Penelope is a renowned and accomplished writer and director, boasting a storied career that has taken her to various corners of the globe, including Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United States.
Most recently, she co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed film A Wake, which garnered widespread recognition and accolades, including numerous festival best feature awards and a nomination for the prestigious DGC best director award. Furthermore, her screenplay for A Wake received first prize at the Rhode Island Film Festival.
In addition to her feature work, Penelope's documentary Tokyo Girls, which explores the lives of western women who work as hostesses in Japan, has received widespread acclaim and has been recognized with two Leo Awards and two Geminis for its outstanding cinematography and editing. The documentary has also screened at numerous festivals around the world.
Penelope's journey in the film industry began at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where she graduated with a degree in film. She quickly gained a reputation as a guerrilla filmmaker, working in the underground scene in various cities, including Berlin, New York, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, and Toronto.
One of her most notable short films, Llaw, offered a radical perspective on the fall of the Berlin Wall and premiered at the Berlin Film Festival to critical acclaim. A retrospective of her work, entitled Guns, Girls and Guerrillas, was later held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Penelope's feature film A Dream of Naming premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, followed by the feature Trouble, a film that explores the post-Berlin Wall music and political scene, which received numerous best film honors at festivals worldwide.
Her subsequent work includes the thriller Boulevard, which starred Lou Diamond Phillips, Lance Henriksen, and Rae Dawn Chong. She has also worked in television and is currently developing her next feature project, Guilty, a female-led psychological thriller and UK/Canadian co-production, which is slated to begin production in early 2018 and is currently seeking cast members.
