Sustainable Storytelling Careers

2021English

This panel explores the current TV and film landscape in Canada, shown through the careers of racialized filmmakers who’ve broken down barriers and are cementing space for their work on streaming platforms and traditional formats. How can you break into streaming or traditional mediums? Should you? This discussion will examine what is being done to attract and develop the careers of racialized storytellers creating original IP and working in non-traditional mediums who don’t yet see career sustainability in traditional formats like TV and film.

Moderator:

Janet-Rose Nguyen • Actor, Writer, and Creator

Janet Rose Nguyen is an award-winning actress and writer. Her work explores magic, horror, feminism, queerness, and the Asian diaspora. She is the co-chair of the ACTRA Diversity & Inclusion committee, an alumni of the Reelworld Emerging 20 Program and most recently served on the Bursary committee of Firefly Creative Writing. Janet Rose is completing her Screenwriting and Creative Writing degree at York University where she has written the full-length play "Can We Split the Bill?" and is a recipient of the N.A. Taylor Award for excellence in screenwriting. She is currently a resident at the Canadian Film Centre’s CBC Actors Conservatory. You can see her most recently in CBC’s Workin’ Moms and the pilot Dream Date.

Panelists:

Mayumi Yoshida • Filmmaker

Born in Japan, raised in three continents, Mayumi Yoshida is an award-winning actor, writer, director, based in Vancouver, BC. She’s an alumna of WIDC and currently the participant of WarnerMedia x Canadian Academy Access Writers Program and TIFF x Netflix Talent Accelerator Fellowship. Since making her directorial debut on “AKASHI”, she has created many short films which center around Asian Characters and has won many awards locally and internationally. She is currently in development of her first feature film AKASHI.

JP Larocque • TV Writer and Producer, Misnomer Productions

Alongside recent work on CBC’s Coroner, JP Larocque has written on CTV’s JANN, CBC’s Diggstown, Netflix’s Another Life, Shudder's Slasher, and is creator and executive producer of the OUTtv digital series Gay Nerds. As a journalist, JP has bylines in The Toronto Star, The Walrus, Maclean’s, Xtra, The Beaverton, and Flare. A proud member of both the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, JP is committed to diversity and inclusion in all of their work.

Sherren Lee • Filmmaker, DGC

Sherren is the award-winning director of short films BENJAMIN (2015) and THE THINGS YOU THINK I’M THINKING (2017). Her TV credits include Murdoch Mysteries, Hudson & Rex, Coroner, Kim's Convenience, Odd Squad, Dino Dana and Endlings.