Abdul Malik is a Canadian-Pakistani screenwriter based out of Toronto and Edmonton. He dropped out of film school to pursue the political, spending his twenties working in the labor movement, participating in worker struggles across Canada as an organizer and photojournalist. Abdul returned to the film industry, starting as the co-writer of the Telefilm-funded PEACE BY CHOCOLATE, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Recently, Abdul’s written on Season Three of CTV’s TRANSPLANT, the upcoming Telefilm-funded feature QUEEN TUT, and was Executive Story Editor and a Producer on the Super Channel digital series STREAMS FLOW FROM A RIVER. He is currently a Supervising Producer on a to-be-announced CBC drama, and has a bevy of projects in development with companies such as Shaftesbury, Husk Media, Lark Productions, and Sphere, alongside a first-look deal with Neshama Entertainment. Abdul is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada.
BIOS//سير
Aeschylus Poulus
Aeschylus Poulus launched Hawkeye Pictures as the Executive Producer on the feature film SLEEPING GIANT. Prior to Hawkeye, Aeschylus was a Producer at Foundry Films (CAIRO TIME, THE BANG BANG CLUB), where he co-produced Ruba Nadda’s thriller INESCAPABLE, starring Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei, and Kate Melville’s acclaimed PICTURE DAY, starring Sundance award-winner Tatiana Maslany; and at Blue Ice where he co-produced the mini-series The Book of Negroes and the thriller OCTOBER GALE, starring Patricia Clarkson. Aeschylus actively forges relationships with domestic and international partners, broadcasters and distributors.
Ahmad Alhaj
Ahmad Alhaj is a Syrian filmmaker, film programmer, curator, journalist. founder of WIND CINEMA an emerging France based international film production and Distribution company, born in Al Hassake 1990 He writes for several Arab cultural websites and magazines, meanwhile organizing and programming film manifestations in Turkey and Netherland at Pages book store, in Copenhagen and Sweden at Syrian Doc days festival, in Canada at TAF Toronto Arab film festival and already in Syria before leaving the country. He made a short film in 2015 called “Its only three nails!! Saturn devouring his son” have been showed in more than 100 cities world wild. He got a diploma in finance and practical legal studies from Syria . Currently, based in France as a political refugee.
Ahmed Ismaiel Nour
Ahmed is an award-winning filmmaker, film scholar, educator, and programmer based in Ontario. He started his career as assistant director where he gained valuable experience in the Egyptian main-stream film industry. His passion for innovative storytelling led him into independent filmmaking. For the past 18 years, he has made numerous shorts and features that played myriad international film festivals and picked several prestigious awards.
Despite being known for his 2013 hybrid picture Moug / Waves, Nour’s body of work encompasses many successful fiction, experimental, and documentary films. He has also produced and/or directed quite a few commercials and TV documentaries for renowned TV Channels.
Ahmed’s area of expertise comprises screenwriting, producing, video-editing, and directing. His work varies between experimental, documentary, and fiction films. However, his particular interest is in hybrid nonfiction filmmaking.
Nour is a short film programmer at Kingston Canadian Film Festival, and the founder and director of the 18 mm program, a yearlong film training program for youth, funded by KCFF and KFO in the city of Kingston.
Ahmed is a teaching assistant at Queen’s University’s film and media department. His current research engages with theories of myth, feminist film theory, and hybrid documentary cinema.
Ahmed Magdy
Ahmed Magdy is a multi-talented filmmaker, actor, environmentalist, animal rights activist and a UNFPA champion who boasts an impressive repertoire in the industry. As an actor, Magdy took part in a number of highly-acclaimed films like the award-winning “Microphone” (2010), “The Gate of Departure” (2015), “Mawlana” (2016) and the award-winning “Ali, the Goat and Ibrahim” (2016) for which Magdy won the Best Actor award at the 6th Trophées Francophones du Cinéma in Sénégal among many other memorable films and TV series.
