Aisha Evelyna

Aisha is an actor and filmmaker who is passionate about bringing stories of the underrepresented to the forefront of our social consciousness. In 2019, Aisha was nominated ByBlacks.com for Black Canadian Filmmaker of the year for her work on her second short film “SHOEGAZER”. She has just completed her directorial debut “NAVAL GAZING” (world premiere pending) and is currently developing her Feature Directorial Debut “SEAHORSE”. When not working, Aisha can be found eating donuts in Toronto.

Project Title: Seahorse

Laura Friedmann

With over 15 years of experience her commercial visual work has been featured on CBC, YesTV, by the United Nations, Bell, Harley Davidson Motorcycles, Audi, KitchenAid, and Special Olympics Canada. She has traveled to over a dozen countries and led creative projects, managed both small and large-scale events and worked with a variety of not-for-profit organizations, and grassroots film initiatives. Laura is an advocate for women in film and media and serves on the board of directors of Breakthroughs Film Festival which is devoted exclusively to showcasing films by emerging female directors. She completed the Producers Market Incubator Program offered by CaribbeanTales Inc. and was recently awarded a partial scholarship for the “Media Leadership Lab” with WIFT Toronto. She was a co-creator and facilitator at the Native Film & Storytelling Institute and is currently involved in the production of a few documentaries, web series, and films.

Project Title: Tenaya

Lisa Rideout

Lisa Rideout is an award-winning filmmaker whose two most recent films won Oscar qualify awards. Lisa is currently working with Banger Films, the Emmy award winning production company behind Hip Hop Evolution, on an episode of their tv series This is Pop! for Netflix and Bell Media. In 2019, her CBC supported film One Leg In, One Out won Best Short Documentary at the LA and Brooklyn Film Festival. Lisa’s film Take a Walk on the Wildside won the 2018 Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Short and a Grand Prize at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. Her stop motion animation film, His Nose, Her Eyes, Whose Face? inspired by her own experience being mixed race, premiered on CBC in 2019. Lisa also directs branded content, completing two branded series for VICE Canada. She is currently developing documentary content with Banger Films, Clique Pictures and 90th Parallel. Lisa has her MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University and her MA in Critical Media and Cultural Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Project Title: What Night Taught Them

Samantha MacAdam

Armed with a decade of experience in commercial directing and film editing, Samantha is an award-winning filmmaker recently chosen for the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative. Her first writing credit came when she won the story writing competition for the animated feature film franchise “The Nut Job”, that stars Will Arnett. Samantha’s directorial debut “Prom Night”, that stars comedian Gerry Dee, premiered at “Just for Laughs”, and gained cross-border success in Kevin Hart’s “LOL Network” development deal competition, the short was a top-five finalist beating out 650 films. Samantha also wrote, edited and filmed the short at her house while on maternity leave. “Prom Night” the feature script is a semi-finalist in “ScreenCraft’s Comedy Screenplay Competition”. One of the selected writers for the “2020 Writing Room at Prime Time”, Samanta was taught the ABCs of pitching from producer/director Jennifer Morrison (Euphoria), Samantha says of her stories: “While movies and television in the 90’s saved me in many ways, it also did a lot of damage to me. No leading ladies on screen looked like me and so I always felt less than, my mission with my projects is to entertain and empower. I want people to see themselves, so they can be inspired to be the leads in their own stories”.

Project Title: Prom Night

V.T. Nayani

V. T. Nayani is a director, producer, and writer, dedicated to stories for the screen. Her first feature documentary SHADEISM: DIGGING DEEPER (2015) had its World Premiere at the 2015 Zanzibar International Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Recognition. Nayani is an alumni of the CBC’s Workshop for Diverse Creators, the HotDocs’ Doc Accelerator Program, and ReelWorld Film Festival’s Emerging 20 Program. She is also a recipient of the UN Women Yvonne M. Hebert Award for filmmakers and photographers. Her artistic development has been supported by platforms including the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, ArtReach Toronto, RBC, Prism Prize, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Her film work has been championed by festivals includingTIFF Next Wave, Inside Out, Women of the World Festival, Reel Asian, Regent Park Film Film Festival, ReelWorld, and Lights Camera Africa Film Festival. Nayani is currently in post-production for her first dramatic feature, THIS PLACE (produced in partnership with Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch Program), and in development for the feature comedy SHAME. She also proudly serves on the board and programming team for Breakthroughs Film Festival, the only festival in Canada dedicated to showcasing short films by women and non-binary people.

Project Title: Prom Night

Victoria Anderson-Gardner

Victoria Anderson-Gardner is an award winning Ojibwe filmmaker from Eagle Lake First Nation, Ontario. She is currently based out of Thunder Bay and Toronto where she recently completed her thesis film for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree under the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University. Victoria is focused on creating Indigenous content, showcasing underrepresented communities and using her skills as a filmmaker to educate. With over 4 years of experience in the film industry, Victoria is a director and producer who has worked and assisted on a variety of productions which include The Hurt That Binds Us (Voices With Impact funded short documentary focused on Indigenous mental health, won best documentary at the Ryerson University Film Festival), Mni Wiconi: Mitakuyelo (imagineNATIVE and Netflix commissioned film), In Search of a Perfect World (CBC Docs POV hosted by Peter Mansbridge, credited as additional director), and The Inconvenient Indian (directed by Michelle Latimer, credited as production assistant). She currently sits as an Advisory Board member for Art With Impact where they jury for their monthly film competitions, and is a brand ambassador for the Indigenous led charity called Indspire.

Project Title: Tenaya

Ayanda Halimana

Ayanda studied Theatre and performing Arts at the Market Theatre Laboratory where she obtained a higher certificate. She then trained as Script Editor with South African Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film and Video Foundation in South Africa. She quickly moved from interns to Acting Head of Genre during her time at the SABC.
Ayanda also mentors & facilitates workshops for KwaZulu Natal Film Commission, their FITI Program as well as NFVF Spark. She currently works as a Head Writer / Script Editor / Workshop Facilitator / Script Writer for Dramas and Feature Films. Ayanda has just finished working on “Makoti” for SABC 1 – as Head Writer and Creative Producer.

Project Title: ONE DAY IN JUNE

Ayleen Reyes

Ayleen worked as Assistant Director to Cuban filmmaker Eduardo del Llano on his latest production, Domino (2017), Rállame la Zanahoria (2018),and Two Veterans (2019).
In 2018 she served as a Post-Production Producer in the documentary Los Cercanos Días del Amor (2018), directed by Yosiri López- Silvero.
In 2017 she was co-tutor of the Diploma Work of Frank E. Fernández in option to the Title of Audiovisual Production granted by the University of the Arts (ISA).
She recently received an International Diploma from the Script Specialization Workshop awarded by the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños EICTV (2019).
Currently she is director and screenwriter of the documentary project La Tumba y El Papalote, co-directed with Frank E. Fernández.

Project Title: THE GRAVE & THE KITE

BRIDGET PICKERING

Bridget Pickering was the South African co-producer on Hotel Rwanda, the Terry George Oscar-nominated feature film.
She started her career as a Casting Associate with Bonnie Timmermann at Universal Pictures on films such as The Last of the Mohicans and Glengarry Glen Ross. She co-produced the feature project Taste of Rain directed by Richard Pakleppa, and the Chmeo Club a comedy heist film. She has produced eleven television drama series for national broadcaster SABC and commercial broadcaster, ETV.
Bridget is currently in pre-production on her next feature, The Night Outside.

Project Title: LIFE AFTER DEATH

Folasewa Babalola

Folasewa Babalola is an aspiring screenwriter and student at Humber’s Film and Multiplatform Storytelling focusing on producing film and media content tailored for multiplatform delivery.
She is grateful to Caribbean Tales Incubator for the opportunity to train as a co-producer and hone her creative and business skills. Diversity within the film industry is important because it is a way to make people feel accepted and allows a fresh injection of unique ideas into otherwise well-explored genres of film. Diversity is not limited to race or culture, but can include life experiences and perspectives as well.
Folasewa’s available for internships and is always looking for new opportunities to learn and gain experience within Toronto’s growing film industry.

Project Title: FINDING ZENDAYA

Frank Carvajal

Graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Audiovisual Media in the Profile of Audiovisual Production from the University of Arts (ISA).
In 2010 he co-directed, with Lester Sibila, the documentary, Calle 13 in Havana, from the Cuban Institute of Music, and worked as a Producer and Assistant Director of Dos Más Suman from director Adriana Gil.
General Producer of the short film La Muerte del Cisne, by Zarima Proveyer; the short film Épica, of the Nicanor Series from filmmaker Eduardo del Llano; fictional short film Cada Lunes y Cada Lluvia, by filmmaker Rocío Aballí; short film El Vals de Claudia from filmmaker Natalie Gómez Carpio; General Producer of the Noticiero de la Muestra Joven del ICAIC; the documentary Los Cercanos días del Amor, by filmmaker Yosiri-López Silvero.
He currently writes, directs and produces the documentary La tumba y el papalote

Project Title: THE GRAVE & THE KITE

GABRIELLE BLACKWOOD

Gabrielle is an award winning Jamaican Director and Director of Photography who has written, directed and shot short films, documentaries and commercials in both Jamaica and New Zealand.
Her films have been screened at: the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) in LA, Diversity in Cannes, LA Film & Script Film Festival (Best Short Doc), The American Black Film Festival, amongst others.
Gabrielle is a recipient of the Geoff Evans Award for Excellence in Screen Production in New Zealand.
Her feature screenplay ‘Kendal’ has also been shortlisted for a Sundance Lab and the Screencraft Drama Feature Writing Competition amongst others. Born in Jamaica, Gabrielle is the past immediate President of the Jamaica Film & Television Association (JAFTA), a Co-Convenor of Women In Film Jamaica and resides in Kingston as an independent filmmaker.

