CLOVERDALE — You may not recognize his name or face, but Stephano Barberis’ work brings to light a who’s-who of Canadian country music.
The Cloverdale-area resident makes music videos for the likes of Dallas Smith, Chad Brownlee, Gord Bamford, Aaron Pritchett, Dean Brody and other high-profile performers, and those moving images keep winning awards.
Earlier this month in London, Ontario, Barberis again earned Video Director of the Year honours from the Canadian Country Music Association during its annual awards weekend.
CLICK HERE for the full list of 2016 CCMA award winners.
The incredible thing is, it’s the seventh year in a row Barberis has won the CCMA award, and ninth time dating back to 2007. Since that year, he missed out just once, in 2009 (when the award was given to Warren P. Sonoda, for the record).
In total, he’s won 32 directorial awards, both national and provincial, in his 19-year career behind the camera.
The number makes Barberis (pictured) the most highly awarded music-video director in Canadian history, according to The Field Inc., the Toronto-based agency that represents him.
“The director’s exalted reputation for star-making and reinvention is evidenced by millions of YouTube views, over 60 official top-20 video hits, 32 directorial and video awards out of 72 nominations, and over 150 music videos trusted to his vision,” the agency’s Cherie Sinclair said in a press release.
“Stephano has quietly achieved this iconic success by frequent, surprise, sea-change reinvention, an unwavering obsession with quality, and a cult-like dedicated following in industry and fan circles who religiously support the director at every stage of his career.” Sinclair continued.
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“With a strongly cinematic influence of magic-realism, Barberis has often been credited with changing the aesthetic face of country music in Canada while pushing boundaries in pop, rap and other genres.”
- SEE ALSO: A ‘QUIZ’ for Barberis in the Now, from April 2015
At a CCMA industry event on Sept. 9, Barberis was acclaimed for videos featuring the music of Smith (“Cheap Seats”), Wills (“So Much For Taking It Slow”), Brownlee (“Hearts On Fire”) and Bamford (“Don’t Let Her Be Gone”).
Barberis said he was “really shocked” to earn his ninth CCMA award.
“The more it happens, the less likely it is that it’ll happen again,” he told the Now.
“CCMA’s are basically half a dozen or more overlapping parties per day, plus a gala and three award shows,” he added in a Facebook message. “It’s a love fest. Over a thousand hugs. It’s pretty overwhelming sometimes because you have all these fans, not only as non-industry people but also within the industry. So many people raving about your work – it makes your heart explode.”
Barberis got his start in music videos by talking out of turn. In 1997, he was working as a marketing assistant at Reallife Pictures – his earlier goal of working as an urban planner all but abandoned – when Rick Tippe met with the film production company to solicit ideas for a video to go with his song “Get Hot or Go Home.”
“They were put on the spot for some ideas,” Barberis told the Now in 2008. “Well, I have a mouth that just shoots off without warning – it’s mild tourette’s (syndrome) or something – and I said, ‘Why don’t we build a house made of ice and have it melt?’ The producer gave me an evil look and then (Tippe) says, ‘That’s what we’re going to do!’ So basically I was thrown into the world of directing with that, with no schooling or anything…. I didn’t even know the lingo, the basics like ‘roll film.’ I just said ‘go.’ I was really green.”
tom.zillich@thenownewspaper.com
