Lara Harb is a digital marketing strategist, instructor, creative and all-around arts lover. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Ryerson University in the Business Technology Management program and is currently working on her MFA in Documentary Media. Lara works with new media formats to explore the intersection of technology and society. ‘The Epidemic Shadow’ is her first film exploring the universal feeling of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taras Hemon is a film and image maker based in Hamilton, Ontario. Hemon primarily works with documentary, creating films and images that touch on themes of urban displacement, poverty and activism. He is currently completing a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in the Documentary Media Studies Program at Ryerson University, working on a short documentary film “Hamilton is Home.” The film follows the experiences of a tenant facing eviction threats and displacement due to gentrification.

Kyra Church is a filmmaker who is passionate about documentary storytelling in all of its forms. She currently works as a researcher at Mercury Films, where she previously contributed as a Marketing and Materials Coordinator on The Anthropocene Project. Kyra has a BFA in film studies from Concordia University in Montreal. Universal, Amen is Kyra’s first film and she is incredibly excited for its public debut at this year’s Doc Now festival.

Michelle Melles (she/her) is a seasoned director, writer and producer who has worked for some of the top broadcasters and television shows in Canada. A fierce believer in the ‘personal is political,’ she helped to create, launch and produce the internationally-syndicated and multiple Gemini-nominated and Gemini-award-winning (now called the Canadian Screen Awards) documentary series SexTV. This ground-breaking television series explored issues surrounding sexuality and gender around the world in a thought-provoking, ethical, and cutting-edge way. She produced numerous documentaries for the show’s ten season run, focusing on strong and complicated female and gender non-conforming characters and the complexity of sexual and gender expression in the modern world. In 2018, she co-founded the boutique production company Parallel Vision Productions producing a variety of independent content and documentaries for the big and small screen. Her short documentary “Kevin & Dave Go To Montreal”, produced while doing her MFA at Ryerson screened at festivals including Tokyo Short Film Festival, Montreal Independent Film Festival, and Vegas Shorts and was nominated for best documentary at Sheffield Short Film Festival. She is an honours University of Toronto graduate (with high distinction), recipient of the SSHRC award at Ryerson, and is excited to premiere her personal and autoethnographic documentary film “Drunk on Too Much Life” at the Doc Now Film Festival in 2021.

Skye Sommerhalder (He/Him) is a queer and neuro-diverse documentarian currently enrolled in his Master’s of Documentary Media at Ryerson University who believes strongly in the adage that power is personal. He strives to play an active role in sharing personal stories using more experimental methods both to create memorable work and also reflect the multifaceted and intersectional nature of human experience.

Peter Totten is an Emmy Award Winning filmmaker and video artist currently based in Toronto, Ontario. Their work has been screened in galleries and festivals in Europe, Asia, and North America. Peter’s work is exploratory in nature, seeking to highlight the beauty in lived experience; utilizing the essay film form and visual anthropology to represent communities in ways grounded in care and mutual respect.

Bonnie Whitehall (she/her) holds a Bachelor of Education from York University in the Urban Diversity Program and Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Toronto. Her current focus in Documentary Media (MFA) at Ryerson University merges her art practice and commitment to creating films that have a social conscience. Whitehall’s films question current environmental and political crises, and imagine future realities that combine hybrid documentary, art house, and science fiction to explore new media. Whitehall’s interest is cross-disciplinary. She has exhibited photographic and textile-based works at different art spaces across Toronto and screened at both the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival for her short films The Hunger and the City, and the Moving Image Arts International Short Film Festival, Ryerson University, for Seven Ways to Tell You About Him. Her former work in post-production sound for film and television and experience teaching in public education have led her to documentary filmmaking.

Carly Williams is a well-rounded, independent filmmaker from Toronto, Canada, who has a passion for storytelling. Her films span across several genres, including documentary, experimental, and drama, addressing melancholy, grief, and bereavement themes. She believes that film theory is just as critical as the technical film practice and loves sharing her knowledge with both her peers and the next generation of filmmakers. She has presented at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies undergraduate conference in April 2018 and presented at the International Conference on Film Studies at the University of London in February 2019. She currently holds an Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Film & Television from Sheridan College and is currently working on her MFA at Ryerson.