a movie. Throughout most of elementary and secondary school, the somewhat-reclusive Stephano became known for his imaginative ideas and unique writing, always combining some hybrid of eccentric premise, unique fantasy, and bizarre sequence of events.
Stephano’s interests began to shift into more creative endeavours after attending Simon Fraser University in 1991, working towards a Bachelor of Arts. Switching over to the British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1994, Barberis specialised in the creative side of advertising/marketing communications, which led him to a job as a marketing assistant for Reallife Pictures, a Vancouver film production company, in 1997. Being at the right place at the right time, BC music artist Rick Tippe overheard Stephano talking of what his take would have been on a music video treatment for an upcoming song of his, and this led to Stephano serendipitously (and abruptly) being put at the directorial helm of a relatively large music video production on August 31, 1997. The video went on to become a top 20 hit in Canada (top 3 in requests) on CMT.
This kismet-laden career inception began what would be a long list of commercial hits continuing to this day. Not that it was easy - the first five years of Barberis' career were marked with such a slow period that he was forced to remain living with his parents and search for a visual voice, releasing videos that were deemed too bizarre to receive airplay. It wasn't until the director received two MMVA nominations for a video done for Vancouver electronic deejay K-rec that he began to gain acceptance at MuchMusic - Canada's largest national music video station. A re-discovery of elementary school friend Aaron Pritchett, a country artist that has subsequently achieved immense success, lead to the strong ascension of Stephano's career at CMT. Further triumphs at MuchMusic and CMT lead to a string of over 30 national top 20 videos (seven of which hit #1) and 49 nominations for Director Of The Year, including 16 nation-wide wins by October 2009.
In 2005, Stephano and producer Alex Galanis left their employment at Vancouver film production company Triton Films to start their own - Arkadia Pictures Incorporated.
The abstract nature of Barberis’ videos is only outdone by the unorthodox and fortuitous path his career has taken to achieve such success armed solely with his imagination and zero film school training. Stephano’s energies currently include writing and directing full-length features, in addition to photography. It's also worth noting that Stephano is an impassioned proponent of 35mm film over digital formats.
Aside from his professional film career, Stephano also creates electronic music under a pseudonym.
Awards and nominations
2009
****2009 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
*Video Of The Year Nomination - BCCMA
*Video Director Of The Year Nominations (two) - CCMA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - goes to artist - CCMA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - LEO
2008
****2008 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
****2008 Video Director Of The Year - CCMA***
*Video Of The Year Nominations (three) - BCCMA
*Video Director Of The Year Nomination - CCMA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - goes to artist - CCMA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - LEO
2007
****2007 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
****2007 Video Director Of The Year - CCMA***
*Video Of The Year Nomination - goes to artist - CAMA
*Video Of The Year Nominations (four) - BCCMA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - goes to artist - APCA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - WCMA
*Video Director Of The Year Nomination - CCMA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - goes to artist - CCMA

2006
****2006 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
*Video Of The Year Nomination (four) - BCCMA

