Jennifer Holness
Director, Writer, Producer
Jen is a happy workaholic. She writes, produces, and directs. She is a 2021 Indiescreen Producer of the Year award-winner, has received the 2022 WIFT Award of Creative Excellence and was selected by THR as one of the 40 Most Influential Women in International Film in 2023 and in 2024 was voted by THR as one of the Most Powerful Women in Canadian Entertainment.
Jen is currently in postproduction on Director RT Thorne’s (The Porter) feature film, 40 Acres. Other features include, Home Again that she co-wrote, and Love, Sex and Eating the Bones. Both movies sold globally and won numerous festival awards, including the Best First Feature Film Award at TIFF for Bones.
She directed the feature documentary, Subjects of Desire that premiered at SXSW, followed by Hot Docs where it was a Top Ten Audience favourite and was a TIFF Top Ten Film in 2022.
Jen co-created and produced the doc series BLK: An Origin Story for History and Global TV about Black Canadian history. The series won 5 Canadian Screen Awards in 2023, including a Best Series Direction for Jen.
She co-produced Michele Stephenson’s Stateless, a festival favourite that won the 2020 Hot Doc’s Special Jury Prize. Her TV documentaries include Speakers For The Dead (CBC), Badge of Pride (CBC & PBS), Brick By Brick (Omni) and Yin Yin Jade Love (TVO).
Jen created the TV series, Shoot The Messenger and the multiple award winning mini-series, Guns for CBC where she shares Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing.
She is a Founder and Inaugural Chair of the Black Screen Office and Co-Chair of CISF. She’s also a CMPA board member.
Jen has three daughters, two dogs, and one husband. All of them keepers.
Sudz sutherland
Director, Writer, Producer
Sudz started writing stories that matter on his mother’s Smith-Corona in grade one, it was a western about a Black Cowboy. He continues to fill blank pages on his iPad every day. Starting with music videos and award winning short films, Sudz and his partner Jen Holness started Hungry Eyes Media, a production company that makes features, docs, drama and comedy series and the occasional Mobile Game.
We make stories for eyes that are hungry for representation. Growing up when he didn’t see much people who looked like him on television put a fire in his belly that he still hasn’t quenched.
Sudz has directed two award winning features as well as over 75 hours of television on shows as diverse as Batwoman, The Flash, Blindspot, Netflix’s Designated Survivor, CW’s Reign, Murdoch Mysteries, and many others. He’s won an International Emmy (The Phantoms) and 3 CSAs for Best Director. He also co-created the series She’s the Mayor (VisionTV) and Shoot the Messenger and Guns (CBC). He lives with his wife, three teenage daughters and a white fluffy dog named Shiloh.
Maya annik Bedward
Director
Maya Annik Bedward is a Jamaican-French Canadian filmmaker and co-founder of Third Culture Media. Her work has screened at Hot Docs, TIFF, Black Star and the New Orleans Film Festival. She is a fellow of the EFM DocSalon Toolbox Programme and a winner of the WIFT-T Audience Choice and Best in Show Award. Her latest film Why We Fight is currently streaming on CBC Gem.
Ricardo diaz
Director of Photography
Ricardo specializes in feature films, documentaries, lifestyle T.V., commercials and music videos. He is an expert in all formats. Ricardo is known for his talent for lighting and for his quiet and professional demeanour on set; while having fun at the same time. If you know Ricardo, then you know his love of “Juicy Fruit”! His talents have not gone unnoticed; on the contrary, Ricardo has been recognized in the industry and has many awards under his belt. Ricardo is a husband and the proud father of three children, consistently volunteering his time and energy to helping aspiring filmmakers.