Following many successful directorial efforts, in 2018, Magdy made his feature film directorial debut “The Giraffe”, which is written and filmed by him as well. The film made its world premiered at the 40th Cairo International Film Festival and its international premiere at the Marrakech International Film Festival receiving wide critical acclaim. Recently, Ahmed took part in the TV Series El Anesa Farah, which is an adaptation of the well-known American romantic comedy Jane The Virgin. His latest TV drama, “Forsa Tanya” (A Second Chance), aired in Ramadan 2020. Produced by Synergy/Tamer Morsi, Magdy stars opposite of Egyptian star Yasmine Sabry. The TV drama was a huge success and received wide acclaim among audiences and critics alike. He was also announced as a jury member at the RFF-Revart Film Festival. Hailed as Egypt’s first online vertical festival, RFF aims to introduce a modern dimension of creativity to filmmakers during the COVID-19 crisis.
In addition, as a director and screenwriter, Magdy started working on his second feature film, The Crow, and is starring in the upcoming films “Talaat Harb” and “Hazr Tagawol” (Curfew).
Aisha Jamal
Aisha Jamal is a filmmaker and film programmer based in Toronto, Canada. Her films have played venues and festivals world wide. Her work often centers on people and their resilience in life. Aisha’s feature film debut A KANDAHAR AWAY, about her family’s connection the small Saskatchewan, Canada hamlet of Kandahar, premiered in 2019 at the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival in Toronto, Canada and is currently available to stream on CBC Gem and playing on television on the documentary channel. Her previous short films include the award winning THE LONG WAY HOME (2017) and SEEDS OF THE PAST (2016). She recently directed, co-produced and co-wrote the documentary web series HOW WE DIE, an eleven part series about rethinking our relationship to death and dying. Aisha’s short, Field Notes, will be screening at Hot Docs Film Festival this year. aishajamalfilms.com
Aliaa Khachouk
Aliaa Khachouk is a Syrian-Canadian director and producer with over 25 years of experience in the production of short and feature-length films, as well as documentaries. Her work expresses a deep interest in immigrant identities and sense of belonging. Her films have been screened at several national and international festivals including the Montréal World Film Festival, Les Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois, Cannes film festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Harvard MISA Festival, and several others. Her feature film I Was Once Told is part of the Library and Archives Canada. She holds a master’s degree in communication (experimental media) from UQAM in Montreal. Her thesis Hotel Canada was on identity and the sense of belonging to Arab emigrants in Canada.
Amin Alsaden
Amin Alsaden is an independent curator, writer, and educator whose work focuses on transnational solidarities and exchanges across cultural boundaries. His scholarship explores the history and theory of modern and contemporary art and architecture globally, with specific expertise in the Arab-Muslim world and its diasporas. Alsaden’s research is often an inquiry into anti-colonial discourses and creative resistance cultures, those developed in the non-West, as well as those pioneered by Indigenous and racialized communities in the West. He has taught at several institutions, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and regularly serves as an invited lecturer and critic at art, curatorial, and design programs.
Amir Al-Azraki
Amir Al-Azraki is an Arab-Canadian playwright, literary translator, Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Studies in Islamic and Arab Cultures Program, at Renison University College, University of Waterloo. Among his plays are: Waiting for Gilgamesh: Scenes from Iraq, The Mug, and The Widow. Al-Azraki is the author of The Discourse of War in Contemporary Theatre (in Arabic), co-editor and co-translator of Contemporary Plays from Iraq, “A Rehearsal for Revolution”: An Approach to Theatre of the Oppressed (in Arabic), and co-editor and co-translator of Arabic poetry by female poets in Consequence, The Common, Poetry Foundation and Talking Writing. He is currently translating Representations of the Other: The Image of Black People in the Medieval Arab Imaginary by a Bahraini critic Nader Kadhim.
