Meet the Filmmakers

Rose-Ann brings over fifteen years of professional and voluntary experience working collaboratively with a variety of community-based AIDS Service Organizations and community health centres in Ontario. Her frontline work experience as a health promoter and youth program coordinator with marginalized communities has equipped her with a deep understanding and analysis of sociocultural factors that inform the health practices of racialized and marginalized populations. Her current research work explores the inextricable link between racism, urban education and the social determinants of health, and how this impacts a culturally relevant and responsive health education mandate for Black, African, Caribbean and Canadian youth.

Kelvin uses film as a means to discuss Blackness in popular culture and what it means to be Black in a society that views itself as post-racial . Kelvin founded his production company, ‘Komatik Films’.  In 2016 producing over a dozen music videos for local artists from the Greater Toronto Area. In 2018, Kelvin directed and produced his first short film, “Tuition,” which won numerous awards at both the National Black Film Festival and the International Black Film Festival. In 2020, Kelvin released his second short film, “A Close Eye,” nominated at the BronzeLens Film Festival, a qualifying festival for the Academy Awards’ Short Film category. 

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Steven is an award-winning Canadian writer and director of both film and theatre. Having graduated from Queen's University and currently based in Toronto, Steven has had multiple short films screened both domestically and internationally, with the most successful being Spike (2019), a short dramatic thriller. He most recently won the Critics Award and the Best of the Fringe award at the 2021 Digital Hamilton Fringe Festival for his filmed play, “Black Deer in Blizzard.” He is currently developing his first feature film and works towards creating atmospheric, osterie and challenging work in the thriller, horror and dramatic genres.

Alejandro is a film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He is primarily interested in working on commercial, documentary and narrative films. His writing achievements include reaching the semi-finals in the ScreenCraft Short Screenplay Competition for his short film “Charlie” (2018). Alejandro has officially been directing, writing and shooting films since attending Dawson College in Montréal. He studied at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University for two years before graduating from the Image Arts Film Production program at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Arlene Roze Jardine known as Roze Garden, “the voice of reason,” has over two decades of hands-on program development for high-risk youth through the arts for the purpose of behaviour modification and transitional support.  She has written and produced several theatrical performances addressing social issues through the arts. She has developed a series of best practices such as “unpacking trauma with drama, Identification & recognition theatre and urban arts therapy.  Roze Garden‘s ability to create life-changing experiences through the arts while developing trust among hard-to-reach youth has earned her awards and has gained her recognition on a global scale.