“Our differences from one another are significant and should be celebrated—but they’re not essential. We connect as the branches of a tree to the trunk, as the trunk through the roots to the earth.”
Astoria Pictures Founder Kevin Andrew Heslop, is an up-and-coming “Canadian” filmmaker whose work connects theatre, poetry, film, art criticism, journalism, and the visual arts.
Born July 22nd, 1992 in the region funnily called “London, Ontario, Canada,” Kevin first developed as a musician and visual artist, then turned to writing and theatre, then briefly studied in Stratford, Ontario, London, England, and Stratford-upon-Avon before leaving university without a degree to devote himself to the arts.
Kevin’s major debuts include the correct fury of your why is a mountain (verse, Gordon Hill Press, 2021) and six feet | between us (art, McIntosh Gallery, 2021), with recent work including in medias res (art, Westland Gallery, 2023) and mo(u)vements. (film, Rose Garden Press, Astoria Pictures, 2023).
A graduate from both the London Small Business Centre and Libro Social Enterprise Incubator cohorts of 2022, with ongoing studies in business supplemented by private tutorship with film industry veterans, and support from the London Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts, Kevin is currently Resident Interviewer with The Miramichi Reader, Managing Editor with Centred Magazine, Director with Changing Ways, Product Ambassador with Green Field Paper Company, and a producer representing titles from two major, award-winning, independent Canadian presses, Gordon Hill Press and Palimpsest Press, towards adaptation to the screen.
In 2024 he’ll release two poetry chapbooks, the rules of grammar will not save you at the hour of your death (Baseline Press, co-written with Roxanna Bennett, 2024) and you are not required to complete the task; neither are you free to desist from it (Rose Garden Press, 2024), with books of nonfiction, poetry, and more directorial work in film to follow.
A nomad of Scottish, English, and Danish ancestry, Kevin divides his time between Montréal, Canada and arts residencies around the world—most recently in Costa Rica, Serbia, Finland, and France. He is also a practicing Buddhist, having started a Nichiren meditation practice in 2020 and consistently engaging in monastic retreats since, most recently at Tisarana Buddhist Monastery. When not in production or on retreat, Kevin can be reached at kevin@astoriapictures.ca.