Ava Karvonen Pro

Ava Karvonen is the founder of Reel Girls Media and has produced more than 100 hours of television and interactive content. Her recent credits include creating and producing five television series, ten hour long documentaries, the serious game “Murder or Suicide”, more than 50 websisodes and podcasts, and an online companion to an animated TV series where users can create their own comics and stories (anashinteractive.com). In addition to producing, Ava also writes and directs, She wrote and directed four episodes of The Lie Detective, directed and produced Homefront (a story that followed five soldiers and their families during a deployment to Afghanistan), directed Seeds of Change for Panacea Entertainment (a one hour documentary that tells the story of a friendship between two scientists and how they worked together to help restore the health of China’s Yangtze River). Her work has been internationally recognized with more than 40 awards, including the CFTPA Award for Best Convergent New Media, the Japan Prize and the Ojai California Festival Theme Award: “Enriching the Human Spirit Through Film”. Ava teaches at part-time at NAIT and MacEwan University and currently serves on the national board of DOC and the Alberta Chapter board of DOC (current chair). She is a past board member of AMPIA, WIFT and DMAA.