2005
****2005 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
****2005 Best Director - Leo Award***
*Video Of The Year Nominations (three) - BCCMA
*Director Of The Year Nomination - CCMA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - goes to artist - CCMA
*Best Direction Nomination (two) - Leo Awards
2004
****2004 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
****2004 Video Of The Year - SCMA***
*Director Of The Year Nomination - CCMA
*Music Video Director Of The Year Nomination - LEO
*Video Of The Year Nomination - SCMA
*Video Of The Year Nominations (three) - BCCMA
*Best Direction Nomination - Leo Awards
2003
****2003 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
*Video Of The Year Nominations (three) - BCCMA
*Director Of The Year Nomination - CCMA
2002
****2002 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
*Video Of The Year Nomination - BCCMA
2001
****2001 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
*2001 Video Of The Year Nomination - BCCMA
*Video Of The Year Nominations (two) - MMVA
2000
****2000 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
****2000 Video Of The Year - ARIA***
*Video Of The Year Nomination - ARIA
*Video Of The Year Nomination - BCCMA
1999
****1999 Video Of The Year - BCCMA***
*Video Of The Year Nomination - BCCMA
1998
*Video Of The Year Nomination - BCCMA
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*CCMA - Canadian Country Music Association
*BCCMA - British Columbia Country Music Association
*ARIA - Alberta Recording Industries Association
*MMVA - MuchMusic Video Awards
*SCMA - Saskatchewan Country Music Association
*WCMA - Western Canadian Music Award
*APCA - Aboriginal Peoples Choice Awards
*CAMA - Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards
Videography
2010
*"Beautiful Day" Crystal Shawanda
*"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" Doc Walker
*"Free Like Love" The Higgins
2009
*"Baseball Glove" Gord Bamford
*"Nobody Says No" Jessie Farrell
*"It's A Man's Job" Greg Hanna
*"If I Fall" Doc Walker
*"Straightjacket" Stef Lang
*"My So-Called Life" Jaydee Bixby
*"Second Hand Car" The Higgins
2008
*"Little Guy" Gord Bamford
*"High Grade" Sweatshop Union
*"November Trees" Lisa Brokop
*"Real Thing" The Higgins
*"Postcard From Pasadena" Gord Bamford
*"Break It" Lisa Brokop
*"Oh My" Sweatshop Union
2007
*“Stayed Til Two” Gord Bamford
*“Flower Child” The Higgins
*“Blame It On That Red Dress” Gord Bamford
*“The New Old Times” The Yoko Casionos
*“Done You Wrong” Aaron Pritchett
*“Loose Cannon” The Yoko Casionos
*“Pickup Truck” Shane Yellowbird
2006
*“Last Minute” Anything August
*“What I Can’t Forget“ Jason Blaine
*“Warm Safe Place” Aaron Pritchett
*“Hold My Beer” Aaron Pritchett
*“While We Were Waiting” Jason Blaine
*“Uh Oh” Rosette
*“Time Flies” Johnny Reid
2005
*“Sache” Rosette
*“Crushed” Rosette
*“Somebody“ Lisa Hewitt
*“Still Got Yesterday” Emerson Drive
*“Heartache Like Mine” Jason Blaine
*“Load Me Up” The Cruzeros
*“Lucky For Me” Aaron Pritchett
*“Not Today” Maren Ord
*“If You Were My Girl” Emerson Drive
2004
*“Jet Black Heart” Britt Black
*“Insane” The Heck
*“It’s Not Me It’s You” Todd Kerns
*“Hey Do You Know Me?” Lisa Brokop
*“John Roland Wood” Aaron Pritchett
*“Control Theory” Northern Alliance
*“We Fall We Fall” Dead Celebrity Status
*“If I Could” State Of Shock
*“Life Is A Train” Maren Ord
*“November” Emerson Drive
*“Wildflower” Lisa Brokop
*“Laura Kensington” The Rude Mechanicals
*“Wish I Never Met You” State Of Shock
*“Believe” James Alex Murdoch
*“My Way” Aaron Pritchett
*“Any Given Day” Mudmen
2003
*“Make You Mine” Two Marlowe
*“New Frontier” Aaron Pritchett
*“The Show Is Free” Doc Walker
*“You Can’t” Dean Tuftin
*“BBQ” K-Rec
*“Free” Brad Johner
2002
*“You Lied To Me” Two Marlowe
*“I’ll Do Anything” Rick Tippe
*“You Can’t Say I Didn’t Love You” Aaron Pritchett
*"A Lot To Learn" John Mann
*"Sweet Fanny Annie" Panurge
*"Mullet Halo" Bionika
*“Singin' A Different Tune" Rick Tippe
2001
*"Trouble" K-Rec
*"Ring-A-Ding" The Masterfaders
*"The Future Is Looking Brighter" Rick Tippe
*"Waiting" Monica Schroeder
*"U.Y." K-Rec
2000
*"Turn My Back" K-Rec
*"Mindbender" K-Rec
*"Keeping The Faith" Rick Tippe
*"Make Lemonade" Hampton Avenue
*"Mr. Fixit" Vince Roy
*"Don't Let Her In" Kenny Hess
*"Disappear" The Masterfaders
*"Settle For A Dance" Vince Roy
*"Contradictions" The Masterfaders
1999
*"More Where That Came From" Rick Tippe
*"I Don't Love Easily" Brent McCathey
*"How Would I Know" Shirley Lange
*"Lately I Don't Care" Tim Lawson
*"Shiver 'N' Shake" Rick Tippe
*"Triple Threat" Rick Tippe
1998
*"Never Givin' Up" Rick Tippe
1997
*"Get Hot Or Go Home" Rick Tippe

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