Ashley iris gill
Operator Camera
Ashley Iris Gill is a queer Toronto-based cinematographer, director and editor. Her interest in film peaked by way of writing as a child, and the curiosity to bring her writing to life got her to pick up a camera. She fell deep in love with editing and learned a lot through post-production. To this day she still enjoys editing but you will often find her behind a camera. She has directed, shot, and edited a number of different projects from music videos, documentaries to commercials. Some of the clients she's collaborated with have been Mercedes Benz Canada, BMO, Absolut Vodka, Sprite in collaboration with the NBA, Rogers, Pet Valu, and Nike to name a few. Ashley spent the last 4 years as an in-house cinematographer/director/editor at Video Nerve, a division of Publicis, and now freelancer as a represented Cinematographer at Sesler . Ashley's cinematography is often described as emotive, intimate, vulnerable and she has the ability to make people comfortable in front of her lense. She plans to continue capturing the world through her unique perspective.
kaisa pitsi
Editor
Kaisa Pitsi is an Estonian-Canadian filmmaker living in Toronto. She has over twelve years of experience in documentary editing.
A lot of her experience is in natural history series and documentaries focusing on underrepresented voices. She’s a poetic storyteller who’s passionate about social justice, history, arts and innovation.
Kaisa’s films have screened in festivals including HotDocs, Whistler, Al Jazeera International Film Festival, Cambodian International Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, and POFF-Black Nights Film Festival.
Caitlin durlak
Editor
Caitlin Durlak is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker whose non-fiction work has spanned many different mediums, including web series, short film, feature film and VR storytelling. Her short film, Persistence of Vision, premiered at the 2015 Images Festival where it won prizes for best local film and best student film, and was also awarded Best Short Film at the Air Canada En Route Film Festival. Durlak is an MFA graduate of Ryerson University’s Documentary Media program, alumni of Hot Docs’ Doc Accelerator Emerging Filmmaker Lab and the RIDM Talent Lab. In addition to directing, Durlak produced her first feature-length documentary, Mermaids, directed by Ali Weinstein, which was made in association with the Super Channel and premiered at Hot Docs in 2017. Dropstones is Durlak’s mid- length directorial debut, on which she was also the producer, cinematographer and editor.
Avrïl Jacobson
Editor
Avrïl Jacobson, CCE is a Toronto-based editor, story editor and consultant. Feature film work includes Jaddoland (Independent Spirit Award 2020), My Prairie Home (Sundance 2014), Michael Shannon Michael Shannon John (Hot Docs 2016) and The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (Hot Docs 2016) which was selected as a New York Times Critics’ Pick. In television, Avrïl’s work includes The Boyz II Men Effect for This Is Pop, The Skin We’re In and In the Making. In 2011, Avrïl received a Gemini Award for Best Picture Editing in a Documentary Program or Series. Airborne, a video installation edited for Spring Hurlbut, was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada in 2008.
Lawrence jackman
Editor
Lawrence Jackman is a Toronto-based filmmaker. Over the past fifteen years he has worked as director, editor and consultant on many award-winning documentaries and dramas. He was the director of How Does It Feel (2011) and co-director of A Better Man (2017).
derek mccants
Editor
Derek McCants has been an editor since the early 80’s, having worked in NYC, LA, and now Toronto.
His background is extensive in editing nonfiction programming, with additional work in comedy, daytime drama, features, and trailers. A long list of varied credits includes PBS’s documentaries Nova and Witnesses to the Holocaust, The Trial of Adolph Eichmann, Whoopi Goldberg’s A Laugh And A Tear, Jerry Bruckheimer’s Profiles From The Front Line, and Arnold Shapiro's Beyond Scared Straight series.
His work in dramatic programming crosses a broad spectrum from editing ABC’s General Hospital and the pilot and series for it’s spinoff Port Charles, to assisting Terrence Malick’s team of editors on the Oscar-nominated The Thin Red Line.