Project Title: KENDAL

JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS

Haitian-born actor Jimmy Jean-Louis grew up in the slums of Petion-Ville until age 12, to
become a Hollywood celebrity and a global cultural Ambassador to Haiti. Earlier in his career, Jimmy worked as a dancer and a model internationally. He moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue acting. His acting credits include Tears of the sun (Bruce Willis), Phat Girlz (Mo’Nique), NBC Hit show Heroes, CW show Arrow, CBS Extant with Oscar winner Halle Berry produced by Steven Spielberg. More recently, he was part of the cast of Joy with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro directed by David O Russell and a regular on the TV show Claws for TNT. His most important role to date is playing the title character in TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE and won BEST ACTOR at the Pan African Film Festival. He was also nominated BEST ACTOR at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2012. Jimmy Jean-Louis co-founded the Los Angeles based production company Jet Media Production in 2008. His producing credits include the documentary films Haiti 16:53 (2010, Jimmy Goes to Nollywood (2015) and the feature film Everything But A Man (2018) directed by Nnegest Likke (Phat Girlz). He also produced the neo-noir psychological

Project Title: MAMI WATA

JULIUS AMEDUME

JULIUS AMEDUME (Writer/Director) Julius’ film education began with the black and
white film noirs, comedies and musicals screened on BBC2 and Channel 4 each
afternoon while he was homeschooled as a youngster due to illness.
Years later he was awarded a Toledo scholarship to study a masters in directing fiction
at the National Film & Television School. During his time there, Julius wrote and
directed four short films. MARY AND JOHN was nominated for Best Short at the 2009
Rushes Soho Film Festival and a Golden Lion at the 2010 Taipei county film festival in
Taiwan. LORRAINE premiered at the 2009 Edinburgh Film Festival and was nominated
for Best Short at the 2010 Rushes Soho Film Festival. MR GRAHAM premiered at The
14th Urbanworld Film Festival in New York 2010, and his graduation film PRECIPICE
Won Best Short at the 19th Pan African Film Festival 2011, and an African Oscar for
Best Diaspora Short at the 2011 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Nigeria.
His latest film Rattlesnakes won the 2019 Audience Award at Pan African Film Festival
in Los Angeles and the Independent Spirit Film Production award at 2019 14 th Screen
Nation Awards in London.

Project Title: MAMI WATA

LEON LOZANO

In 2018 Leon Lozano, a native of Oakland California, wrote, directed, and produced My Father Belize; the film shot on location in Belize Central America and stars Arlen Escarpeta (The Oath, Whitney) and Roger Guenveur Smith (Dope, Do the Right Thing). In 2019 the film premiered at HollyShorts Film Festival in Hollywood California, and Variety mentioned it as one of the most notable entries. In 2008, Lozano made his feature film debut with Something is Killing Tate, winner of 12 “Best of” film festival awards. Holding a Bachelors Degree in social work from the University of California Berkeley and a Masters Degree in film and television production from the University of Southern California, Lozano has made a career out of combining social advocacy and film. His work has screened on Showtime, Netflix, Starz, and Comart.

Project Title: SEVEN STEPSTO HEAVEN

Massena “Bougon” Cesar

In 2009, Cesar enrolled at Cine Institute of Jacmel. Upon graduating Cesar joined the Cine Services department of Cine Institute starting as Production Manager working on numerous projects including “Empty Box” a Mexican production featuring Jimmy Jean Louis as the main actor.
Cesar has recently finished production on the Haitian feature film “Machann Fig La” as one of its producers.
Massena Cesar is also the Artists Institute Campus Manager and the exclusive producer of Artists Institute in Haiti.

Project Title: MAMI WATA

Patricia Bebia Mawa

Patricia Bebia Mawa is the Executive Vice President of Silvertrust Media and Afroglobal Television, as well as the host of the Planet Africa show on Omni TV. Patricia has directed and produced over 15 television programs including The Visionaries, The Golden Button and Standing Ovation. She is the Associate Publisher of Excellence, Envision and Destiny Magazines. In 2008 Silvertrust Media, introduced the Discover magazine series, which has since released over 20 titles and editions for countries. Listed in the Who’s Who in Black Canada, she is a recipient of the Toronto Police Community Service Award, the International Women Achievers Award, the Martin Luther King DreamKeeper Award and a Queen Elizabeth’s 11 Diamond Jubilee Medal. She is the co-founder of the Crossover Mentorship Program, a youth empowerment initiative, Patricia was featured as Woman Of The Week in Women’s Post. Patricia and her husband Moses have been featured on CNN International in a half hour special. In March 2016, the duo launched Afroglobal Television, a 24-hour television channel that is currently on Rogers Cable, Bell Fibe, Eastlink and Telus across Canada. In 2018, Patricia co-authored the 150 Extraordinary Canadians Legacy book, with a foreword by the Right Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada.

Project Title: FINDING ZENDAYA

REEM MORSI

Reem Morsi is an award-winning filmmaker, her films have screened internationally at major festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale, Whistler Film Festival, TIFF, and more.
A recipient of The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s inaugural Apprenticeship Program for Female Directors, she has also been chosen as a participant of Women in View’s 2017 Director’s Lab.
Reem is currently a story editor at Up in The Air and is invited to participate at Cannes Film Festival’s La Fabrique Des Cinémas Du Monde May 2019. Morsi has participated in the Berlinale Talents in 2012, the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors’ Lab in 2015, the TIFF Talent Lab in 2016 and the Women in the Director’s Chair in 2014/2015.
She recently won the Telefilm Canada New Voices Award at the Toronto Screenwriters Conference in 2017. She was selected as one of 10 participants at the Berlinale Script Lab 2018, following that, she participated at Realness Pan African Screenwriting Residency & the Berlinale Residency 2018.
Reem has also won the Canadian National Genre Competition by WIFTV for her story “Fish”. In March 2016, Morsi received the prestigious SFFILM Rainin Grant in screenwriting for her feature film BOOTLEG. Subsequently, her short film based on this feature screened at a number of international film festivals, and was awarded the best Canadian short at the London Worldwide Comedy Festival.
Morsi is a recipient of the Telefilm Canada Talent to Watch feature film micro-budget grant for her first feature script HATE and is slated to be shot in 2019.

Project Title: FISH

Ron Oscar Sierra

In 2018 Ron Oscar Sierra, a native of Los Angeles California, wrote and produced My Father Belize. Sierra got his start in the entertainment industry as a professional actor with featured roles on HBO’s Arliss and ABC’s My Wife and Kids as well as numerous roles in national commercial campaigns. His work in front of the camera sparked a passion for storytelling and soon Sierra started crafting his own film and television concepts as a director and writer. His first break came as producer Keenan Ivory Wayans optioned an animated children’s show written by Sierra. In 2016 Sierra wrote, directed, and produced his first short film “THE PERFECT FAMILY” which was accepted into six film festivals globally and is currently on YouTube with over 80,000 views.

Project Title: SEVEN STEPSTO HEAVEN

Rosa Maria Rodriguez

Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo Cuban director, screenwriter, and actress. Her most recent film I Love Papuchi won the Cenesex award in the past Muestra joven ICAIC. Her short film La Costurera was the winner of many awards.
Rosa has directed various theatre shows and has written texts for theater and cinema.
During various years she has dedicated to teaching in the specialty of acting and stage direction. One of her texts, Culpa, winner of the Beca de Creación Milanés de la Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS) was released in 2013.
At present, her documentary film, Órgano, al ritmo del son molío, is in post-production.

Project Title: NARA

Stephen Hadeed Jr.

Stephen Hadeed Jr. is a Trinidadian American actor, producer and voice over artist, with theatre and film training from New York City’s, HB Studio. In 2008, Stephen started the full-time acting program at HB Studio in Manhattan’s West Village. During his time in New York City, Stephen enjoyed the multiplicity of supporting and starring roles off-Broadway, receiving awards for these performances, as well as having a performance published in The Best 10 Minute Plays 2011, for Bemused, written by Mrinalini Kamath.
Some of his recent work includes, Mangroves, The Warehouse, Moving Parts and Pendulum. Stephen tested out his limits when he wrote, directed and produced the 19-minute thriller The Warehouse in 2016. While Stephen is somewhat of a local celebrity in Trinidad & Tobago and most know him as an actor, his credits also include producer on half a dozen music videos; and producer and executive producer on the feature action thriller, Pendulum, which opened nationwide across Trinidad and Tobago in October 2017.

Project Title: SOUCOUYANT

Emmanuel Martin

Studies in EICTV (International School of Cinema and TV from San Antonio de los Baños):
-Realization of documentaries in 2006.
-Realization cinematography in 2008.

Project Title: ULTIMO INNING

Gustavius Renwick

Gustavius Renwick Writer/Director/Producer – Renwick is an award-winning writer/director from The Bahamas. He studied theater at Florida A&M University and returned to The Bahamas to work as a staff reporter for The Tribune newspaper. Renwick’s eye for socially-driven stories drives his work creating and producing films, TV series, and commercials that empower, provoke, and entertain. Renwick started his film production company Built for Load Filmworks with a mission to reframe the narrative of the Caribbean.

Producer/Writer/Director Woody Stone Series (In development) Built for Load Series (In development) Alternative Insurance Company Ad Campaign Contact Zone Crude Unexpected Love – Esnavi Music Video Screenplays In Development Built for Load Series Built for Load Heading North

Project Title: WOODY STONE

Layla Swart

After obtaining a post-graduate degree in film production from the University of Cape Town, Layla has been senior editor on numerous feature films and her writing work has enjoyed success at international and South African festivals. 2015 saw her move into production full time as coordinator on large-scale international television projects such as ABC’s Kings and Prophets and Paolo Sorrentino’s HBO series The Young Pope. She has produced two films, the acclaimed Xhosa Sci Fi Short Stillborn, and has just completed post production on the epic Sew the Winter to my Skin which was awarded the Berlinale World Cinema Fund, and was part of the exclusive Cannes L’Atelier selection of 2017. The film will premiere in the latter part of 2018.
Layla is going into production on her next film Knuckle City in July 2018 and has three other feature films in development, two green-lit. Layla is one of South Africa’s most exciting young producers, churning out a litany of impressive film work in record time. She is a creatively attuned producer, who has an eye for a great story.

