People

2024 Artists, Filmmakers, and Special Guests

DAze jefferies

Daze Jefferies (she/her) is a white settler artist, writer, and educator born and raised in the Bay of Exploits on the northeast coast of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Thinking with water and the histories it holds, her work has been exhibited and performed at The Rooms, Eastern Edge Artist-Run-Centre, Struts Gallery, Owens Art Gallery, Galerie de l’UQAM, Art Gallery of Guelph, and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador Gallery, among others. She is the recipient of the 2023 VANL-CARFAC Emerging Artist Award.

Elijah Martel

Elijah Martel (they/he) is a multidisciplinary artist and storyteller based in St. John’s, NL/Ktaqmkuk. Elijah’s practice centres on narrative art forms such as comics and zines, and also includes drawing, printmaking, textiles, and installation. Since 2022, Elijah has served as coordinator of the HOLD FAST Contemporary Arts Festival at Eastern Edge Artist-Run Centre. 

tom cochrane

Olivia Ball

Olivia Ball is a creative producer, visual artist and arts administrator based in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Her production work includes projects for radio and television; digital festivals; photo and video projects; and cultural presentations. Her documentary projects have aired on CBC TV, CBC Gem, and CBC radio.

She has worked in the arts and culture sector in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and the UK; and has a special interest in community development and rural arts.

Tom Cochrane is a director, videographer, and photographer based in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Tom has been recognized across Canada as a digital storyteller, having received numerous industry awards and accolades. His photos have featured in national and international publications, and his film and TV projects have broadcast in Canada and abroad.

Most recently, Tom directed the community-focused documentary Trout River and the Blue Whale, which premiered on CBC and CBC Gem in 2023. He has also been the expedition videographer for Adventure Canada, filming in places like the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and arctic Canada.

 

 

ryan noth

As a director and writer, Ryan’s debut feature film, Drifting Snow (2021), was named one of the Globe and Mail’s top ten Canadian films of the year, and stars Sonja Smits, Colin Mochrie, Jonas Bonnetta, Rachel Bonnetta, Chris Locke and Jess Salgueiro. Ryan previously produced, directed and edited a trilogy of short documentary films using the landscape as a central character to explore larger themes. All three premiered at TIFF: A Tomb with A View (2014) explores life and death at the world’s tallest cemetery in Brazil; Beyond the Horizon (2015), was shot with the Canadian navy on location of the Erebus shipwreck in the high Arctic, and The Road to Webequie (2016), focused on the Ring of Fire mining development in northern Ontario.  Ryan’s filmmaking career also includes premieres at SXSW (Jandek, 2006) and Rotterdam (Gros Morne, 2009), and the mumblecore feature No Heart Feelings (2010, Buenos Aires premiere). Ryan is also the creator and producer of the multi-platform award-winning series The National Parks Project (2011, Berlinale, SXSW, Hot Docs, Discovery Network), for which he directed an episode of the award-winning TV series, edited a short film, produced an award winning short film, and created over two hours of content for the interactive site. Ryan is also an accomplished documentary editor, for award-winning features such as The Stairs, We Will Be Brave, and the forthcoming Mbira Talks. 

geoff morrison

Geoff Morrison is a Toronto-based producer and founder of Big Cedar Films. His work has screened at festivals all over the world including the Berlinale,TIFF, SXSW, Hot Docs and the MoMA in New York. Recent projects include the Donald Brittain Award-nominated, Above the Law (CBC), Canadian Screen Award-nominated, War for the Woods (CBC The Nature of Things) and three seasons of the Banff-nominated and Canadian Screen Award-winning series, Farm Crime (CBC Gem). With his previous company FilmCAN, Geoff won a Genie Award for producing Zacharias Kunuk’s short doc, Sirmilik, and a Gemini Award for producing and co-creating the Gord Downie-narrated, National Parks Project doc series (Discovery). His latest film is the feature documentary, Your Tomorrow (TVO), premiering at TIFF 2024. More at: bigcedarfilms.com

chris mccarthy

Chris comes from Corner Brook, Newfoundland. As a former dinosaur kid, he developed an interest in filmmaking from the first time he witnessed Spielberg’s prehistoric wizardry on screen. Resembling a movie monster himself, Chris can often be found with caffeine in his veins, experimenting with various mediums to bring his imagination to life long after he should be sleeping. Documenting Ktaqmkuk Mi’kmaw Fluency Project’s adventures in Unama’ki has given him a unique opportunity to not only learn a fascinating new language, but to connect with his own Mi’kmaq ancestry as well in a way he could have never expected.

dean simon

Dean Simon is a Registered Dietitian, proud graduate of St. Francis Xavier University, and Mi’kmaw language learner/teacher from Ewipkek, Ktaqmkuk (Flat Bay, NL).  He has spent two years working and immersing in We’koqma’q, Waqmɨtkuk and Eskasoni First Nations of Unama’ki (Cape Breton Island).  While having dabbled in film as a hobby, this is his first official credit and he looks forward to other projects involving language reclamation in the future.  He is Executive Director and the principal instructor with Ktaqmkuk Mi’kmaw Fluency Project (KMFP), a student lead non-profit, focused on creation of a fluent Mi’kmaw speaking community in Ktaqmkuk.

barbara doran

Barbara Doran is a filmmaker, an activist and a businesswoman. She founded Morag Loves Company in 1983. Since then, she has written, directed, and produced more than three dozen documentaries and dramas. She has travelled extensively, capturing the diverse subjects of her films for screens large and small. As a reflection of the breadth of her interests, she focused her work on violence against women, child sexual abuse, sweatshops in Guatemala, women prisoners in Pakistan, AIDS in South Africa, serial killers, the horrors of Beaumont Hamel in WW1 and the effects of climate change on coastal communities in Newfoundland.  She has done television biographies on Lucy Maude Montgomery, Gordon Pinsent, Joey Smallwood, and Cathy Jones. 

Barbara Doran slipped into the world of filmmaking through a side door, by way of the then women’s movement in Newfoundland. As a founding member of The Status of Women Council in 1972 and a graduate of Memorial University's Women's Studies Program, she was invited by the National Film Board in Montreal to research and write a series of films on battered women, and her career was launched. 

leila beaudoin

Leila Beaudoin is an multi-award-winning journalist who transitioned from Broadcast Television to live by the sea. Operating from Cliff and Anchor Studios in rural Newfoundland, she produces visual content with a coastal and climate focus. Her latest film, “All Eyes On The Water,” was shot in the Newfoundland and Labrador region where she was raised. It serves as a powerful call to action for coastal communities and individuals around the globe. True to her signature style, this film highlights authentic and unfiltered imagery to narrate a story that engages all the senses. It resonates deeply with ocean communities grappling with the significant challenges of rising waters and fierce storms.

2024 Programming Committee

Peter Buckle

Rachel Webb Jekanowski

Lys-Ange LeBlanc

Julia Polyck-O’Neill

Bob Scott

Jane Walker

Meet the Board of directors

  • Jane Walker

    Co-Chair

  • Rachel Webb Jekanowski

    Co-Chair

  • Robert Scott

    Board Member

  • Peter Ride

    Board Member

  • Michael Burzynski

    Board Member

  • Paul Foley

    Board Member

  • Paul Snelgrove

    Board Member

  • Peter Buckle

    Board Member