Tamara Dawit
Head of Studies
Tamara is an Ethiopian-Canadian award-winning filmmaker and arts industry executive. She has designed programs and policies to support the screen sector for DW Akademie, UNESCO, Canada Media Fund, Afreximbank, EUNIC and the Ethiopian government. . Tamara is an alumnus of the EAVE, APOST and both the Berlinale and Durban Talents and has been awarded fellowships by Docs in Progress, Logan Nonfiction and TIFF. Her film Finding Sally won the Doc Institute Vanguard Award, Adiaha Award and the Gordon Parks Award, among others. Tamara is a 2023 Chalmer Arts Fellow and is producing a slate of films.
Ursula Lawson
Senior Programs Manager
Ursula has been with the National Screen Institute since 2004 and is the senior programs manager.
She is currently working on the Access BIPOC Producers program. She also oversees the mentorship, development and delivery of projects for TELUS STORYHIVE.
In 2013 Ursula was honoured to receive the YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Circle of Inspiration Award along with colleagues Lisa Meeches and Melissa Kajpust for their contribution to CBC New Indigenous Voices. In 2019, Ursula was nominated for the Winnipeg Arts Council Making a Difference award which celebrates contributions to the growth and development of the arts in Winnipeg.
Instrumental in helping the National Screen Institute develop and deliver culturally sensitive film and television training to emerging Indigenous content creators, Ursula previously managed CBC New Indigenous Voices, NSI IndigiDocs and NSI Aboriginal Journalism. She coordinated NSI Global Marketing, NSI Totally Television, NSI Aboriginal Cultural Trade Initiative and NSI Pitch to Win!
Meet the students
Fabiola Caraza
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Fabiola Caraza is a producer and picture editor of over 15 years.
Born and raised in Mexico and with a passion for travel, she has filmed around the world, having lived and worked in Vancouver, Saskatoon, New York and Toronto.
She has worked on projects big and small including dramatic shorts, web-series, movies of the week, dramatic television series and independent features.
As an editor, she has garnered over 35 editing credits, earned DGC and CCE nominations. Her work has been exhibited at film festivals around the world including Toronto International Film Festival, the Moscow Biennale and Cannes Film Festival.
She recently edited and executive produced the indie features, Cosmic Dawn and Welcome to Kittytown through her company Prowler Pictures.
Her next production, There Were Witches will return her to her native country as lead producer and editor while her debut as a feature screenwriter, Postpartum, is currently in development.
She was a participant in 2023-2024 Women in Post program with the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Gavin Seal
Montreal, Quebec
What do you value most about your time as a participant in Access BIPOC Producers?
About Gavin – producer (Montreal, QC)
Gavin Seal is an Indian Québécois Canadian filmmaker whose artistic mission is to dissolve otherness using the universal language of cinema.
Gavin is currently developing his first feature film Laughing with God with support from Toronto International Film Festival Filmmaker Lab, the Fiction Toolbox Programme at Berlinale‘s European Film Market, Netflix Diversity of Voices Pitch Program initiative, Reelworld E20 Emerging Writers program and the Nouveau Marché competition at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma.
His previous work as a writer / director includes the fiction films, Followers (Fantasia, Reelworld) and Case Claus’d (Montreal International Black Film Festival, CBC Short Film Faceoff) as well as the documentary Good Luck Have Fun (National Screen Institute, Just for Laughs).
Gavin has also served as a producer on films such as The Long Way Home (HotDocs), directed by Oscar-nominee Ariel Nasr and Aisha Jamal, and as a segment director for the Emmy and Canadian Screen Award-nominated TV series Interrupt this Program.
Joe Balass
Montreal, Quebec
Joe Balass founded Compass Productions in 1997. He works in both fiction and documentary.
He has produced and directed a number of award-winning films including Nana, George & Me (1997), The Devil in the Holy Water (2002), Parting Words (2006), Baghdad Twist (2007), JOY! Portrait of a Nun (2012), The Length of the Alphabet (2013), Venus (2017) and The Affairs of Lidia (2022).
He is known for a blend of seriousness and humour in his work which is centered around underrepresented, racialized and queer voices.
His films have screened at festivals including Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, Cinequest and Torino Film Festival. Both the Cinémathèque québécoise and the Toronto Jewish Film Festival have honoured him with a retrospective of his work.
Joe recently completed postproduction on the Canada-India feature, Calorie, by writer / director Eisha Marjara.
He also has three features in development, Mother Mary and Santo Cabron, by Bruce LaBruce, and Farida, adapted from the novel of the same name by the award-winning Canadian-Iraqi writer Naïm Kattan.
In addition, Joe organizes the Journées du cinéma québécois en Italie, a festival dedicated to screening francophone Canadian work in Italy, now in its 20th edition.
Kathy Thomas
Montreal, Quebec
If you were to recommend this program to a friend, what are the most important selling points?