Anaïs Elboujdaïni
Anaïs Elboujdaïni is a reporter and the programming director for Vancouver’s MENA Film Festival. She lived and worked for 4 years in British Columbia and now is based in Québec, on Atikamekw traditional territories. She is interested in the dynamics of her indigenous identity as she is equal part Amazigh from Morocco and Québécoise. She coordinated a poetry contest for several years, produced short documentaries and won literary contests. Her interest in films stems from the idea that reality is diverse and that fiction is one of the deepest forms of travel.
Anna Fahr
Anna Fahr is a multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and founder of Morning Bird Pictures Inc. (formerly Sepasi Films, est. 2003), a production company dedicated to creating films with social impact that focus on the contemporary Middle East and its diaspora.
Anna’s last narrative short, Transit Game examines the refugee crisis in Lebanon against the backdrop of the Syrian war. The film screened in over fifty international festivals since premiering in the fall of 2014, winning prizes in Berlin, San Francisco and Florence, among others.
Anna’s first independent feature-length documentary, Khaneh Ma: These Places We Call Home, examines questions of cultural identity and dual-nationality from the vantage point of three generations of Iranians living in Iran, Canada, and Germany. The film screened in international festivals worldwide and was theatrically released in Montreal.
Anna’s latest projects include two interactive web documentaries that focus on experiences of exile and migration through a female lens. Migrant Mothers of Syria was financed by the Bell Fund and produced in collaboration with Emmy award-winning new media company, Stitch Media. The webdoc recently premiered as part of the Academy Award qualifying Doc Edge Festival’s Exhibition program and won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Digital Media at the 2020 Yorkton Film Festival. My Life in Limbo was financed by the Canada Council for the Arts and premiered at Montreal Digital WebFest 2020, winning the Jury Prize.
Anna is currently in post-production on the feature-length narrative film, Valley of Exile (Prod. Morning Bird Pictures, Six Island Productions, Hawkeye Pictures) with financing from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council and in development on Places in Between (Prod. Clique Pictures, Rep. Great North Artists Management) with financing from the Harold Greenberg Fund and Telefilm Canada.
Anna holds a BFA in Film Production from Concordia University in Montreal, an MFA in Screenwriting from Hollins University in Virginia and an MA in Film and Middle Eastern Studies from New York University.
For more information about Anna’s current projects in development, please contact: info@annafahr.com
Anthony Youssef
Anthony Youssef is a Lebanese-Canadian artist whose multi-disciplinary practice focuses on the intersection of politics and material culture. His most recent work focused on the movement in the Holiday Inn Beirut’s socio-political narrative and culminated in an exhibition on display at ArtSpeak Gallery in Windsor, ON. Anthony hopes to contribute his experience in corporate and professional events to TAF’s dedication to bringing Arab films to its audiences. Anthony was previously awarded the curator-in-residence position with the Arts Council Windsor and Region during which he developed an exhibition and critical essay focusing on the intersection of the automotive industry and contemporary artistic practices in Windsor, ON. Anthony holds a Master of Architecture from Carleton University (2022) and a Bachelor of Architectural Science from Toronto Metropolitan University (2016).
Ayham Jabr
Ayham Jabr is a Surreal Collage Artist, a Video Editor, a Videographer and a Graphic Designer. He studied Electronics at Damascus University, and lives in Damascus, Syria. His love for science fiction films, stories, and theories are a main source of inspiration behind his primarily digital art works.
Carolina Oliveira
Carolina Oliveira is Marketing Director at Entertainment One, where she oversees global marketing strategy for digital, physical, AVOD, and FAST. Originally from Brazil, she has been working in the film industry in Canada for the past 15 years. Carolina is passionate about developing innovative campaigns for independent films, mentoring future marketing superstars, and learning about plants.
Cayley James
Cayley James is an arts administrator and writer based in Toronto. For the past ten years she has worked in the independent arts on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2013, she completed her MLITT in Film and Television at the University of Glasgow. She joined the staff at LIFT between 2018-2024 and her writing has been featured in Cinema Scope and The Globe and Mail.
