Production Grant

Festival

Past Years

Film Library

Grief & Resilience and Substance Use

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Films

Sunset Special

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Six Feet Apart

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Until Our Spirits Meet Again

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Coming Home to Myself

Paper Planes

Bloom

PROMISE

Save the Queen

Once Upon a Time...

Blue Garden

Filmmakers

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Asha Alaji-Sharif

A Visual Artist, Hobby Enthusiast and Lover of Earth hailing from Atlanta. Favourite film: Zoolander

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Alex Nystrom

Alex Nystrom, an Ojibwe writer, director, and producer from Minneapolis, explores identity in contemporary Native stories. A 2021 Native American Media Alliance fellow, his pilot Between made the 2022 Indigenous List. He works in Los Angeles as a director’s assistant.

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Athena Russell

Athena Russell is an award-winning actress, writer, director and producer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Having amassed a resume of over 45 professional film and TV credits both in front, and behind, the camera.

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Christopher Hyde

Chris (he/him) is a queer poet from Hereford, working in the midlands and southwest. His projects spark conversations about queer identity, masculinity, and class. Chris performs across the UK, sharing impactful poetry on these themes.

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Feyannie Hung

Feyannie Hung was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, and is based in Vancouver, BC. Fey graduated with a degree in Film Production from the University of British Columbia and currently works in the film industry. Fey has been nominated for and has won a number of notable awards including the Leos Award and awards at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival and Seattle Asian American Film Festival. Fey has produced short films including Especially Joy (2019), Midlife (2019), Cheers! (2019), The First Coffee (2020), American Girl (2020), and Coming Home to Myself (2022), and worked on Avatar the Last Airbender, Shazam 2, The Last of Us, and more.

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Lane Stanley

Lane Michael Stanley is a filmmaker, playwright, and producer, and the founder of Secretly Famous Productions. Their debut film Addict Named Hal won Best U.S. Narrative Feature at Big Bear Film Summit. Lane is a 2021 Playwriting Fellow with Lambda Literary.

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Lucie Rachel

Lucie Rachel (they/she) is a lens-based artist exploring themes of domesticity, gender, and sexuality through still and moving images. Their work focuses on intimate subjects, blending artist film and documentary genres with an interdisciplinary, collaborative approach.

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Marlena Robbins

Marlena Robbin is Diné (Navajo), and holds a master’s in American Indian Studies from Arizona State University. A tribal liaison and cultural consultant, she’s involved in projects like Rez Ball and Sunset Special. Currently, she’s a doctoral student at UC Berkeley.

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Monty Cole

Monty Cole is an award-winning theater and film writer-director from Oak Park, IL. With work at regional theaters, Cole’s recent projects include directing films like SIX FEET APART and WHOLE. He is a fellow at the Hermitage Artist Retreat and a Research Scholar at UIC.

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Natalie Murao

Natalie Murao is a yonsei filmmaker and educator from Vancouver. Her work explores generational disconnect, personal memory, and communication in Asian diasporic cinema. Her latest film, No More Parties (2020), was featured at TIFF and Clermont-Ferrand. She is also a Sundance Fellow and VAFF programmer.

Sina Sultani

Sina Sultani is an 80-time award-winning writer, director, and producer. A member of the PGA and CMPA, he has worked with ILM and Sony on major films. He's in production on his first animated short and developing his first live-action feature.

Jurors

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Dr. Beverly Wallace

Dr. Wallace holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Welfare, a Masters of Education in Human Development and Family Studies, a Masters of Divinity, and a Ph.D. in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. She has authored several works including “Narratives of Grieving African Americans About Racism in the Lives of Deceased Family Members” and “A Womanist Legacy of Trauma, Grief, and Loss: Reframing the Notion of the Strong Black Woman Icon” and is the co-author of the book, “African American Grief”. Her current research includes understanding Community Trauma and End-of-Life Decisions among older African Americans and she’s currently writing her second book, “African American Grief – Revisited”.

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Megan Ammer-Barefield

Megan Ammer-Barefield is a Chicago social worker currently working in community mental health with individuals experiencing severe mental illness and/or substance use. Megan’s special interest in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, grief counselling, and strengths-based narrative therapy has helped her support clients in their recovery. Megan’s background also includes a specialization in Women Studies and Gender Studies which she uses in her work with a local Chicago organization, Girls Rock! Chicago, as the Youth Action Committee Coordinator, which aims to promote social justice and music education for Trans, gender-expansive, and girls in the community.