In reality television his credits encompass Big Brother, America’s Next Top Model, Top Gear, and the inaugural season of Real Housewives of Orange County on which all the spin-offs were based and a network branded.
carlos sanchez
Editor
Carlos Sanchez is a Post Supervisor and Assistant Editor with over 7 years of experience in the film industry. Working in both Mexican and Canadian productions, Carlos has built strong teamwork and communication skills. He loves music and has an easy going personality.
tom third
Composer
Tom Third has scored over 250 hours of film and television, and has been nominated for the Canadian Screen Award seven times, winning in both 2010 and 2014. He was also the winner of the 2004 Volkswagen Score Competition sponsored by the Berlin Film Festival and juried by Walter Murch. After graduating from The Ontario College of Art, with a major in new media and film studies, he went on to sign a recording deal with Nettwerk Productions, and then pursued film scoring after the release of three critically acclaimed electronica CD’s. His work can be seen globally in dramatic series and documentaries for Showtime, HBO, FOX, NBC, PBS, CTV, and CBC. Recent projects have included four seasons of CORONER for CBC and CW, CERTAIN PREY, produced by Mark Harmon for USA NETWORK, THE LISTENER, for CTV and FOX, and SHOOT THE MESSENGER for CBC. Tom also regularly collaborates with fine artists on more experimental film and installation works that have shown at art galleries throughout the world.
craig fleming
Producer
Craig Fleming is a Film and Television producer based in Toronto, Canada. Over his 20+ career as been a part of the Canadian media landscape he has produced projects for almost every medium and genre.
khalilah brooks
Associate Producer
Khalilah has over 25 years in the entertainment industry. With a background in Musical Theatre and Digital Media, Khalilah was able to combine her education in Social Work and Film to create leading and innovative content within the Children's Media Sector Such as, Aunty B and Friends.
In the last 4 years, she's been the recipient of: Centennial College Dean's Award Entrepreneurship and Innovation, MJKO Inspirational Award, Black Women Role Model of the Year Award from James Maloney, Playing For Keeps Leadership Award, Canadian Small Business Award.
Now in 2022, you can find her behind the scenes working on documentaries series and writing children content while sharing her time as a volunteer for BIPOC TV & Film (Black Indigenous People of Color), she's a member of WIFT-T (Women In film and television- Toronto) and a board member of Arts Etobicoke.
George Elliott Clarke
Poet, novelist, playwright, and critic George Elliott Clarke was born near Windsor, Nova Scotia and grew up in Halifax. He earned his BA from the University of Waterloo, MA from Dalhousie University, and PhD from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry including Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues (1983), Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems 1978-2993 (1994), Execution Poems: The Black Acadian Tragedy of George and Rue (2001), which won the Governor General’s Literary Award, Illuminated Verses (2005), Black (2006), and the dramatic poem Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path (2007).
Dr. Charmaine Nelson
Charmaine A. Nelson is a Professor of Art History and a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Transatlantic Black Diasporic Art and Community Engagement at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) University in Halifax, Canada where she is also the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery. Prior to this appointment she worked at McGill University (Montreal) for seventeen years (2003-2020) and at Western University for two (2001-2003). An award winning-teacher and prolific lecturer, Nelson has made ground-breaking contributions to the fields of the Visual Culture of Slavery, Race and Representation, and Black Canadian Studies including authoring seven books, among them: The Color of Stone: Sculpting the Black Female Subject in Nineteenth-Century America (2007), Slavery, Geography, and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica (2016), and Towards an African Canadian Art History: Art, Memory, and Resistance (2018). She is also actively engaged with lay audiences through her media work including ABC, CBC, CTV, BBC One, PBS, Huffington Post Canada and The Walrus. Nelson has held several prestigious fellowships and appointments including a Caird Senior Research Fellowship, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK (2007) and a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, University of California – Santa Barbara (2010), the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professorship in Canadian Studies at Harvard University (2017-2018), and a Fields of the Future Research Fellowship at Bard Graduate Center in New York City (2021).
Lawrence hill
Lawrence Hill is the best-selling author of eleven books including Beatrice and Croc Harry, The Book of Negroes and The Illegal, both of which won CBC Canada Reads. He teaches creative writing at the University of Guelph.