About Kathy-Ann – producer (Montreal, QC)
Kathy-Ann Thomas is a seasoned film professional with experience working on feature films, television and documentaries including the Academy Award-winning Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve and Transformers: Rise of The Beasts.
As one of the few Women of Colour and an English language minority working in the Quebec film industry, she is passionate about creating character-driven content with distinct voices.
Her passion for telling authentic stories and bringing diverse perspectives to global audiences compelled her to start her production company, Cotton Bush Productions.
Kathy-Ann’s short films RedRuby, A Late Thaw, Snow and The Cradle have played and won awards at international festivals, including Fantasia International Film Festival, LA Short International Film Festival and Cannes Short Film Corner.
The short Crocus is a psychological drama about a mother’s imminent death that threatens to dismantle her family home is in post-production with a grant from the Canada Council of the Arts.
She is also in development on three feature-length films: the multi-genre anthology Moving Day with development funding from Telefilm and ISO, the horror Hegemon with a grant from the Canada Council of the Arts and the drama Finding Mercy as well as two series: Voices of The Dead and Finding Oppa.
Leon Lee
Vancouver, British Columbia
Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Leon Lee creates powerful documentaries and narrative films that offer rare glimpses into closed societies. His unique access to sensitive topics and sources allows him to tell stories few others can capture.
Through works like Human Harvest and Letter from Masanjia, Leon has brought critical attention to complex issues including China’s illegal organ trade and labor camp systems, reaching millions of viewers worldwide.
His narrative films, Unsilenced and MindWave build on this foundation of investigative storytelling. Unsilenced presents an intimate look at resistance in China, and MindWave reveals the hidden dynamics of China’s social media influence on Canadian politics.
In 2016, Leon received the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award, recognizing his significant contributions to the country’s culture and arts.
Nach Dudsdeemaytha
Vancouver, British Columbia
What do you value most about your time as a participant in Access BIPOC Producers?
About Nach – producer (Burnaby, BC)
Nach Dudsdeemaytha is a Thai / Canadian filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC. He holds over a dozen producer credits on award-winning projects; select credits include David Fincher’s Netflix documentary series Voir (2021); the Gotham-nominated web-series Inconceivable (2017); Cypher (2017), which won best short film at Vancouver Short Film Festival; and Tokyo Lovers (2019), a collaboration with Mayumi Yoshida that was awarded with best short at Japan Film Festival LA.
Nach’s latest feature project Mongrels directed by Jerome Yoo, was picked as one of Telefilm’s Talent to Watch projects in 2020, and is currently in post-production. The film will be distributed in Canada by Game Theory Films.
Nach is also currently in development for the feature film Akashi with co-producer Tyler Hagan of Experimental Forest Films and director Mayumi Yoshida, based on the award-winning short film of the same name. It is slated to go to camera in fall 2023, with production in Canada and Japan.
Rolla Tahir
York, Ontario
Rolla Tahir is a filmmaker and artist based in Toronto.
Rolla’s first short experimental film Sira, was selected to screen at Wavelengths at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival.
She has written, directed and produced five short films that have screened at film festivals and worked on others as a cinematographer.
Rolla is currently in post-production of her first magical realism feature film Jude and the Jinn, financed by Telefilm Talent to Watch and New Dawn. The film was selected by the Black Screen Office to participate in Berlinale’s EFM Fiction Toolbox in 2023. The film was also awarded Panavision’s New Filmmaker Grant.
Rolla is an alumna of Reelworld Emerging 20 and Women in the Director’s Chair. She is also the co-founder and artistic director of Toronto Arab Film, an organization that platforms and develops Arab filmmakers, particularly in Canada.
In 2022, Rolla founded Qan Yama Qan (QYQ) Films, a production company specializing in creating films that immerse audiences in diverse, complex and celebratory stories, particularly from Arab, Muslim and female perspectives. QYQ Films combines formal ingenuity with unique voices that bring nuanced narratives to life.
Sam Pineda Sierra
Vancouver, British Columbia
Samantha Pineda Sierra is an award-winning director, writer, producer and multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver.
Her work has been screened at over a hundred film festivals worldwide, including the Cannes Short Film Corner, the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Marché.
She is an alumna of the Berlinale Talents FICG, the TIFF Filmmakers Lab and the Oaxaca Film Lab in collaboration with the Sundance Film Institute, among many others. She has been nominated twice for the Ariel Award, the Mexican equivalent of the Oscars.
Her short film, El Pescador, has become an icon of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico and is screened annually on national television and at Mexican embassies worldwide.
Samantha is a three-time receipient of some of the most competitive film funds by IMCINE (the Mexican Film Institute) and has also earned the prestigious art scholarship from the National Fund for Culture and Arts for her projects.
As a filmmaker, she has collaborated with various arts and cultural organizations to promote visual literacy, gender representation and diversity in media. She has also worked as a film instructor, a consultant for accelerator programs and a jury member at multiple film festivals.
Program Partners