Project Title: THE SUMMIT CLUB

Micheal Jarvis

Born in Montréal, Québec, an eleventh generation Black Canadian with American and Aboriginal Mi’kmaq ancestry, Michaél Jarvis began his passion for cinema working as an usher at the Faubourg movie theatre. After attending L’École Du Cinema Mel Oppenhimer Film (Concordia University), Michaél formed RecFilm, raised $30,000 working part-time jobs to write, produce, and direct a 17-minute film about a legendary Black Lunarian-Pirate, Mathieu Da Costa The Untold Story Part 1 winning a Reel Black Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Michaél scored a research grant from Canadian Heritage, raised cash south of the border, Figure IV Entertainment (Brooklyn, New York, USA.) & went on to shoot a controversial short film entitled Angélique. Nominated for Best Short Film, Best Actress, the story is based upon the true story Marie Josephe Angélique, a Montreal slave accused of burning down Montral in 1734. The film faced scrutiny because Michaél took the position she did not set the fire. On April 11, 2006, Governor General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean declared her case a “miscarriage of Justice” and she did not set the fire, dedicating a plaque in her honor on the site of the alleged crime.

Michaél moved to Toronto, Canada to direct a Cirque Du Soleil feature variety-documentary entitled Acrobats and Maniacs (2004, Highlander Productions, Canada, 52mins, Spectra International Distribution. Syndication: APTV, HBO, A&E Bravo, NHK). A former Street Busker is forced to stop performing because of an accident resolving to pass his determination and skills to his new troop Chapito during a week preceding the show release. In 2005, Michaél formed Darchién Pictures Inc. (DPI) partnering with Jeremy Hood. He went on to write & direct a teaser for an epic screenplay entitled The Grave before the Chains starring Oscar-Emmy award winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. Michaél then directed the music video “Octagon” for the artist “Little T” and followed it up with four more music videos: House of Horrors, Outta of my Head, Nightime Killer, Michael and a short horror thriller entitled Horrorcore (2018) for & starring Entertainer/Hip Hop Artist “OLI”. Currently, Michaél moonlights as an Assistant Location Manager on such projects as Jett (HBO), American Gods (Starz), Fahrenheit 451 (HBO), and Falling Water (NBC) while developing a number of new and innovative film, television & web projects.

Project Title: SOLDIER

Paul Pryce

Actor based in New York City. Notable Television credits include Netflix original series Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Unforgettable (A+E). Theatre: Hamlet featuring Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti; Yale Repertory Theatre, Pericles; Prince of Tyre and Julius Caesar; Elm Shakespeare Company, Pecong featuring Tony Award winner Lillias White; National Black Theatre of Harlem Othello, Angels in America among many others. He has an M.F.A in Acting from the Yale School of Drama. Received the Eldon Elders Fellowship (2012), the Oliver Thorndike Award for Acting (2013) and Caribbean Life’s 40 Under 40 Award (2014). As a Film Producer & Screenwriter: His first film Come Out, Come Out World Premiered at the Cannes Short Film Corner 2017 and was an official selection of the 2017 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. His recent film The Deliverer will premiere at the Caribbean Tales International Film Festival in Toronto and his other film Between Us shot both in South Korea and New York City will premiere at Woods Hole Film Festival in July 2018. His feature length screenplay The Deliverer was a shortlisted finalist at the 2017 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and he is currently in-development for a feature film; Between Us set in New York City and South Korea. Co-artistic director of Scarlett Project; a non-profit performing arts and arts education company dedicated to producing Caribbean theatre (Smile Orange, Rum and Coca Cola). As an Educator Paul has taught at The Yale School of Art, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Music & Theatre department, Amherst College, New York Film Academy, H.B. Studio, University of Puerto Rico; Mayagüez Campus and University of Trinidad and Tobago; Academy of Performing Arts. Paul was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago.

Project Title: SERPENT’S MOUTH

Cristobal Krusen

Cristóbal has worked as a writer/director of film and television for thirty years, helming productions in more than twenty countries. He is best known for the award-winning films Final Solution, More Than Dreams, Undaunted and most recently, Sabina K. He is also a published author.

Working in multiple languages, Cristóbal is known for a poetic filmmaking style and the ability to draw intense and intimate performances from actors (professional and non-professional). Above all, he is a “story-teller” who delights to engage his audience while addressing the deepest needs of the human heart.

Project Title: Life or Death

Gloria Rolando

Project Title: Sisters of the Heart - Cuba

Ian Keteku

Project Title: Brother Giraffe - Digital Animation

Janine Fung

Janine Fung is an award-winning Producer/Director/ Writer based in Toronto. Her two, critically acclaimed, dramatic short films, LEFTOVERS (1994), which Fung wrote about a mother, a turkey, a knife and a misunderstanding, and 4AM (2011), a powerful story about life in Belmont, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Her first feature documentary, LA GAITA, the story of the Lara Brothers, was winner of the Peoples Choice Award: Best Documentary Film and the Special Jury Mention Award at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival in 2012. LA GAITA was broadcast nationally in Trinidad on Channel TV4 and Gayelle TV.

Her films have been internationally screened, in such places as NYC, Los Angeles, Berlin Paris, Helsinki, London, Toronto, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Montreal, Munich, Trinidad, Toulouse and Hong Kong to mention a few. Janine wrote and directed her first dramatic feature, THE DOCTORS DAUGHTER OR THE SECRET AND THE LIE, which premiered in San Francisco, joining the Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival Circuit – screening in nine more cities world wide: Los Angeles, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Cologne, Atlanta, Toronto, Port of Spain Trinidad and Croatia.

Janine has documented on camera and paper, such places as: Tokyo, South Rupununni Guyana, Trinidad, Germany, Israel, Jordan, France, St. Lucia and England. She was recently invited to represent Trinidad at the Rio Loco Cultural Festival in Toulouse France in 2013. She’s currently in post-production for her short documentary, Becoming The Blue.

Fung is also completing two feature dramatic screenplays, which she received scriptwriting development funding for HOT DOCS Short Pitch 2015.

Project Title: Mix Up

Kareem Mortimer

Kareem Mortimer Kareem J. Mortimer is a Bahamian filmmaker, theatre director, curator and video artist with global recognition. Over the past five years he has won over 30 awards for his film projects, and his work has been distributed in 52 countries. His work includes the shorts: Float, She, Chance and Passage; the documentaries: The Eleutheran Adventure, I Am Not A Dummy and Chartered Course and the feature films Children of God, Wind Jammers (co-directed with Ric Von Maur) and Cargo. His video art includes the films: Where I’m At, Back to Nassau, The Naked Truth and TRANSient. His theatre directing work includes Pastor’s Little Problem and Clybourne Park. Kareem has also served as a producer on Brigidy Bram, Full Circle, When A Man Dreams Dreams and Where I’m From. He has also produced for the television shows Hip Hop Nation: Notes from The Underground and Extraordinary Cuisine. He is currently the curator of the Film Program at The Island House Cinema and the Co-Founder and Chairman of Best Ever Film, a production company.

Project Title: Sully's Manor

Karen Mafundikwa

Karen Marks Mafundikwa directed/produced/wrote “The Price of Memory” (2014), a documentary feature film about the slavery reparations movement in Jamaica. It won the Impact Award at Caribbean Tales Film Festival 2015, was nominated for Best Long Documentary at Al Jazeera Documentary Festival 2015, and Best Film by a Woman of Color, African Diaspora Film Festival 2014. She previously produced/wrote documentary feature “Shungu: The Resilience of a People” (2009) following ordinary people in Zimbabwe during economic crisis and political stalemate. “Shungu” garnered international broadcasts, screened on three continents and premiered at international film festivals including BFI London Film Festival, IDFA, FESPACO, Thessaloniki and Reykjavik. It won the Ousmane Sembene Award at Zanzibar Film Festival 2010 and Best Documentary at Kenya International Film Festival 2010. She has a BA in Journalism from NYU, an MSc in International Development from Tulane University Law School and was a Documentary Film Fellow at IFP Documentary Lab.

Project Title: Transcribe

Leticia Tonos, Julietta Rodriguez, José Gomez

First dominican woman to direct, write and produce a feature film, her Opera Prima LOVE CHILD (La Hija Natural) was winner of the Audience Choice Award at the 27th Chicago Latino Film Festival, among other awards. Her 2nd feature film CRISTO REY premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival and was released in Dominican Republic in December 2013 with unprecedented support from Dominican audiences. Both her films have been selected to represent the Dominican Republic at the Oscars in the category of Best Foreign Film and have distributed in important platforms such as HBO, Cinemax, Sundance Channel, etc.

Project Title: Inframundo

Louis Taylor - Altair Pflug Taylor

Louis Taylor has worked in the arts, theatre and film industries as a producer, actor, teacher, acting coach, dancer, writer, director (both in theatre and film) assistant director, casting director, outreach co-coordinator and script consultant.

He has written, co-produced and directed seven short films that have screened at over twenty-five film festivals internationally including: Hotdocs, IDFA and the Venice International Film Festival. Awards include Best Video at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (Filmothek), Best Documentary at the Pacific Coast Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Laguna Beach Film Festival, 2nd Prize in the Documentary category at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and a honourable mention at the Black Filmmaker’s Hall of Fame awards.

Nominations include Best Short award at Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, First Appearance at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Best Script and Best Multicultural/Race Relations awards at the Yorkton Short Film Festival and Outstanding Director and Documentary at the Reel Black Awards. They have aired on PBS, Bravo, Canadian Reflection (CBC) and Zed TV (CBC) and Czech Television.

Project Title: Spawn & Geezer

Mary Ann Mandishona

Project Title: Africa Queen Warriors - Sa

Nicolas Cuellar + Nadege Robertson

Nicolás Cuellar is a film director and editor for social documentary and narrative projects worldwide. He freelances for several television production companies in Haiti, Colombia and Guatemala. He is the creative director of Gabriel Films, documentary production company in New York, where he resides.

He works since 2010 in Haiti, where he trained a local team of audio-visual production. With his team, he has produced over 65 short documentaries for the work of NGOs in the country and now carries the first season of a television series called in Creole “A FOREST GROWTH IN HAITI”. He is currently spearheading the creation of a film industry in Haiti in partnership with FOKAL and Gabriel Films.

Some of his most recent work includes a cooking show in Guatemala called DESAFIO CULINARIO, broadcasted in Guatemala’s prime time. He was the editor for the Australian documentary FRACKMAN in 2014. He directed and edited the documentary CAST THE FIRST STONE, winner of the “Bahamas Film Festival Spirit Of Freedom & Documentary Audience Award for Best Documentary” in 2013.

