Walid El Khachab has published in Cairo four poetry collections in Arabic: The Dead do not consume (Al Mawta La Yastahlekoon, 2001); She who is (Allati, 2013); Sudden Moon (Qamar Mofajei’, 2015), I’timad’s Booth (Koshk I’timad, 2019). In 2022, his monograph about legendary Arab comedian Fuad al-Mohandes The Arachitect of Joy (Mohandes al Bahga) was released at Dar al Maraya publishing house, Cairo. He also translated into Arabic Canadian poet’s Mon Latif Ghattas collection, Les Chants du Karawan, and Canadian poetry theorist Paul Zumthor’s Introduction à la poésie orale. He teaches Arabic Studies at York University
BIOS//سير
Yasmeen Nematt Alla
Yasmeen Nematt Alla (she/her) is an Egyptian immigrant and settler living in Tkaronto, Turtle Island (colonially known as Toronto, Ontario). She has a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo and is an MFA candidate and a Gilbert Fellow at Cranbrook Academy of Arts. She has most recently exhibited at the Bronx River Art Centre in Bronx NY, Heaven Gallery in Chicago IL, and Xpace Cultural Centre in Toronto ON. She has previously been an artist resident in the Banff Centre, ACRE, STEPs Public Art, UKAI Projects, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, and is currently an artist resident at Ferment AI and HXOUSE Creative Think Tank. As an artist worker, she supports art organizations in creating accessible and anti-racist modes of communications in their day-to-day operations.
Yazmeen Kanji
Yazmeen Kanji is a Muslim Indo-Caribbean filmmaker, the Advocacy and Outreach Lead at BIPOC TV & Film, as well as the founder of Films With A Cause – a consulting startup for authentic storytelling practices. She graduated as a Dean’s Scholar from the University of Toronto in 2020, where she studied Peace, Conflict and Justice Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs, Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity and Cinema Studies. Throughout her undergrad, Yazmeen was offered grants to work on research projects exploring the social and political consequences of misrepresenting marginalized communities. Yazmeen is a Hot Docs Accelerator Fellow, a member of the Transmedia Zone and Social Ventures Zone at TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University) and a cohort member of Inspirit’s Narrative Change Lab alongside other Muslim creatives and content creators.
Her first documentary, From Syria To Hope (2019), explores the resettlement of Syrian refugee families and was awarded Best Short Doc at the 2019 Toronto Short Film Festival. Yazmeen directed With Love From Munera (2020), about a young storyteller’s healing journey, which premiered at the 2020 Inside Out Film Festival and was an official selection at TIFF Next Wave 2021 and the 2021 Breakthroughs Film Festival. With Love From Munera won the Audience Choice Award at the Breakthroughs Film Festival and Yazmeen was a guest on CBC Metro Morning to discuss the film’s success. With Love From Munera is available to stream on the digital TIFF Bell Lightbox site and has screened at the TIFF Bell Lightbox numerous times. Yazmeen has directed video series for organizations including World Table (2020) about refugee chefs for Matthew House and an anti-hate series for the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, highlighting Muslim women and non-binary people who have faced discrimination within and beyond their communities. Yazmeen also directed Eadie’s first music video, L.O.E (Loyalty Over Everything), released in June 2021.
Yazmeen supported Charles Officer’s production company, Canesugar Filmworks, and projects directed by the Oscar nominated Sami Khan. Yazmeen has worked on CBC original series including The Porter and Zarqa as the Social Media Manager, as well as a cultural consultant on a number of documentaries.
Yazmeen’s first narrative short about an Indo-Caribbean Muslim teen who daydreams throughout her day will be released in the Fall of 2023, partially funded by the Ontario Arts Council. Yazmeen is in development on her first feature film funded by the Hot Docs Cross Currents Fund and executive produced by Charles Officer and Jake Yanowski – a documentary following the journey of one of the first recipients of a Bone Marrow Transplant to be potentially cured of Sickle Cell Disease in Canada.
Alongside her filmmaking work, Yazmeen publicly speaks about the importance of representing communities of her intersections and works in consulting capacities on productions to ensure stories and marketing campaigns portray historically marginalized communities in meaningful ways.
Younes Ben Slimane
Younes Ben Slimane is a tunisian artist and filmmaker.
His architectural background has a major influence on his approach as an artist. Working through film, video, photography, drawing and installation, he establishes a permanent dialogue between architecture and visual arts, where different mediums coexist and reflect each other potentialities and limitations.
Younes completed post-graduates studies at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains (FR) . His work has been exhibited at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Institut du monde arabe in Paris (FR), at the Mucem in Marseille (FR), at the Selma Feriani Gallery in Sidi Bou Saïd (TN), and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje (MK).
His films have been selected in international festivals such as Locarno Film Festival (CH) and CPH:DOX (DK). He has received the Tanit d’or at the Carthage Film Festival (TN) and the Studio Collector Prize (FR).
Yza Nouiga
Yza Nouiga is a French Moroccan director, and digital film distributor based in Montreal. Born and raised in Morocco, she’s been living in Canada for the last 10 years. Her work evolves around themes of identities, dual nationality, and homecoming through fiction and non-fiction narratives. She co-wrote a first feature-length documentary film, Circo, that received the supports of many Canadian arts councils and institutions (SODEC, CALQ). Her last work, Jardins Paradise, was selected by the Goethe-Institut as part of a special programming. Yza is currently working on two shorts films.
Zeina Tarraf
Zeina Tarraf is an assistant professor of media studies at the American University of Beirut where she teaches courses on Arab media and society, war and media, and visual culture. Her
current book project examines how public feelings are produced and circulated in Lebanon during moments of protracted national crisis. She is also working on a new book project that considers how film industries in the Arab world are positioned within transnational circuits of financing, production, and circulation.