Wanda bernard
Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard is the first African Nova Scotian woman to be appointed to the Senate of Canada, representing the province of Nova Scotia and her hometown of East Preston. Senator Bernard champions issues impacting African Canadians and people living with disabilities. She is particularly invested in human rights, employment equity, and mental health. Through her involvement in community projects, her social work career, her time with Dalhousie School of Social Work, and now her work in the Senate, Senator Bernard has maintained a deep dedication to social justice and racial justice. Senator Bernard advocates for reparations for the historic and continued anti-Black racism impacting the lives of African Canadians in her work.
Natteal Battiste
Natteal Battiste (Mi’kmaq and African-American Cisgender women) is the youngest elected Council member for Acadia First Nation. Having graduated from Saint Mary’s University with a Bachelor of Arts in 2014, Battiste has explored careers in Finance, Child Services and Entrepreneurship prior to being elected in office December 2020. A mother to a young daughter, Natteal prides herself as being a leader by example and believes in the concept of transformational leadership as an approach to ending intergenerational trauma. Over the last couple of years, Natteal has began public speaking and presents on Indigenous Resilience, highlighting the importance of unlearning, relearning and applying Indigenous concepts and history as a way to address and acknowledge the systemic racism in Mi’kmaki.
Kenneth bilby
Kenneth M. Bilby is an American anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, and author. His published works include the books Words of Our Mouth, Meditations of Our Heart: Pioneering Musicians of Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, and Dancehall and many more.
harriet fagan
Born in and currently residing in East Preston, Nova Scotia, Harriet is the 3rd oldest of 10 Children born to the late Charlotte Colley. Charlotte was the last child born to the Late James and Harriet (Diggs) Colley. Harriet is the proud mother to 3 Adult children and 3 grandchildren. Harriet has worked in the Human Services field for over 35+ years mainly working with families and youth in crisis. She currently works with Adults living with a Mental Health Diagnosis for the last 19 years. Harriet is proud to say that she is a direct descendant of the Late Governor John Wentworth, The first Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. She credits her late Mother for instilling the importance of knowing one's history, researching your roots, and knowing from whence you came. Harriet happily describes herself as a strong black Woman with Maroon and Jamaican roots and most of all a woman of God.
wayn hamilton
Wayn Hamilton is the Executive Director of African Nova Scotian Affairs (ANSA). He oversees programs that facilitate engagement between the government and the African Nova Scotian community. His focus lies in collaboration, community development, and capacity building. These initiatives encompass work on recognition, justice, development, and the Land Titles Initiative. Wayn has dedicated over 30 years to community development work in both West Africa and Canada.
heather isham
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Heather is a descendant of the James Wentworth/Colley Family, the largest Black Family of Nova Scotia. An Entrepreneur for 20+ years, motivational speaker, mentor and coach to Individuals and Corporations worldwide. With an international network, and known as "Dreamqueen" she provides tools and builds teams of people to empower them with the understanding of entrepreneurship, achieving financial freedom and realizing their dreams. Her 5 year goal is to help at least 10,000 families earn a 6 figure+ a year income and travel the world by teaching educational tools and providing the platforms for achieving their goals.
El jones
El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She teaches at Mount Saint Vincent University, where she was named the 15th Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies in 2017. She was Halifax’s Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015. She is the author of Live from the Afrikan Resistance!, a collection of poems about resisting white colonialism. Her work focuses on social justice issues, such as feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism and decolonization.
dana colley provo
Dana Colley Provo was born in Halifax Nova Scotia and hails from the Community of East Preston the second largest Black indigenous community in Canada. She has been working for the federal government for over 18 years. Dana is very passionate about social justice issues and has been volunteering with the Union of Safety and Justice Employees for a number of years. She enjoys reading, baking, playing cards and most importantly spending time with my family.