Project Title: Fontizon - a Forest Grows in Haiti

Patricia Ramos

Project Title: Havana Detective Inc. - Cuba

Raoul Olou

Project Title: Pancakes for Dinner - Digital Animation

Rick Elgood + Paul O Beale

Rick Elgood trained in film, television and photography. Since 1987 he has made videos and worked e.g. as editor on Derek Jarman’s War Requiem.

Project Title: the Agency

Roger Alexis

Creator, Writer, Director and Editor are just some of the labels that can be attributed to Roger Alexis. A natural, who was born for a career in film, Roger cemented and perfected his passion for the craft by pursuing the Film Studies program at the University of the West Indies.

By 2005 Roger began producing short films, and by 2006 his film Herman Tales was featured and voted the best short film at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. The Tales were subsequently developed into a popular and successful television series which has been aired on local television stations TV6, Gayelle in Trinidad and Tobago and on Caribvision.

Five years later Roger went on to produce the I’m Santana series 2010 followed by two films I’m Santana and Douen in 2012.

Recognizing the power of film as an educational tool, Roger has also produced public service advertisements on Human Trafficking, Be safe at Christmas, Carnival Time and Making Better Choices for the Ministry of National Security. His latest project, Treasure Life promises to be a persuasive medium for disseminating a whole new series of public service messages aimed at addressing current issues affecting our youth, our society.

Project Title: Lexo Street

Sahle Robinson

Project Title: Holy Fables - Digital Animation

Alain Bidard

Alain Bidard is an award-winning animation film director from the Caribbean island of Martinique. After his graduation in SUPINFOCOM, one of the best Computer Graphics schools in Europe, his first film, “”Pixies””, entered many festivals including the prestigious Imagina festival in Monaco and Anima Folioscope in Bruxelles. Between 2000 and 2007, he directed many short films which garnered multiple nominations and awards. In 2008, Alain Bidard began the production of his first animation feature film, “Battledream Chronicle”, a film that has been selected in more than 50 festivals and won eight awards in the twelve months following its release.

Project Title: BATTLEDREAM CHRONICLE

Aurora Herrera

Aurora Herrera began her media career as a columnist for the Trinidad Guardian at the ripe old age of 14. Soon after she began hosting and producing televised content for local TV.

Her perpetual interest in people and their stories of everyday life led her to a Specialist in Journalism at the University of Toronto. Acknowledging the depth of her convictions and abilities, she joined the ranks of freelancers the world over and for the next six years, Herrera explored the bounds of her passion by working vigorously in every industry position she could ascertain.

Since moving back to Trinidad, Herrera’s love of media propelled her into a world of creating rich and diversified programming that has been syndicated internationally.

Herrera continues to add notches to her belt. After all, who said that a girl only has to be a journalist, publicist, blogger, assistant director, writer, digital strategist, host, producer…but who cares about titles….it’s all for the love of story-telling.

Project Title: THE WEEKEND

Esosa E.

Esosa E. is an award winning Producer, Writer, Actress, Health Expert, and Fashion Designer who was recently named an “”Afro-Renaissance Woman”” by the Weekend Argus, and featured in The Root’s List “10 African Artists and Entrepreneurs You Should Know”. Currently, she serves as Associate Producer and plays the role of Ngozi on the hit international TV and web series An African City. She is currently producing and attached to star in a number of different film and television projects with acclaimed filmmakers worldwide including Rise of the Orisha, a superhero movie inspired by African mythology.

Project Title: BROOKLYNITES

Glace Lawrence

Glace Lawrence is an independent producer/writer who has merged her award-winning TV production experience with her passion and empathy for creating great content.

Glace’s independent documentary and drama projects include the award-winning Coming To Voice, Hotel Babylon: Heroes & Hustlers, D-E-S-I-R-E and The Colour Of Immunity. As a Line Producer, her TV projects include the award-winning doc-lifestyle series The Stagers for HGTV US & HGTV CAN two seasons of the extreme home de-cluttering experiment Consumed for HGTV and two live-to-tape specials for Season 1 of The Bachelor Canada for Rogers. She was a founding member of Toronto’s Black Film & Video Network.

Project Title: MO' LOVE

Juliette McCawley

A writer/director/producer for 12 years, Juliette McCawley’s short films have been screened in festivals in China, Chile, Trinidad, Cuba, England and Canada. Originally from Trinidad, Juliette McCawley spent 15 years as an actor before directing her first short in the US. After moving to Shanghai, she spent the next 5 years producing, writing and directing short films and corporate videos for several Fortune 500 companies. She was also a founding member of the East West Theatre Company in Shanghai. In 2010 she studied Advanced Film Directing at Central Film School London. Since her return to Trinidad she has written, produced and directed documentaries, short films and feature projects.

Project Title: Bitter Fruit

Kafi Kareem Farrell

Trinidad and Tobago native Kafi Kareem Farrell is a screenwriter and multi-platform media producer. Through her company, Story Play, she is on a mission to engage audiences with quality scripted content that celebrates Caribbean cultures. The magic of filmmaking, in Kafi’s view, lies in bringing together talented practitioners who excel, technically and creatively, in their respective crafts. “It starts with a good story. But it’s ultimately about collaboration,” she says.

Project Title: Big Man Dan

Menelik Shabazz

Menelik Shabazz is a Barbados-born born multi-award Director/ Producer. He has worked independently or over 35 years in both documentary and fiction. He has produced work for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. 

Shabazz is best known for his acclaimed cult classic Burning An Illusion (1982) which won the Grand Prix at the Amien International Film Festival in 1982. Catch A Fire his BBC drama/doc won the Prized Pieces/National Black Programming Consortium Award (1996/USA). More recently his feature length documentary The Story of Lover’s Rock (2011/UK won the Jury award for Best Documentary at the Trinidad International Film Festival in 2012. The Story of Lover’s Rock became one of the highest-grossing documentaries in UK cinemas in 2011.

His current production is Looking For Love (2015/UK), a feature documentary about black love, relationships and sex in the UK.

Project Title: HEAT

Monique Dikmoet

Horace Black Johnson, award winning movie director, is a drunk and almost in the gutter. In Money Money Money, a play in a play adjusted as a television series and filmed for a live studio audience, Horace gets one last chance to shine again. Really soon he realises that he is being set up for failure with a contract deal by his studio producers. They force him to go to Holland, Europe and direct a sitcom for television and work with non-union actors, amateurs and even local people picked up from the street.

In Money Money Money 2 storylines develop. When the director says action the audience watches the story of the Surinamese creole family Pina, a very religious family who struggles to make ends meet. They suddenly become very rich when after a bank robbery the oldest grandchild David comes home with a lot of cash and bank papers.

When the director says cut or more yells cut cut cut and loses his temper, the actor becomes themselves and start arguing with him and each other. During those breaks, the audience witnesses the struggle of Horace Black Johnson.

Much to everybody’s surprise Money Money Money becomes a major box office hit. The universal story of people struggling showcased in a unique way and developed even further in multiple episodes is something people can relate to.

Project Title: MONEY MONEY MONEY

Rachel Osbourne

Rachel Osbourne is the founder of talent management and entertainment company TPJ Group. The company provides counsel, generates opportunities and develops projects for clients in television, film, music, and the visual and performing arts. A 2012 journalism graduate of Seneca College of Applied Arts (Toronto, Ontario), Rachel’s passion for telling Caribbean stories was ignited during her stint as Assistant Vice President of Original Video at eMedia Interactive Ltd. (Kingston, Jamaica) where she was in charge of the company’s SVOD platform iVu tv. West Bay is Rachel’s first production under the TPJ Group umbrella.

Project Title: WEST BAY

Sean Hodgkinson

Sean Hodgkinson is a writer, director and producer from Trinidad and Tobago. After finishing his first degree in Environmental Policy and Geography at Brock University in Canada, Sean returned to Trinidad where serendipity allowed him to attain his dream working as a production coordinator in the industry he wanted to be a part of.

Sean pursued a certificate in Filmmaking from the London Film Academy in 2009 and has enjoyed consistent success since. In 2010, he started writing his first screenplay and two years later, A Story About Wendy premiered at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (ttff) 2012, the film’s success inspired Sean to write A Story About Wendy 2, which premiered at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in June 2014 and also screened at the ttff/14 where it won the People’s Choice award for Best Narrative Feature.

Trafficked is Sean’s second feature film, copping the award for Best Trinidad and Tobago feature at the ttff/15 and Best Foreign Feature at the San Francisco Black Film Festival in 2016. Trafficked and has since screened in several international film festivals in Cannes, Los Angeles and New York.

Sean is presently working on the ensemble mini-series, “The Weekend.”

Project Title: THE WEEKEND

Yolande Clarke

Yolande Clarke was born and raised in Jamaica. She attended the University of the West Indies, and graduated with an Accounting Degree but she started the Lil’ Island Kidz project as a children’s book called ‘Yalena and the Spelling Bee’ and she was inspired to animate the series because she grew up without seeing Caribbean representation in cartoons. She won the 2016 Kingstoon Fest Storyboard award from the World Bank. Her hope is to build awareness to the international community about the Caribbean its diversity and culture, while inspiring kidz to believe in their abilities to succeed.

Project Title: LIL' ISLAND KIDZ

Carmen Franczyk

Carmen Franczyk has 20 + years in media projects in the Caribbean and Canada. She has joined Mongoose Team for the Taxi Man project. Her resume credits include work on movies such as “”Legends of the Fall””, “”Ritual””, “”Sankofa””, “”Open Season”” TVC’s for Gatorade, Fiat, Whirlpool, Apple, Samsung and WICC Cricket. TV Episodes for Travel Channel, Food Network, Fuel TV, SyFy, BBC and Nat Geo. She will be representing creators Paul and Donna Noble of Mongoose Productions Ltd for the Incubator.

Project Title: Taximan

Danielle Dieffenthaller

Danielle Dieffenthaller has over 20 years experience in the television and film industry. She is committed to telling the Caribbean story through quality dramatic and documentary film and television productions. She is the owner/producer/director of Diefferent Style Flims Ltd., which produced the popular television series Iere Vibe and The Reef. Ms Dieffenthaller was also the force behind the television production company Earth TV Ltd. She produced, directed and co-wrote of the critically acclaimed Ecowatch series and the groundbreaking Westwood Park. She has worked with Trinidad and Tobago Television, the UK-based production company Bandung Productions and the production house Banyan Ltd. She and another crew member captured the events of the 1990 Coup in Trinidad. Ms. Dieffenthaller’s numerous credits include educational, environmental and corporate projects for local, regional and international audiences. She has produced and directed several music videos.

Project Title: Plain Sight

Keren Hall

Keren Hall: is the Assistant Director and co-founder of Hall-e-Wood Productions. She functions as a producer for “”Keeping up with the Joneses””, “”Keeping up with the Joneses: the movie””.

Project Title: Abiola

Laurence Magloire

Laurence Magloire was born in Port-au-Prince, Ha•iti. She lived and worked for many years in Montreal, including 11 years with the Canadian Broadcasting Television where she was a producer for children’s program. She moved back to her native Haiti where she created the renowned award winning documentary film Of men and gods with Anne Lescot, released in 2002 by DigitalLM Films Production, that she founded with her co-director. She founded Haitian-based production company fastforward, with Eric Auguste. Fastforward is a dynamic company specialized in new media concepts, digital scenography, stage design and video production. They are the main operator and sponsor of Sinema anba zetwal for Fondation MWéM that she co-founded in 2003 with the mission of empowering and educating Haitians with their own images through films, video, photos. Laurence has also produced a number of documentary films in Haiti.

Project Title: Kafou

Mariette Monpierre

From the beaches of Guadeloupe to the bright lights of the Big Apple, Mariette Monpierre is a rising star in the film industry. She has a Master from the Sorbonne University & Smith College. She began her career @ BBDO NY producing commercials for Pepsi, Visa, Pizza Hut, Gillette & FedEx. Her portfolio includes music videos, documentaries & her feature film “”Elza”” (Le Bonheur d’Elza) was the NY Times Critics’ Pick & won several awards @ PAFF in L.A, the Paul Robeson Award @ FESPACO’13, Best Narrative @ Roxbury Film Fest & The Greater Cleveland Urban Film Fest.

Project Title: French Girl in New York!

Michael Mosca

As head of Equinoxe Films since 1996, which he purchased in 2009, Michael Mosca has played a pivotal role in the strategic management and profitability for the company’s various divisions. Under his leadership, the company establishing a production arm, which kicked off with a multi award winning feature film in 2005, Un Dimanche à Kigali (A Sunday in Kigali). Equinox also acquires and distributes film and television properties in Canada and around the world. His most recent productions include award-winning A Million Colours (2011), a powerful story set in the last few years of apartheid and Winnie (2012), a drama that chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela starring Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson and Oscar nominated Terrence Howard. Mr. Mosca’s career in the film business spans over 30 years, in both distribution and exhibition. He is President of the Motion Pictures Pioneers Association of Quebec and is also a Member of the Board of Cine Québec. He has been working with Trinidadian born, Canadian-based, writer Maureen Hill for over a decade, developing the concept of Black Mariah, which Equinoxe will produce as a six-part mini-series

Project Title: Black Mariah

Natalie C. Holly

A writer and actor of Haitian descent, Natalie C. Holly created BOUKIE after completing several diverse professional experiences in post-earthquake Haiti. Passionate about telling socially relevant stories, she has observed the complexities of Haiti’s current social fabric along with the dynamic between the local Haitian population, and the foreign, governmental, and institutional players involved in rebuilding efforts. A graduate of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University where she earned a Masters in Fine Arts, she continues to work in the art world, where narratives of the multi-faceted black diaspora experience are honored and inspired.

Project Title: Kafou

Omar Lewis

Whether exhibiting animation in the Museum of Modern Art Affiliate P.S. 1 Center for Contemporary art, illustrating for Marvel Comics, creating Crab Catcher… the Caribbean’s first studio produced video game, or twenty years of art educating including full-time lecturing for the Caribbean’s first English speaking university animation program- Trinidad born and New York City raised Omar Lewis has always put creativity passion and love at forefront of all his endeavours.

Project Title: The Wonderful World of Myat

Rampaul Banseelal

Rampaul Banseelal was introduced to theatre at a tender age. He then went on to capture many awards as an actor, play write, director and producer. He then ventured into film. He is currently working on ‘Life with the Ramsinghs”” Season Two and soon to be in production of “”Infidel’s Touch”” and ‘Atlantis”” a Documentary.

Project Title: Life with the Ramsinghs

Rommel Hall

Rommel Hall is the Managing Director and co-founder of Hall-e-wood Productions: one of the multimedia production businesses which has developed and produced the first Barbadian sitcom “”Keeping up with the Joneses””, the feature film “”Keeping up with the Joneses: the Movie”” and web series “”Abiola.””

Project Title: Abiola

Sean Mohan

Sean Mohan was introduced to theatre and went into filmmaking by the age of twenty. As an Editor, he is self taught and has edited Life with the Ramsinghs, Season one and currently Season Two, Christmas with the Ramsinghs and A Christmas Holdup. He is also an aspiring Director with intentions of filming his own productions.

Project Title: Life with the Ramsinghs

Shane Holford

Shane Holford is the Managing Director of Fresh Productions: the other multimedia business which developed “”Keeping up with the Joneses””, “”Keeping up with the Joneses: the Movie”” and “”Abiola”” where he serves as Director of Photography, camera operator and producer. Additionally, through Fresh Productions he has produced commercials, documentaries and other features.

Project Title: Abiola

Tracy-Ann Perpall

Tracy-Ann Perpall is an Icon Award nominee that wields the power of the Internet as a platform for risqueŽ video blogs/sketches, “”Tap’s Vlogs”” and with over 20,000 social media followers and youtube views amassing approximately 1 million and counting. Her videos have been featured on platforms such as Tyler Perry’s talent search, Island 360, WorldStarHipHop, The Nassau Guardian, The Tribune, ELifeMagazine, NuWoman Magazine, ZNS, Cable 12 and numerous online articles and local publications. She has hosted several television specials including the Bahamas’ first televised soap opera, Gippie’s Kingdom Season 1 and 2 Premiere and the Icon Awards.

Project Title: Gippie's Kingdom

Travon Patton

The Marlin Award nominated producer has been involved in film-making for over 7 years but has been actively involved in producing drama productions from the age of 16. He is the founder of the 12:01 Studios Media Group and is also the Lead Producer at Fam Entertainment. Patton is known for his feature documentary, May 3rd (2008) and short film Redial Sunshine (2010), that both premiered at the Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), The Dream (2013) that premiered at Miami’s Widescreen Film Festival and Break (2009). Patton is foremost known as the Co-producer and Director of Photography for the first Bahamian Television Soap Opera Series, Gippie’s Kingdom (2012).

Project Title: Gippie's Kingdom

Camille Selvon Abrahams

Camille Selvon Abrahams is an award-winning multimedia producer and animator who returned to Trinidad & Tobago after spending five years honing her animation and multimedia production skills in the United Kingdom.
She graduated from Goldsmiths University of London with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Media and Communications, specializing in animation. Her final year animation, The MasterPEACE, won the Royal Television Society Award in London.
Camille has recently invested substantial creative ingenuity into the development of the animation industry in Trinidad and Tobago. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival, the Caribbean’s first animation and new media festival. She is
currently at the University of Trinidad & Tobago as Program Administrator and lecturer for the Animation Diploma. In 2007, Camille launched Full Circle Production animation studio. Camille was honoured with the Toronto-based CaribbeanTales Innovation Award for the work that she has achieved in
the Caribbean in the field of animation. Her most recent production is in development — a 26-part animation children’s series created in the Caribbean using the skills, music and talent of the people of the Caribbean.

Camille Selvon Abrahams’ participation is made possible by the generosity of Toon Boom Animation and UNIDO.

Project Title: MAGNIFICENT MAGGIE

Chattrisse Dolabaille

Chattrisse Dolabaille (costar, writer, producer) was born in Toronto to Jamaican and Trinidadian parents. A Ryerson University graduate (Radio &amp TV Arts), she is thrilled to represent Yohannes Entertainment in the 2014 CaribbeanTales Incubator Program.

Project Title: UNSCENE

Faisal Lutchmedial

Faisal won the WGC Bell Media Diverse Screenwriters Program and was assigned to the writing room of The Listener – Season 4. He was then hired to work as the story editor to the webseries. His first professional short, Useless Things (2009, 16 min), won the Writers Guild’s English Script Prize at the Festival Nouveau Cinema, and more recently, he directed Mr. Crab (2012, 9 min), which aired nationally on the CBC Short Film Face Off. In addition to writing/directing, Faisal shot and edited Burgundy Jazz, a Radio- Canada webseries that was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award last year.

Project Title: Knock Knock

Jelani “J Wyze” Nias

Jelani “J Wyze” Nias was born on the island of Antigua in 1977, has lived in Bermuda and now resides in Toronto, Canada.  He has been writing professionally for 16 years. In 2013, his short stories were featured in two anthologies “In The Black: New African Canadian Literature” and “So The Nailhead Bend, So The Story End: an Anthology of Antiguan and Barbudan Writing”.

An accomplished spoken word artist, his poetry can be found in “Word Up: Spoken Words In Print” and on EMI Canada’s companion audio compilation also entitled ‘Word Up’. His articles have been published by the Toronto Star and included in Canadian civic high school texts. He has also had various poems incorporated into syllabi for the University of Alberta’s English courses.

“Where Eagles Crawl and Men Fly” is his first novel.

Project Title: WHERE EAGLES CRAWL

Melissa Gomez

Originally from the island of Antigua, Melissa is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in New York City. Melissa’s feature-length documentary directorial debut, Silent Music, is a portrait of her deaf family which won the Best Documentary awards at both the 2014 Maine Deaf Film Festival and the 2012 CaribbeanTales Film Festival, as well as the Audience Choice Award at the 2013 Toronto Deaf Film &amp Arts Festival. Her documentary short, Share and Share Alike, won the award for Best Film / Video Documentary Production at the 2010 Berlin International Black Cinema Festival in Germany, and was also nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Pan African Film Festival in Culver City, California.

Most recently, Melissa has worked with Academy Award nominated directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady at Loki Films where she Co-Produced MAKERS: Women &amp Comedy, a documentary on trailblazing women in comedy airing on PBS in September 2014. With Loki Films, Melissa also Co-Produced Branded, an episode of ESPN’s Emmy- nominated Nine for IX series. Melissa also worked with Academy Award winning director Alex Gibney on his documentary feature, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, which was short listed for an Academy Award in 2010.

Project Title: MOMENTS

Pedro Guzman

Pedro Guzman (Peyi) has a degree in Social Sciences from the Universidad Madre y Maestra and is interested in history, music and popular culture. Director and Cinematographer since the 1980’s, he has been filming the “Guloyas” since 1983 while making the documentary “Carnaval y Caretas” on the Dominican Carnaval. He has since worked as DOP on thirteen films, directed numerous music videos, and won numerous awards including Best Cinematography in 2014 for his work on the 2013 film Guien manda.

Project Title: The Dancing Africans of the Caribbean

Rene Holder

Creative Entrepreneur, Art Director, Animator, Illustrator, CEO and Co-Founder of the Animation and Interactive Design Studio, Lab 206. One of Rene’s biggest passions is to bring animation and new media to the level in the Caribbean where it is appreciated locally as well as be competitive on a global market. He has completed one animated short UN.TITLE.D and has led the Lab 206 Team for the past 4 years on several commercial animated projects.

Currently he is working on an international animated music video with Lab 206 and is the past Winner of 2012 Best Young Service Provider for the year award from the Trinidad and Tobago Collation of Service Industry.

Project Title: FIRST RESPONDERS

Stephen Young-Chin

Stephen Young-Chin is a York University Film Production graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours degree, and has worked in the film and television industry for over 22 years. Prior to becoming a producer/director, Stephen worked professionally in three different disciplines in film and television – a rare achievement in the industry. Stephen first worked in staging and art direction. He then became a camera assistant with IATSE 667 and worked on feature films including the very first Santa Clause with Tim Allen. For the past 17 years, Stephen worked in postproduction as an editor, a non-linear editing technical consultant and a facility owner. Some of his postproduction clients include: Miramax Films, Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate, Alliance/Atlantis, HBO and Showtime Network.

Project Title: CRICKET NATION

Aiko Maya Roudette

Aiko Maya Roudette was born in Derby, England. She moved to the Caribbean soon after birth, initially to Trinidad and Tobago, but eventually to the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She spent most of her life in St. Vincent, and moved to Wales to study in 2006. After graduating she spent a year of work and travel around the Caribbean and Latin America. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Film Production from Bard College in May 2013, and is currently employed by a film production company in upstate New York.

Project Title: Hoghole

Akley Olton

ViNcy Rasta-man on a mission to create Cinema about the lives of the his people and founder of iREBEL Pictures, which is a Vincentian based audiovisual production company interested in preserving and documenting Caribbean culture.

It’s stated purpose is to contribute to the social and cultural development of the region by producing films that explore and illustrate the Caribbean space. Olton is also a painter and graphic designer in St.Vincent and the Grenadines where he has been tirelessly laying the foundations of a Film Industry.

Project Title: Concrete Jungle Hairouna, Land of the Blessed

Christopher Pinheiro

Trinidadian theatrician Christopher Pinheiro is a multi-media artist and the Artistic director of Toronto-based Swizzlestick Theatre. Foundation member of Banyan Television Workshop and the Callaloo Company of MasMan Peter Minshall, his early training was with Derek Walcott’s Trinidad Theatre Workshop and the Jamaican School of Drama. He has been an actor, director, writer, producer and designer. Film credits include acting “Angel in a Cage ” Director Mary Jane Gomes Art Direction and Production Design “What My Mother Told Me ” and ” A Winter Tale ” Director Frances Anne Solomon. Blood Moon is his first feature film as Writer-Producer.

Project Title: Blood Moon

Dominique Télémaque

Dominique Télémaque is a Haitian filmmaker. With his production company, Alfaméga Productions, he has directed many short films that have all won prizes in Haïti and the Dominican Republic. With “5 minutes para mi país”, “Delecha”, and ” No creo que somos iguales “, Télémaque is one of the most promising filmmakers of Haïti.

Project Title: Beaux Sourires

Karen Chapman

Karen Chapman, begins her journey at an Ontario Penitentury to meet the man who murdered her father in 2005. Due to the violent loss, Karen developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder issues manifested in her inability to rejoice or dance.

Project Title: COCOON

Michael Mooleedhar

A film brand created by myself Michael Mooleedhar partnering with Patricia Mohammed to both fund and market our films. The goal is to create brilliant cross-cultural films that can be firstly targeted to a local audience and secondly to markets across the world.

Project Title: Michael Mooleedhar Film Co

Motion Live

Motion (Antigua/Barbados/Canada) is an award-winning emcee, poet, playwright and Hip Hop artist, and the writer/producer of Aneemah’s Spot, which has just finished a successful sold out theatre run at the Toronto Summerworks Festival.

Project Title: Aneemah's Spot

Princess Donelan

Princess Donelan born in Trinidad and Tobago to Grenadian parents grew up in Grenada and moved back to Trinidad and 19 to pursue employment in the arts, not having the option in the small island at the time then. She has been involved in film and theatre for 18 years, initially on stage, camera, where she realized after being in a very successful local soap opera in Trinidad that being on camera was definitely too slow paced for her maniacal pace, from then on along with various too many to list mundane jobs to pay the rent, from managing bars to painting walls to checking containers at ports, radio announcing.

Project Title: Princess Donelan

Satya Collymore

With aspirations to become a Caribbean filmmaker/producer, capable of capturing the Caribbean with an organic aesthetic, Ms. Satya Collymore has nurtured this dream from her inception of interest in the arts.

Ms. Collymore saw in film that ability to channel every art form that she has dappled into from childhood, working through, adapting, manipulating and drawing inspiration from them as she learned to develop her own sense of this genre. Her fascination with this medium lies in telling a story that can be evocative and compelling with the ability to affect change on a wider scale.

Project Title: Diary of an Immigrant

Shashi Balooja

Shashi Balooja www.shashi.tv is an award winning actor/writer/director/producer & filmmaker, born in Trinidad, raised in Antigua and Canada. Without any prior acting experience he attending the Professional Program at Lee Strasberg in NYC. Additionally to working extensively on stage, television, and film, Shashi made, and starred in the multi-award winning short film ARIANA, (Best Story & Screenplay at the Italian Short Film Festival), after which he co-produced and acted in AND THEN CAME LOVE with Vanessa Williams & Eartha Kitt. Upcoming projects include two features with HamaFilms, and the leading role in the play OUT, by Rain Pryor in 2014.

Project Title: Ariana

Shelton Deverell

Shelton Deverell (Jamaica/Canada/US) is a digital artist who creates engaging video animation, logo designs and illustration for Imax, Nelvana, and other major clients.

Project Title: Inventurer Game

Sonia Godding Togobo

Sonia Godding Togobo is an emerging documentarian and a broadcast editor who has worked for television stations and production companies in Canada and the UK. In 2001, after graduating from Humber’s Film and Television program, Sonia went on to work in numerous post production houses before settling at Nelvana – North America’s largest animation distributor. While at Nelvana, she independently worked on short films, music videos and documentaries. Favouring the latter, Sonia worked her way up to associate editor on CBC’s A Deathly Silence and WTSN Profile series before moving on to Canada’s pioneering music channel – MuchMusic in 2003. There, she edited a variety of the channel’s programs including an hour special on the crisis in Darfur with George Stroumboulopoulos. In 2005, Sonia worked on SunTV’s Echo – the channel’s premiere multi-ethnic biography series that highlighted diverse trailblazing Torontionians. In 2006, she crossed the big pond and moved to London where she worked in entertainment and factual programming for a variety of production companies and networks including Channel 4 and BBC. In 2007, she shot and edited her first documentary We Had a Dream, in Accra, Ghana. Later that year, she also shot her second film, Adopted ID about a transracially adopted Canadian who returns to Haiti in search of her biological family. Adopted ID is Sonia’s first feature documentary and is being released officially in July.

Project Title: Ghetto Messiah

Sue-Ellen Chitunya

Sue-Ellen Chitunya, (Zimbabwe/US) is a budding filmmaker from Zimbabwe. She is a Georgia State University graduate currently finishing up a producing certification program at UCLA. Some of her films have screened at Atlanta Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, and Action on Film Festival. Her varied work experience includes producing and coordinating the Georgia Big Picture Conference, interning for International Creative Management at Cannes Film Festival and marketing for the Disney College Program.

Project Title: Sue-Ellen Chitunya

Alana Lowe

Alana Lowe, (Toronto/Jamaica) was the Producer and Co-Director of The Forgotten City ƒ In the City, that was showcased in the Sprockets International Film Festival at TIFF.

Project Title: Stolen From Africa

Claire Hamel-Smith

Claire Hamel-Smith, (Trinidad) Winner of the 2011 Animae Caribe/Trinidad and Tobago Film Company Pitch This! Scholarship to attend the CaribbeanTales Incubator Program, this 20-year-old animator formed Lab206 with some classmates after graduation from the University of Trinidad & Tobago.

Project Title: The Upstarts

Francisco Montas

Francisco Montas (Dominican Republic) wrote, produced and directed the award winning short Some Sort Of Soap Opera-ish Theatre-Film. He was Guest Director for a segment of Leticia Tonos’ feature Love Child, and wrote the screenplay for Scent of Oblivion, an adaptation of the Dominican bestseller, to be directed by Bruno Barreto.

Project Title: Short Stories Written While On Exile

Guetty Felin-Cohen

Guetty Felin-Cohen (Haiti/US) is a Haitian-American filmmaker who splits her time between the US, Haiti and France. She fell in love with cinema at an early age at the drive-ins of Port-au-Prince, and now uses the medium for denouncing social and political injustice. Her film Broken Stones, shot in the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake, won Best Documentary at the Belize International Film Festival and will be screened on September 12 at CaribbeanTales. Her new project is Ayiti Mon Amourî.

Project Title: Ayiti Mon Amour.

Joleen Decle

Joleen Decle (Trinidad/US) is a Trinbagonian actor and writer based in Texas.

Project Title: Caribbean Crush

Kalmplex

Kalmplex,(Jamaica/Ghana/Canada) born and raised in Toronto, is a photographer, spoken word artist, videographer, DJ, painter, street artist and organic vegan chef who regularly performs at notable Toronto venues like the Gladstone Hotel, Tota, and the Lula Lounge.

Project Title: Healing Power of Jamaica

Kareem Mortimer

Kareem Mortimer (Bahamas) made his feature film debut with Children of God, that earned him 17 international awards, was released in three countries and broadcast on Showtime. He is now working on Cargo, the story of an immigration officer (Kevin) who becomes a human smuggler, and three Caribbean immigrants whose lives are deeply affected by his choices.

Project Title: Cargo

Kimalee Phillip

Kimalee Phillip, (Grenada/Canada) is a Toronto-based filmmaker and co-founder of Zenzele Films, a collective of African and Caribbean women redefining the image of Black women in film.

Project Title: Forward Ever Backward Never

Marsha A. Davies

Marsha A. Davies, (Jamaica/US) is an award-winning screenwriter and producer now based in the U.S. She works in a wide range of genres including science fiction, fantasy and suspense.

Project Title: Into His Arms

Melissa Gomez

Melissa Gomez (Antigua/Canada/US) is a New York based documentary filmmaker, and researcher/associate producer at AMC. Her short film, ñShare and Share Alikeî, won Best Documentary at the 2010 Berlin Black FIlm Festival and was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Pan African Film Festival.

Project Title: Silent Music

Natalie Wei

Natalie Wei, (Trinidad/Canada) is a Canadian-born artist, freelance photographer and filmmaker of Chinese-Trinidadian descent.

Project Title: Chinee Girl

Penny Hynam

Penny Hynam, (Barbados) began her career at the CBC and Telefilm Canada, co-founded Mobius Productions and worked as script supervisor on 40+ TV and movie sets in Canada, Europe and the U.S. After re-settling in Barbados, she worked as Director of the National Trust, Senior Producer for the Caribbean Media Corporation’s coverage of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and was founding President of the Barbados Film and Video Association.

Project Title: A Day In a Bajan Life

Rodney V. Smith

Rodney V. Smith (Barbados/Canada/US) began his ten year career in film and television production as a writer in Barbados, moved on to Line Producing and was thrust into the role of Director on the feature filmMort in 2003. His unique vision and skill as Director of Photography adds to his value. He has honed his film making skills through on-set experiences in a range of production environments including independent film, television shows and music videos. He is the co-creator, co-writer, cinematographer, editor, director and producer of Dominion the web-series. His second web venture The Accidental Time Traveller will have its world Premiere at CaribbeanTales on Sept 15th.

Project Title: The Accidental Time Traveller

Tanya Davies

Tanya Davies, (Jamaica) is a writer and animator who studied film production in New York and screenwriting in Los Angeles, has written serials for TV and radio, and lectures at universities in the U.S. and Jamaica.

Project Title: Hummy

Alison Saunders

Alison Saunders is a Barbadian/Trinidadian who wrote and directed the first feature film to be exported commercially from Barbados. Hit For Six!
is a rich tapestry of Caribbean culture, which, since its release in 2007, has won awards and been screened throughout the region and at film festivals around the world. Currently, Alison has a thriller, Freedom Run (an awardee of the UNIDO CEMA Film Project), and a documentary on Barbadians and the Panama Canal in development. She has scripted, produced and directed “edutainment” and public service programming for organizations such as UNICEF, UNIFEM, USAID, CARICOM and the Barbados Government. In the 80s she was head of broadcasting for the Barbados Government Information Service.
A graduate of Syracuse University, with a Master’s in Television Production, in 2004 Alison wrote, produced and directed a 13-minute film, The Second Innings in London while she attended a film course at the Metropolitan Film School. The film was well-received in London at the Clapham Picturehouse Cinema and the African & Caribbean Film Festival in Barbados.She is a founder and board member of the Caribbean Audio-Visual Network and a founder and Vice President of the Barbados Film and Video Association. She is also the founder and managing director of one of the Caribbean’s leading communications firms, SFa Communications Inc. and Blue Waters Productions, a film and video company based in Barbados, which now boasts a state-of-the art, high-definition editing facility and offers full production services.
Alison Saunder’s participation is made possible by the generosity of UNIDO.

Project Title: FREEDOM RUN

Chris Browne

Chris Browne, Jamaican writer / director, whose film Ghett’a Life will have its North American Premiere at the CaribbeanTales Showcase. Browne’s first feature ñThird World Copî is the largest grossing Caribbean film to date having played in Jamaican cinemas for over four months.

Project Title: Ghett'a Life

Dalton Narine

Dalton Narine, writer, filmmaker and Vietnam War veteran, grew up watching grainy films at rundown cinemas in his native Trinidad.

The word, written or spoken, fell in love with him in grade school. Migrating to Manhattan in his late teens, he found nirvana in the works of New York’s esteemed writers, and at art houses that screened avant-garde flicks.

Narine’s experiences after the war may have seemed fanciful, having plowed through the surreal world of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still, he met lofty goals. As a junior in college, he wrote feature stories for the Village Voice. A few years later, he became a public relations manager for an airline, then a features editor at Ebony magazine and The Miami Herald, even as he was producing cultural films in his homeland. Fourteen in all.

Narine has won two awards for feature writing and seven for film production, including New York International Film and Video Festival, Columbus International Film Festival , Chagrin Falls Documentary Festival,Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival and Caribbean Broadcasting and Media.

I’m a writer who sees the big picture, hence the marriage of image and prose,î Narine says. ñIf that sounds voyeuristic, well, it’s my art. Not my subject’s art.

The latest subject of his artistic voyeurism is Trinidad’s Carnival and Olympic Games icon Peter Minshall.

Project Title: Mas Man

Darren Anthony

Darren Anthony, Jamaican-Canadian writer of runaway hit play ñSecrets of a Black Boyî that has just closed at New York’s ActNow New Voices In Theatre Festival.

Project Title: Secrets of a Black Boy

Malinda Francis

Malinda tells visual stories that derive from her experience, as well tries to communicate and connect with others within her community. An independent filmmaker, Malinda (a docuvixen film) has been working as a freelance filmmaker, camera operator and editor for 5 years now.

She continues working on her own projects and various community media initiatives.The themes that she explores in her work are around urban living and cities, and as well migration stories.

Her first independent poetic documentary Where are we (shot in Detroit) is currently going around in various festivals, and developing other films around urban cities such Windsor, especially in the advent of the economic crash.

Malinda works in The Movement Project a performance collective, which produces multi-media performances, combines film, video projection, theatre, spoken word, audio design, and musicƒaround themes of migration, their last performance was last August 2009

Malinda currently works on 2 Radios shows, Works with the team at Saturday Morning Live with Norman Otis Richmon (aka Jalali), at CKLN Flagship News Show. 10am-1pm every Saturday streamed www.clkn.fm As well with theVibeCollective CIUT 89.5fm, which is a mix of music and current affairs, cohosts Jamaias DaCosta and Syed Adnan Hussain, along with DJ Corey Dawkins bringing Next Level Music.

Project Title: The Diaspora Travels

Mandisa Pantin

After taking a course in Camera Operation, Mandisa Pantin got entranced enough to close the family business that she was managing in 2007 in order to plunge fulltime into freelancing in the Television Industry, where she had begun functioning as a Camera and Production Assistant in many commercial productions both in film and video. At the same time she worked as a Camera Operator in other television shows and live events.

She also was involved in scriptwriting from the beginning of her involvement in the Television Industry, writing the script for the course production Magnificent Seven, a documentary on the Magnificent Seven buildings around the Savannah Clever Sales a spoof on a commercial, as well as her own production, a children’s story, Tooth Fairy in 2006. During this time she honed her editing skills in these productions and added editing to her freelancing repertoire, as well as assisting students in the Secondary School Film Competition in 2007 and 2008. She also produced and directed a music video, This Christmas in December 2007 with singer Eldon Blackman.

Project Title: Raoul & I

Michelle Serieux

Michelle Serieux, St. Lucian producer and director, co- founder of New Caribbean Cinema, a Jamaica-based film collective that includes filmmakers Storme Saulter, cinematographer, Nile Saulter, and filmmaker Joel Burke.

Project Title: Michelle Serieux

Natalie Thompson

Cinecom Productions Limited has been a leading Production Company in Jamaica since 1975. Led by Producer/Director, Natalie Thompson, Cinecom has a reputation for the creation of a diverse number of innovative products and services within the film and television industries. Cinecom is an award winning producer of commercial advertisements with a dynamic reel of local, regional and international spots. Cinecom has produced documentaries and short videos for numerous clients and were co-producers of the popular music video by Kevin Lyttle ñTurn me on.î Natalie has been a producer, production manager and consultant on several feature films and television productions shot in Jamaica including Cool Runnings, Instinct, Treasure Island, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Passion and Paradise, Third World Cop, Milk and Honey and Prelude to a Kiss. Natalie has also worked as a reader, writer and consultant on several projects developed for the Caribbean region. In recent times Cinecom has turned to the development of specific Jamaican products with international appeal for both television and video.

Project Title: Ghett'a Life

Nicholas Anthony Attin

In 2010 just one month prior to Producing and Directing his first feature film he was involved in the making of a feature film titled 3 Line (Christopher Din Chong) where he was Co-Producer, Art Director, Cinematographer and Assistant Editor.

Project Title: LITTLE BOY BLUE

Nicole Brooks

Nicole Brooks multi-talented Canadian filmmaker, producer, songstress and theatre artist, producer of the series ECHO, and director of The Orisha Suite and Ase.

Project Title: Salome Bey

Rene Holder

Rene Holder is a Trinidadian born Animator and Illustrator, as well as the CEO of an emerging new animation studio, Lab 206. He has completed one animated short UN.TITLE.D and is currently working on another with Lab 206. His biggest influences are Japanese and French Animation, Comic and Graffiti Art.

Project Title: UN.TITLE.D

Rodney V. Smith

Rodney Smith and Aubrey Padmore, the team behind innovative, New York / Barbados-based web series Dominion.

Project Title: Dominion

Sean Michael Field

Sean has been acting since the age of five. After graduating university he worked with legendary actors Blithe Danner, Kevin Spacey, Peter Gallagher and Al Pacino all while at Long Wharf Theatre.

His first stage appearance in Barbados came in the Hilary Beckles piece, ïBlessed’, followed by leading roles in ïFrom Prague to Prison’, ïThe Redemption of Sister Dinah’ and award winning author David Mamet’s ïOleanna’. During this time he won silver in Drama at NIFCA for his biting spoken word piece, ïThe Warning’ and followed this up with a supporting role in ïHolding On’ and a cameo appearance in ïHit for Six’.

Sean also hosted the 2004 Miss Barbados Universe pageant and the first ïBarbados Film Festival Music Video Fete’ with MTV Tempo’s Jeanille Bonterre. He was seen in Alison Hinds’ music video ïRoll’ and was subsequently asked to host two shows for Tempo.

Project Title: Redemption

Yvette Maynard

Yvette Maynard can be aptly described as a renaissance woman. From a retired Telecommunications Operator at Cable & Wireless, and currently Executive Secretary to the General Manager of The Barbados National Trust, Ms. Maynard has gone on to become one of the most enviable women of her era.

She is CEO of Eve’s Creations which produces souvenir gift baskets made from local products such as pepper sauce, rum punch, rum sugar and fruit preserves. Souvenir gift totes depicting Barbadian culture for the non-Barbadian. She met and was encouraged by the Co-Founder of Caribvoiceradio to become a Broadcaster with that online radio station and has gone on to host her own show on Friday nights with the same title. Because of her personality Ms. Maynard fits in well as CEO of a Public Relations and Marketing Company – Future Quest Services – which has a registered office in Barbados. She is Editor of a fictional novel written by Dr. Anita Davis-DeFoe entitled “Tropical Escapes” which was set in a Caribbean island. Her debut Motivational Speech was made at the Sherbourne Conference Centre in Barbados. She has started producing a web TV series entitled “Life Without Limits” based on the book and is in the process of preparations for an independent film.

As the CEO of Future Quest Services and Executive Administrator for Caribbean Voice Radio Inc., an Atlanta based web radio station; Ms. Maynard focused on developing her first book while working with aspiring Independent Recording Artist in the Caribbean and USA. She was very instrumental in putting together the first ever Independent Artist Reciprocation Programs in the Caribbean Region held at The Ship Inn, St. Lawrence Gap Barbados featuring Kirk Brown and Strategy the Band with her California Rap-Hip Hop Artist Kelda Williams from The Bay Area of California. As a speaker she travels with the Barbadian eclectic music band “Strategy The Band” with lead and founder Kirk Brown as engagement require their presence.

As Virtual Administrator, Ms. Maynard enjoys interacting with people from all over the world, since in her former career she met people from different countries on a daily basis. Her dream is to travel and speak with women who need encouragement or could learn from the simplicity of her life to the complexity of it.

Project Title: Yvette Maynard

Cabral Trotman

Cabral LARC Trotman is a filmmaker, certified arts educator and community activist who has worked in the areas of youth development and arts education for over a decade.

Project Title: Cabral Trotman

Camille Selvon Abrahams

Camille Selvon Abrahams is an award-winning multimedia producer and animator who returned to Trinidad & Tobago after spending five years honing her animation and multimedia production skills in the United Kingdom.
She graduated from Goldsmiths University of London with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Media and Communications, specializing in animation. Her final year animation, The MasterPEACE, won the Royal Television Society Award in London.
Camille has recently invested substantial creative ingenuity into the development of the animation industry in Trinidad and Tobago. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival, the Caribbean’s first animation and new media festival. She is currently at the University of Trinidad & Tobago as Program Administrator and lecturer for the Animation Diploma. In 2007, Camille launched Full Circle Production animation studio. Camille was honoured with the Toronto-based CaribbeanTales Innovation Award for the work that she has achieved in the Caribbean in the field of animation.
Her most recent production is in development — a 26-part animation children’s series created in the Caribbean using the skills, music and talent of the people of the Caribbean.

Project Title: KRIK KRAK ANANSI

Clement Richards

Clement Richards is an aspiring filmmaker and independent producer. In 2009, he won the Cinematic & Entrepreneurial Motivation Award (CEMA), presented by the United Nations Industrial Development Program, Caricom, and the Caribbean Export Development Agency.

Project Title: READIMADE! (“WHO’S DE DADDY?”)

Davina Lee

Davina Lee has over 10 years of experience in the television industry. She holds a BFA in Film from the Art Institute_Miami International University of Art & Design. Together with her sister she formed Lee Productions Inc., a television/film production company in 2000. In 2009, she received a Cinematic Entrepreneurial Motivational Award from the United Nations Development Organization (UNIDO) for her short film The Coming of Org & Other Stories.

Project Title: THE COMING OF ORG & OTHER STORIES

Dawn Wilkinson

Dawn Wilkinson is a University of Toronto graduate and an alumni of the CFC Director’s Lab and Short Dramatic Film Program. She recently directed an episode of the half-hour comedy series She’s the Mayor for Hungry Eyes Film & Television and Vision TV.

Project Title: Dawn Wilkinson

Ernest Che Rodriguez

Ernest Che Rodriguez is an accomplished Caribbean producer/director/actor. His body of work encompasses some 20 films/documentaries, which he wrote, produced and directed for national, regional and international audiences.

Project Title: LEROY: FRAGMENTS OF HIS-STORY

Ian Harnarine

Ian Harnarine grew up in Toronto, the son of immigrants from Trinidad. He attended York University earning a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Astronomy. Sticking with the sciences, Ian moved to Chicago where he earned a Master’s degree in Nuclear Physics.

Project Title: Ian Harnarine

Kirk J. Buchanan

Kirk J. Buchanan has been one of the leading Production Managers in film and video on the local media landscape. Prior to joining the Creative Production & Training Centre (CPTC) in 2000, he held senior management positions at CVM Television as Production & Training Manager up until 1998 when he was appointed General Manager of CVM Productions Ltd. He was also Manager for the Television Department of Jamaica Information Service (JIS) where he worked for 12 years.

He holds a joint UWI/MIND Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Management. He received his technical and other management training from the Radio Netherlands Training Centre, Holland British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC Institute of Management and Production (IMP) and, Administrative Staff College, in Jamaica. He has participated in several film and video production seminars as well as media courses conducted locally and overseas, including a workshop in radio and television production on “”The Relevance of the Media for Adolescents Growing up in Island Societies”” in Cotonou, Benin, Africa and, a radio and television seminar for Senior Managers and Officials conducted by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television of China (SARFT).

He is currently the Deputy CEO, Director of Production for the Creative Production & Training Centre (CPTC) where he oversees the production of a number of award-winning documentaries, dramas and features.

Project Title: Uptown Bangarang

Lana Lovell

Lana Lovell began directing in earnest five years ago, after years of working as a researcher and producer for broadcast news and current affairs. Her new project, Crystal, in Black and White, will be her first feature film.

Project Title: CRYSTAL, IN BLACK AND WHITE

Lisa Harewood

Lisa Harewood fulfilled a lifelong dream in 2006 when she accepted the challenge of producing her first feature film, A Hand Full of Dirt, written and directed by Russell Watson. The film is currently being readied for market and is a testament to the resourcefulness and tenacity that all Caribbean filmmakers must possess to bring the region’s stories to light. Working with a shoestring budget and a largely non-professional cast, Lisa was able to draw on her 12 years of experience in the trenches of arts marketing, advertising, corporate video production and development support communication. Constantly on a quest to become a more versatile professional, Lisa holds a BA in Mass Communication from the University of the West Indies and an MA in Creative and Media Enterprises from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. She has also completed a course in Producing for Independent Film at the Metropolitan Film School in London where she gained a mentor in Oscar-nominated producer Jonny Persey (Solomon and Gaenor, Deep Water, Little Ashes). Lisa’s production company, Gate House Media, has two other projects in the pipeline: a literary adaptation of a Caribbean novella as well as a micro-budget documentary in which Lisa has stepped behind the camera as both cinematographer and director. Lisa is deeply committed to spearheading projects that explore original subject matter through collaborative, innovative and financially.

Project Title: Lisa Harewood

Lisa Wickham

Media producer/director/TV personality, Lisa Wickham is the CEO of Imagine Media International Limited, a multimedia production and event management entity based in Trinidad & Tobago. She is also the founder-publisher of E-Zone the Mag! and the Caribbean Film and Media Academy. Ms. Wickham is an alumna of the Warwick Business School, UK (MBA with Distinction), University of the West Indies (BSc Hons), Wirschaft Universität, Vienna, Austria, Indian Institute of Management.

Project Title: Lisa Wickham

Louis Taylor

In 1996, on discovering his partner’s pregnancy, Louis Taylor began writing Esther, Baby & Me. It became a huge festival hit and screened at over 25 festivals, winning multiple awards and broadcast on the CBC and PBS.

Project Title: DOKIS X

Mahmood Patel

Mahmood Patel is one of the driving forces behind the development of the audio visual industry in Barbados. He is the Director of the Bridgetown Film Festival in which producers from around the world participate. In particular, the film festival has given rise to the production and release of a number of indigenous films in Barbados.
He has performed the tasks of director, writer and director of production . His credits include: Now or Never, Una Casa Pa’ Maita, Teranga Blue, Hit for Six, The Shoes and Stone Houses.
He serves on the executive committee of the BFVA.

Project Title: RED FISH

Marc Gomes

Guyanese-born actor/director Marc Gomes graduated from the Ryerson University Theatre School. He went on to critical acclaim in productions of A Slow Dance On the Killing Ground, A Taste of Honey, and the North American premiere of Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Emperor. He starred in several TV series, including Lightning Force, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Sue Thomas: FBEye and ABC’s Commander in Chief.

Project Title: CORENTYNE THUNDER

Mariel Brown

Mariel Brown has been working in television and print since 1997. She is the Director of the creative and production company SAVANT and Managing Editor of Meiling: Fashion Designer and Barbara Jardine: Goldsmith.

Project Title: Mariel Brown