CREATIVE TEAM

  • A woman with curly dark hair, wearing earrings and a black top, standing in front of a brown garage door, smiling at the camera.

    Maya Annik Bedward

    DIRECTOR

    Maya is an Afro-Caribbean Canadian filmmaker whose work blends history, resistance, and pop culture through bold, genre-bending storytelling. Her work has screened at festivals including SXSW, TIFF, Hot Docs, BlackStar, and the New Orleans Film Festival. Her credits include The Haircut (2018), Why We Fight (2021), LIDO TV (2022), BLK: An Origin Story (2022), and Farm Crime (2023). She received Canadian Screen Award nominations for her directing work on LIDO TV and Farm Crime, and won a Canadian Screen Award for producing Patty vs. Patty. Maya is a founding member of the Black Screen Office, where she champions stories that center Black creativity and power.

  • Portrait of a woman with curly hair smiling, wearing a white shirt, with a blurred neutral background.

    Jennifer Holness

    EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

    Jen Holness brings a fresh, authentic perspective to telling powerful, thought-provoking stories. She writes, produces, and directs. Jen is the first Black woman in Canada to win a Canadian Screen Award (CSA) for writing on a mini-series she created, Guns. She recently produced the critically acclaimed feature, 40 Acres, that sold to Hulu and is nominated for five NAACP Awards, including Outstanding Independent Motion Picture and Outstanding International Picture. 

    #WhileBlack, a feature documentary she co-directed, premieres at SXSW this year along with Black Zombie, a doc film she executive produced. Her previous feature, Subjects of Desire, was a Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Top Ten film, traveled extensively in festivals where it won numerous awards and sold to Starz and Hulu. BLK: An Origin Story, a documentary series that she created, produced, and directed won 5 CSA, including Best Director for her episode.

    Jen’s films and TV shows have screened and sold globally, earning prizes from major film festivals. A CMPA Indiescreen Producer of the Year, Jen also received WIFT’s Creative Excellence Award and The Hollywood Reporter profiled her as one of the 40 Most Influential Women in International Film.

  • A woman with glasses, hoop earrings, and a gold necklace, standing outdoors near a wall covered with green leaves, sunlight filtering through the trees in the background.

    Kate Fraser

    PRODUCER

    Kate Fraser is a Toronto-based film producer with a background in social work and community-based arts programming. She is a producer at Third Culture Media, where she has produced multiple award-winning short documentaries, including Patty vs. Patty (CBC). The film premiered at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival, won the 2023 Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary, and has surpassed one million views on YouTube. Kate is also a producer on the feature-length documentary Black Zombie (Documentary Channel), which will have its world premiere at SXSW 2026.

  • Close-up of a woman with long brown hair, blue eyes, freckles, wearing a white ribbed top, and a necklace with a red gemstone pendant, smiling softly in front of a plain white background.

    Hannah Donegan

    PRODUCER

    Hannah Donegan is an award-winning documentary producer whose work includes: Hot Docs 2021 Opening Night film A.RTIFICIAL I.MMORTALITY; Emmy-nominated and Oscar-shortlisted MY ENEMY, MY BROTHER; three-time Canadian Screen Award winner THE DEFECTOR. Her directorial debut was CBC’s SUGAR SISTERS. She was showrunner for the CBC Gem series STAY TOONED, and recently released Crave’s IT’S ALL GONNA BREAK about the band Broken Social Scene, CBC’s THE LONELIEST RACE (Sheffield DocFest 2025), and is premiering BLACK ZOMBIE at SXSW 2026.