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Michelle Jobes

Dr. Michelle Jobes is a dedicated public servant working in substance use disorder research with an eye and heart always on reducing the stigma of substance use disorders and mental health.

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Tam Nguyen

Dr. Tam T. Nguyen is a clinical psychologist and serves as the Director of Ambulatory Mental Health & Addiction Care for Sutter Health. An expert in developing, implementing, and running large-scale mental healthcare projects.

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Olivia DePaul

An Occupational Therapist who loves helping others reach their full potential. Favourite film: Airplane!

Dylan Dunn

Assistant Director at SAFE Project (Stop the Addiction Fatality Epidemic). Serving over 450 colleges and universities seeking to implement harm reduction, addiction recovery, and anti-stigma initiatives.

Daksha Arora

Carrie Arnold

Lauren Fox

Jo Henry

Kwesi Johnson

Dr. Renee Johnson

Chelsea Kurnick

Judith Lavelle

Mae Mann

Dolka Michelle Zelaya

Stephanie O'Malley

Markie Pasternak

Sean Patrick Leonard

Rebecca Soffer

Mark Thomas

Ansh Vohra

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Kevin Allen

Kevin Allen is a seasoned reporter turned filmmaker, creating documentaries to spotlight important issues. Steve Hebert, a Kansas-born photojournalist with over 20 years of experience, has worked for major outlets and reported on global conflicts, amplifying marginalized voices.

Hao Zhou

Zhou is a filmmaker from Southwest China, making films in narrative and documentary genres. Favourite film: Days of Being Wild

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Meagan Brown

Meagan Brown (she/her) is a Montreal-based film and television editor. Her work has been featured on channels such as CBC and Noovo. When she's not editing, Meagan can usually be found puzzling.

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Campbell X

Campbell X is a writer/director known for the award-winning queer romantic comedy Stud Life, voted one of the top 10 Black British films by The Guardian. Currently developing his second feature, he co-founded the Wahala Film Fund for QTIPOC short films.

Johnathan Elliott

Jonathan Elliott is a Tuscarora filmmaker from Ontario, known for directing and cinematography on projects like Even in the Silence, Taken Home, and Her Water Drum. His work has been screened internationally at film festivals in New Zealand, Italy, Germany, the U.S., and Canada.

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Kimberly Diggles

Kimberly Diggles (she/her) is a licensed therapist in California. Dr. Diggles facilitates healing within couples, families, and communities impacted by trauma, centering resilience in folks who have been historically marginalized in society. Outside of work Kimberly enjoys running, eating, and traveling--sometimes all at the same time! Her favorite film is "Forrest Gump."

Brian Douglas

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Katelyn Bessette

Katelyn Bessette is the Development Director at Bridges to Change, an Oregon nonprofit providing housing, peer support and behavioral health treatment. BTC hosts the PDX Recovery Film Festival in Portland.

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Ligia Houben

Ligia Houben is a professional Grief Coach, Life Transition Specialist, founder of My Meaningful Life, LLC and The Center for Transforming Lives in Miami.

Kim Huynh

Kim Huynh is an award-winning San Francisco-based filmmaker and photographer from Honolulu. Passionate about social activism, she often works as a one-woman crew to highlight untold stories. Sal Tran is part of a 2018 documentary series on artists with mental health experience.

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Emilie Cheung

Emilie is a shorts director based in the UK. After training with the BFI Film Academy in 2016, she made her directorial debut at 17, with a commission from Channel 4’s ‘Random Acts’, for her short film ‘Pas De Deux’. She’s since gone on to direct a variety of projects; from social media commercials for ‘Adolescent Content’, to narrative shorts, including Underwire nominated ‘Walk of Shame’. sid

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Rosie Choo Pidcock

Rosie is a biracial Chinese Canadian actor and filmmaker based on Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver). She produced and starred in Thank You For Ghosting and Chime Me Again, with additional credits including Batwoman and Resident Alien. Her work delves into grief, feminine solidarity, and navigating multiple identities.