Chafic Tabbara
Chafic Tabbara is a Lebanese Film critic, who writes for many newspapers and magazines. He writes weekly for «Alakhbar» Newspaper in Lebanon and periodically in «Alsahafa» Magazine (Al Jazeera). Since 2013 he has attended and covered Arab and international film festivals. He is a jury member of the annual «Arab critic award for European films» and «Arab Critic awards for Arab films»
Chantal Partamian
Chantal Partamian is a filmmaker and archivist primarily focused on working with super 8mm and found footage. Partamian’s films have been screened and awarded at numerous festivals and are distributed by Vidéographe, Groupe intervention Vidéo (GIV), and the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center.
In her capacity as an archivist, she dedicates herself to preserving and restoring reels from the Mediterranean region while conducting research on archival practices in conflict areas. Her written works are predominantly featured in the revue Hors-Champs.
Chrisann Hessing
Chrisann Hessing is a documentary filmmaker and impact producer based in Toronto. She has produced award-winning short films that have screened at Hot Docs, RIDM, Global Impact Film Festival and the London Asian Film Festival. Her work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, Inspirit Foundation, BravoFACT! Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent and Telefilm Canada.
Chrisann’s short film, Turning Tables, won Best Short Documentary at the 43rd American Indian Film Festival, and has screened in over 30 film festivals internationally.
Her debut feature, We Will Be Brave, premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival and won Audience Choice Feature Film at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival in 2023.
She is passionate about using visual storytelling as a tool to educate, raise awareness, and inspire positive change, and has collaborated with a number of community arts organizations including TIFF, JAYU, and the Doc Institute. She currently sits on the board of POV Magazine.
She previously worked as Festival Manager at Breakthroughs Film Festival, the only festival in Canada devoted exclusively to short films made by emerging women & non binary directors
Currently, Chrisann works as an Associate Impact Producer at Ring Five Impact Docs, a boutique impact producing and grassroots distribution company based in Toronto.
Christina Hajjar
Christina Hajjar is a Lebanese artist, writer, and cultural worker based in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory. Her practice considers intergenerational inheritance, domesticity, and place through diaspora, body archives, and cultural iconography. As a queer femme and first-generation subject, she is invested in the poetics of process, translation, and collaborative labour. Her work involves photography, film, performance, installation, publishing, and curation.
Hajjar was a recipient of the 2020 PLATFORM Photography Award and received an honourable mention for the 2021 Emerging Digital Artists Award. Her film Don’t Forget the Water won the Jury Award and the Audience Choice Award for Best Manitoba Short Film at Gimli Film Festival. Hajjar curates the SWANA Film Festival, presenting South West Asian and North African short films from around the world.
Hajjar is a Managing Editor of Carnation Zine (publishing art and writing on diaspora and displacement) and qumra journal (publishing reflections on world cinema). She is senior editor of Herizons (Canada’s foremost feminist magazine). She is the creator of Diaspora Daughter, Diaspora Dyke zine, which won Best Artzine at the Broken Pencil Zine Awards. Her writing has appeared in BlackFlash Magazine, C Magazine, The Uniter, CV2, Prairie Fire, and PaperWait.
Christina Piovesan
Christina Piovesan is the founder and principal of First Generation Films, a film and tv production company based in Toronto. Past films include the Cannes Winner Amreeka directed by Cherien Dabis; The Whistleblower directed by Larysa Kondracki, Mouthpiece directed by Patricia Rozema, Paper Year, written and directed by Rebecca Addelman and American Woman directed by Semi Chellas which had its Canadian premiere as a Gala Presentation at TIFF 2019. Her collaboration with Elevation Productions, the production arm of Elevation Pictures, has Christina in post-production on The Exchange directed by Dan Mazer and French Exit directed by Azazel Jacobs. Most recently, Christina was producer on The Nest directed by Sean Durkin which had its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival