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WATCH: New reel celebrates work of Canada’s most awarded music video director, Surrey’s Barberis

‘This reel is celebrating 25 years of directing and 45 awards for director or video,’ he says
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An image from Josh Ramsay’s 2022 video for the song “Best of Me,” directed by Surrey-based Stephano Barberis. (Screenshot)

Released in celebration of his 45 awards in 25 years of work in the field, a stylish new director’s reel showcases the winning music videos of Surrey resident Stephano Barberis.

He’s the most awarded music video director in Canadian history, notes a bio posted with the reel on Youtube.

The six-minute “Dream Dominion” compilation highlights dozens of the music videos he’s directed, by Dallas Smith, Erasure, Tom Cochrane and others, and is set to the music of a new electronic-pop song (“Supernova Heart”) recorded by Breathe Of My Leaves, Barberis’ duo project with Jordan Gant, and guest singer Tareya Green.

“When I was a child,” Barberis says in a video-opening voiceover, “my parents would always tell me that whatever I dreamt of, I could bring to life. So I did.”

• RELATED, from 2021: Surrey video director Barberis ‘ecstatic’ to work with Erasure, his favourite band since childhood.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO

Other videos featured in his new reel are by Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench, Washboard Union, Tenille, Amanda Rheume, Kinnie Starr, Meghan Patrick, JoJo Mason, Aaron Pritchett, Stef Lang, Shirley Gnome and Jade Mya, among many others.

“This reel is celebrating 25 years of directing and 45 awards for director or video,” Barberis explained, “but because I started off shooting almost 100 of the over 200 music videos on 35mm film, the format is smaller than 4K, so there are only videos from the digital era on there (over 100 of them) starting about 2011 when I begrudgingly switched over.”

Barberis’ bio says he has 21 official number-one hits in multiple countries, over 60 official top-20 video hits, millions of online views, “unimpeachable track record for star-making, extremely unique and cinematic vision with epic and often bizarre imagery,” and is a fixture on national music video stations.

In 2021, Barberis shared news of his “personal work-related holy grail”: He was hired to direct the “massive” visual component of a concert tour by synth-pop duo Erasure, his favourite band since childhood, and to direct a video for a new song of theirs.

• READ MORE: 10 questions for Stephano Barberis, Surrey’s award-winning music video director.



tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com

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Tom Zillich

About the Author: Tom Zillich

I cover entertainment, sports and news stories for the Surrey Now-Leader, where I've worked for more than half of my 30-plus years in the newspaper business.
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