Decriminalize Now
Decriminalize Now
Decriminalize Now: Akia's Story is a short, first-personal narrative film about the drug poisoning crisis — and daring to dream of a better future for people who use drugs. We can get there by rethinking repressive drug policy, in Canada and beyond.
Role: Director
Premiered 2021
Scarborough
Scarborough
Scarborough is a 2021 Canadian drama film, directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. An adaptation of Catherine Hernandez's 2017 novel Scarborough, the film centres on the coming of age of Bing (Liam Diaz), Sylvie (Mekiya Fox) and Laura (Anna Claire Beitel) as they learn the value of community, passion and resilience over the course of a school year through an after-school program led by childhood educator Ms. Hina (Aliya Kanani).
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I wore many hats on this indie film which was a true labour of love. We were grateful to experience the warm reception that the film found at TIFF and beyond, and even more elated to see the way the stories burrowed into audiences’ hearts. Scarborough earned 8 Canadian Screen Awards, including best motion picture. You can watch the film in Canada on Crave now.
Role: Associate Producer, Stills Photographer, Assistant Director
Premiered 2021
BLWWII
BLWWII
Black Liberators WWII tells the heroic stories of Black Canadian and Caribbean soldiers who served in the Canadian Army during World War II. These little-known war stories reveal the amazing acts of bravery and patriotism of these soldiers, all while they faced the harsh realities of racism both at home and on the battlefield.
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Building the archival world of “Black Liberators” was a feat of true creative collaboration. To build the wall-to-wall archive that this story required, our little team brought in 45 minutes of archival material from over 50 sources. Our two- person team touched every single element of this project.
Almost every frame was animated with visual archive, including the dramatic recreations and visual animations. That means that in addition to offering the director archival material to work with, we worked to source elements that could be manipulated by our incredible animation wizards quickly and on-budget. Navigating three streams of archival material – animations, personal, and historical – was challenging, but we created a process that worked for us and bit off each piece at a time.
Premiered 2021
Role: Archival Researcher