NGARDY CONTEH co-director/editor/producer
As a Sierra Leonean-Canadian, Ngardy Conteh always wants to tell stories of the African Diaspora. As a director she has achieved this with Soldiers for the Streets, a short documentary for the NFB, broadcast on CBC Television and Literature Alive, a documentary series featuring Caribbean-Canadian authors broadcast on Bravo!. She is also an accomplished video editor working on various documentaries and television shows including I Want to Be a Desi 2 (documentary short, Dir. Allan Tong), Something Beautiful (1/2 hr documentary on development in Kenya), Cypher for AUX TV, Arts & Minds for Bravo!, The Rhyming Chef Barbuda, Food & Drink TV and currently The Marilyn Denis Show for CTV. She is a former scholarship athlete and graduate of the University of New Orleans.
Allan is a Toronto filmmaker whose Little Mao is currently enjoying a successful film festival run. That film and his previous short, I Want To Be A Desi, will air on Bravo. A short drama, Grange Avenue (2008) also played festivals and was broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Allan apprenticed as a documentary director and producer at the National Film Board of Canada. His articles about cinema have appeared in respected journals including POV, Take One and CinemaScope as well as The Globe and Mail, Exclaim! and The Festival Daily published by the Toronto International Film Festival. He has organized and programmed for festivals including Planet In Focus Environmental and CONTACT Toronto Photography.
KATARINA SOUKUP producer
Katarina is an independent producer who brings with her ten years as documentary and multimedia producer with the internationally acclaimed filmmakers behind the Canadian cinema classic Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (Camera d'or Cannes 2001). While at Isuma, she produced and co-wrote the documentary Kiviaq versus Canada (2006) with renowned filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk. Soukup founded Catbird Productions in 2006, producing the documentaries Umiaq Skin Boat (Hot Docs 2008) and Where The Children Dwell (2009) by award-winning director Jobie Weetaluktuk, and Tusarnituuq! Nagano In The Land Of The Inuit (2009) by Felix Lajeunesse, which aired on Radio-Canada, ARTV, APTN, and SVT-Sweden. She is currently producing the cross-platform documentary Under the City for Radio-Canada/ ARTV, and the feature documentary Last Days of Vaudeville for Super Channel.
COLIN AKOON cinematographer
Colin is an award-winning cinematographer with 10 years of experience in the film industry. In 1999 he graduated from Ryerson University's Image Arts – Film Program. In 2008 Colin continued his education in cinematography at the American Film Institute Conservatory program where he received training from such notable cinematographers as Harris Savides, ASC, (Zodiac) Tom Stern, ASC (Changeling) and Russell Carpenter, ASC (Titanic). Colin presently splits his time as a cinematographer, shooting commercials, music videos, short film, and documentaries, and as an assistant, working on both high level TV series such as Nikita and big budget features such as The Incredible Hulk.
Katarina is an independent producer who brings with her ten years as documentary and multimedia producer with the internationally acclaimed filmmakers behind the Canadian cinema classic Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (Camera d'or Cannes 2001). While at Isuma, she produced and co-wrote the documentary Kiviaq versus Canada (2006) with renowned filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk. Soukup founded Catbird Productions in 2006, producing the documentaries Umiaq Skin Boat (Hot Docs 2008) and Where The Children Dwell (2009) by award-winning director Jobie Weetaluktuk, and Tusarnituuq! Nagano In The Land Of The Inuit (2009) by Felix Lajeunesse, which aired on Radio-Canada, ARTV, APTN, and SVT-Sweden. She is currently producing the cross-platform documentary Under the City for Radio-Canada/ ARTV, and the feature documentary Last Days of Vaudeville for Super Channel.
Colin is an award-winning cinematographer with 10 years of experience in the film industry. In 1999 he graduated from Ryerson University's Image Arts – Film Program. In 2008 Colin continued his education in cinematography at the American Film Institute Conservatory program where he received training from such notable cinematographers as Harris Savides, ASC, (Zodiac) Tom Stern, ASC (Changeling) and Russell Carpenter, ASC (Titanic). Colin presently splits his time as a cinematographer, shooting commercials, music videos, short film, and documentaries, and as an assistant, working on both high level TV series such as Nikita and big budget features such as The Incredible Hulk.
NICK HECTOR, CCE supervising editorNick is Canada’s most celebrated documentary editor. He boasts seven Geminis, Genies and DGC awards and five nominations. He has collaborated with Canada’s top documentarians: Allan King (Dying at Grace, Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company), Jennifer Baichwal (Payback), Sturla Gunnarsson (Force of Nature, Air India 182) and David York (Wiebo’s War). Since 1986, Nick has cut more than 110 films, many of which have won awards internationally and have been screened at TIFF, The Smithsonian Institute, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Sundance.