isaac saney
Isaac Saney is on faculty, College of Continuing Education, Dalhousie University, and an adjunct professor, International Development Studies, Saint Mary’s University, both in Halifax, Canada. His research interests are: Cuba, international political economy, ‘race’ and racism, and Black Nova Scotian history, areas on which he regularly lectures and publishes. His teaching and lecturing has encompassed courses on Cuba, Caribbean political economy, law & human rights and African Canadian history, He has published articles in several journals & magazines on these themes.
lindell smith
Councillor Lindell Smith is a co-founder of Center Line Studio, a non-profit recording studio for youth who want to express themselves through art and music. In keeping with his concern for the whole community and its diverse needs, and in response to the rapid growth and changes within our neighbourhood, Lindell, along with other community leaders, started “The One North End Project”. This group of community leaders from around HRM aims to ensure that all residents benefit from this rapid growth together by encouraging new hiring practices for local businesses and holding community engagement sessions.
james walker
James W. St.G. (Jim) Walker is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Waterloo. His book The Black Loyalists, first published in 1976, was republished in 2017 by University of Toronto Press as one of thirty "iconic books that every Canadian should read." He was the Bora Laskin National Fellow for Human Rights Research in 2003-04, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2013, and became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2016. He has published numerous books and articles on African-Canadian history, human rights, and racism and anti-racism.
Natasha Henry
Natasha Henry is an award-winning author and an award-winning curriculum developer, focusing on Black Canadian experiences. She is a historian and has been an educator for 22 years. Natasha is the current president of the Ontario Black History Society. Natasha Henry is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at York University. The 2018 Vanier Scholar is researching the enslavement of African people in early Ontario. Her publications include Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada (June 2010), Talking about Freedom: Celebrating Freedom in Canada (2012), a number of youth-focused titles, and several entries for the Canadian Encyclopedia on African Canadian history. Through her various professional, academic, and community roles, Natasha’s work is grounded in her commitment to research, collect, preserve, and disseminate the histories Black Canadians.
Peter Meyler
Peter Meyler loves discovering our untold histories. His research has led to two books, many articles and presentations. He is co-author of A Stolen Life: Searching for Richard Pierpoint and editor of Broken Shackles: Old Man Henson From Slavery to Freedom. Articles have appeared in the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and Canada's National History Magazine. His research has uncovered information on a number of Black Canadians including John "Daddy" Hall, Sophia Burthen, Lemuel Brown and Larry Gains.
Crawford killian
Crawford Kilian is the author of Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia and over 20 other books. He has published almost 800 articles in The Tyee, a Vancouver online magazine, many of them on the experiences of Black British Columbians. He taught English and Communications at Capilano College in North Vancouver from 1968 to 2008.
Esi Edugyan
Esi Edugyan is a Ghanaian Canadian novelist whose work has become an influential part of the Canadian literary canon. Imbued with an interest in Black histories and the Black diaspora, her novels explore ideas of nation and belonging — to new and old cultures and countries, to “here” and “away,” to the present and the past. They also examine the effects of Black migration and the resulting presence of Black subjects in predominantly white societies. Her novels Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018) both won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, making her only the third writer (with Alice Munro and M.J. Vassanji) to win the award twice.
Stephanie Allen
Stephanie Allen is a housing development specialist based in Vancouver, Canada whose work focuses on building affordable, equitable communities. She is the vice president of strategic business operations and performance for BC Housing.
Wayde Compton
Wayde Compton has written five books and has edited two literary anthologies. His collection of short stories, The Outer Harbour, won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2015 and he won a National Magazine Award for Fiction in 2011. His work has been a finalist for two other City of Vancouver Book Awards as well as the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. From 2012-18, he directed the Creative Writing Program in Continuing Studies at SFU. Compton is currently the chair of Creative Writing at Douglas College in New Westminster, BC.
Charles Ellison
Charles Ellison's areas of specialization in Jazz Studies and trumpet performance where he teaches in Concordia.
