Since 2009, Fredrik Thorsen has used his success as a filmmaker and editor to inspire hundreds of at-risk youth in the downtown Eastside as key instructor at Intersections Media Opportunities For Youth Society.

In conjunction with youth coordinator and art instructor Katarina Thorsen, Fred has helped youth facing multiple barriers to employment gain the experience and confidence for long-term attachment to the workforce through the unique and familiar medium of art and digital filmmaking, as well as involvement in group-based projects. (Intersections is a non-profit charitable organization founded by the late William Vince, an Oscar-nominated Vancouver filmmaker and advocate for youth at risk.)

Fredrik's background as filmmaker includes being a writer, director, and editor who has won seventeen filmmaking awards since graduating from the University of British Columbia Film & Television program. His most recent award came for editing the feature film "Stone Of Destiny" for director Charles Martin Smith, for which he won the Leo Award for Best Editing in a Feature Length Drama.

Fredrik's first film effort involved writing, directing, and editing "Wake Linda", a half-hour drama which won 16 awards at eight international film festivals, including the following the Palme d'Or (Grande Prize) at Huy World Festival of Short Films in Belgium, and the Best Fiction Film (short film category) at the Montreal World Film Festival

Acclaimed Director of Photography Vilmos Zsigmond ("The Deer Hunter", "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind") called it “one of the best student films [he's] ever seen.” Amy Taubin (critic for the Village Voice, Premiere Magazine, and Sight & Sound) said the following about "Wake Linda": “Thorsen displays startling intelligence and sophistication in his choice of camera moves and positions, his decisions about what to leave out as well as what to put in, and in his ability to tell a story with a minimum of dialogue.”

Fredrik's subsequent credits include directing short films and TV segments for CBC, along with a stand-alone documentary for Bravo! about the making of Charles Martin Smith's "Snow Walker", called "Make The Movie, Live The Movie". Bruce Kirkland of the Winnipeg Sun characterized it as “an absolutely first-rate, 47-minute, making-of documentary that ranks with the best of its kind on any Canadian DVD release.” Fredrik's work has also been seen on international television as editor on "Ancient Clues - Mysteries Of The Dead", a documentary series produced for Discovery Channel by Omni Films.

Fredrik was founder of Comet Post Production Inc., an industry-leading post-production facility which provided state-of-the-art editing services for the international film and television industry for over 10 years.

Using his background as filmmaker and self-taught entrepreneur, Fredrik has helped inspire his many of his at-risk students to face their barriers and realize their own potential.

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