AISHA EVELYNA
Actor, filmmaker, and festival programmer at Reelworld Film Festival. Acting credits include Slo Pitch, The Influencers, and Workin’ Moms. Her feature Seahorse was awarded the Indigenous Screen Office Solidarity Fund for radicalized creators. In addition to being a 2021 Whistler Film Festival Screenwriters Lab Resident, other accomplishments include Cayle Chernin Award for Media Arts.
Project Title: Seahorse
DAVID CROPPER
Award-winning Producer/Showrunner and one of Canada’s most sought after urban music video directors who has established himself as a ground breaking Producer/Director in the creation of MTV Tempo. Since relocating back to Toronto, he set off urban TV channel FEVA TV and has received numerous awards including MMVA for Best Independent Urban Video.
Project Title: The Main Source
DOROTHY A. ATABONG
Award winning Director, Writer, Producer, and Actor. Her short film Sound Of Tears, screened at over 45 film festivals worldwide and garnered multiple awards and nominations. She’s an alumna of the Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC), winner of the 2020 Cayle Chernin Award and has directed an episode on CBC’s 21 Black Futures, Season 3.
Project Title: Zenzile’s Journey
FENNELLA BRUCE
Fennella Bruce is a successful media consultant and public relations manager at the helm of FKB Media Solutions – a media consulting business. She has been a part of many publicity campaigns, media literacy workshops and event consultations.
Project Title: Backbone
GORDON CULLEY
Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, he credits his global perspective to growing up in a multicultural neighborhood where just about every ethnicity was represented. When it comes to storytelling and life in general, he has decided to take a new, no-excuses approach and is looking forward to telling stories through filmmaking and beyond.
Project Title: A Spy Story
IYORE EDEGBE
Born and raised in Southern Nigeria, Iyore Edegbe moved to Canada in summer of 2013. She later graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in criminology and civil law. During her time there, Iyore developed a strong passion for filmmaking and mastered skills to be a professional director. Iyore has since released a number of short films including her award winning debut short film ‘Our Home’ which was released in the summer of 2020 under her independent company Yellow Flower Films.
Project Title: Diaspora
KARL HUTCHINSON
Founder of TKJ Productions who has written, directed, and produced more than 12 stage plays in the GTA. He loves working with children and giving them the opportunity to identify and develop their communication skills through the arts. Productions he’s led with children have played in local theaters to sold-out audiences.
Project Title: Decisions, Decisions
LU ASFAHA
Award winning filmmaker based in Toronto. In 2019, she was a Doc Accelerator Fellow at Hot Docs Film Festival and won the RBC Emerging Director Award at Regent Park Film Festival. Most recently, she was a ScreenCraft Finalist, a Charles Street Video Media Creation Resident, and recipient of the inaugural BIPOC TV Reel Work award.
Project Title: The Fly That Doesn’t Listen Follows the Corpse Into The Grave.
MELANEE MURRAY-HUNT
Writer, Director, Producer and Actress. Greatest accomplishments include being selected for the Women In The Director’s Chair Career Accelerator Program, as well as co-producing a pilot script for Time Warner, creating a three part digital series called The Invisible Bruise for Sagesse and winning several awards for her short films Race Anonymous, The Trial of Miss Mudimbe, and for her solo stage show, The ‘Hoodwink.
Project Title: Finding Mother
MUNIYRA DOUGLAS
Writer, animation filmmaker, and current Vortex Corp.’s Executive Editor. She has previously published and presented on science fiction, dystopian fiction, Black cosplay, afropunk culture, and much more. Her projects have screened at Toronto Short Film Festival, Toronto Lift Off Festival, Cinefam Festival, Carnegie Hall, Toronto Comic Con, and several art exhibitions.
Project Title: Sanduku
ROBLE ISSA
Somali-Canadian filmmaker focused on writing and directing dramatic features, documentaries, and one-hour dramas. He made his directorial debut with a short documentary entitled Mending a Crack in the Sky, which was an official selection at the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival before being broadcasted on Crave Television.
Project Title: Last Shot
TEDDY MULLINGS
Teddy Mullings is a Filmmaker based out of Toronto. Some highlights of his career include working on Locke and Key, Umbrella Academy, Star Trek Discovery and What We Do In the Shadows.
Project Title: Mr. Lonely
YASMIN EVERING-KERR
Award-winning Toronto-based filmmaker who frequently addresses issues of race, sexuality and gender. Latest credits include; documentary The Onyx Butterfly, screened in various film festivals throughout Canada and internationally, as well as receiving a 2021 Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction in a Documentary Series. Her films have been broadcasted on CBC Absolutely Canadian and Canadian Reflections.
Project Title: In the Pocket