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Cole Forrest

Cole Forrest is an Ojibwe filmmaker and programmer from Nipissing First Nation. They have written and directed independent short films that have been screened at film festivals including imagineNATIVE, TQFF, TIFF Next Wave, and the Vancouver International Film Festival. Cole is a recipient of the Ken and Ann Watts Memorial Scholarship, imagineNATIVE Director’s Lab, and of the James Bartleman Indigenous Youth Creative Writing Award. They are the 2019 recipient of the imagineNATIVE + LIFT Film Mentorship and a 2020 Artist in Residence as a part of the Sundance Native Filmmakers Lab. Cole is a 2023 participant of the Reelworld E20 Program. Cole has supported programming at festivals including TIFF, imagineNATIVE, VIFF, and Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film. They are a graduate of the Video Design and Production program at George Brown College. Cole is currently writing their first feature film. They are grateful to represent their community in all artistic pursuits.

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Isiah Medina

Isiah Medina (b. 1991) currently lives in Toronto and makes films with his company Quantity Cinema. His features include 88:88 (2015), Inventing the Future (2020), Night is Limpid (2022), and He Thought He Died (2023).

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Meek and Nicole

MISHA "MEEK" BAUER (He/It/She)

DIRECTOR & PRODUCER

As a contemporary and abstract dance and movement artist who inhabits a fat body, Meek approaches dance from both an embodied position and a curious position asking what CAN he do instead of dwelling on what they cannot currently do. This method of dance and movement art allows her to connect with it's body holistically and nonjudgmentally and makes dance more than an expression and artform but a tool of healing and teaching.

From years three to eight, Meek was enrolled in Jazz, Tap, and Ballet at Dimensions in Dance (Kitchener, ON). He went to an arts-focused high-school (Eastwood Collegiate) where she took the Dance program and has since focused on growing through various peer mentorships. Meek prides itself on being mostly self and peer taught having consciously and purposefully departed from what can often be harmful institutional methods of learning.

NICOLE DECSEY (She/Her)

CHOREOGRAPHER & CO-PRODUCER

Nicole Decsey is a performer, choreographer, artistic director, arts critic, and dance instructor based in Mississauga and Toronto with a BFA in performance dance from Toronto Metropolitan University. After receiving her BFA and participating in many dance intensives across the country Nicole developed her own grassroots dance company: Nicole Decsey Dance Projects (NDDP), through which her latest work We Lost You A Long Time Ago premiered on February 25th 2023 to a sold out audience.

Nicole has performed in multiple events and venues including corporate events, the Toronto Fringe Festival, Nuit Blanche Festival, and the iconic Dancemakers space in the Distillery District. Aside from her work as a performer and artistic director for NDDP Nicole has worked as a crew member in lighting, costuming, and administrative positions. She is also a rehearsal director for Human Body Expression, a contributor to the The Dance Current, and a choreographer and collaborator for Create Dangerously Collective.

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Anett Rumanóczky

ANETT RUMANÓCZKY (It/Anett/She)

FIGHT/STUNTS, COSTUMES, HAIR & MAKEUP

A dancer and professional actress in both theatre and film. Anett graduated from Shakespeare Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2007 where she then went on to work as an actress at Mainstreet Theatre for 5 years during which time she joined the costume department. Anett moved to Canada in 2012 and as of today, she’s a full member of Equity UK and ACTRA. She has worked on countless movies and tv series as an actor, stunt and stand-in, such as The Handmaid’s Tale, Y the Last Man, Accused, and Robyn Hood to name a few. Anett has worked on several dance projects with Ismailova Theatre of Dance and is both the Dramaturg and Costume Mistress for Nicole Decsey Dance Projects.

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Napoleon Brousseau

Napoleon Brousseau A.K.A. Napo B

Born in Ottawa Canada

Graduated O.C.A.D. 1976

Graduated Canadian Film Centre New Media Lab Toronto 2001

“My work moves outside of cultural timelines, awkward and at times troubling. In my early teens I saw the artistic lifestyle as a way to a sustained inner peace, I became the traveler, the troupe adore, le raconteur, the outsider, and at times the wild man”.

Since 1973 I’ve shown continuously as a multi-media artist; drawings films paintings installations new media sculpture. I’ve worked creatively in film and television.

Since 1979 collaborated as a member of Fastwurms making Super 8 films and installations. In 1985 moved to New York City worked on art directing team at Area nightclub building props on Pee Wee's Playhouse; showed in NY while in Fastwurms but returned to Toronto in 1987 and as Fastwurms member exhibited throughout Canada, US, Italy and Japan representing Canada. Left Fastwurms in 1991 to travel in India, South East Asia and Europe producing work and exhibiting.

In 1999 attended the Canadian Film Centre Media Lab and in 2005 CFC Media Labs co-produced my project SEED first presented at Scope Art Fair 2005 New York. SEED a cell phone interacitve eco project showed in Australia, China, Canada and USA; at the Winter Olympics Whistler 2010 and at The McMichael Gallery Kleinberg “The Tree Project” 2012.

2008 Gallery Art Director Josh Ledeman Art Haus Toronto

2015 created Augmented Reality portrait “Life Tools” at Angell Gallery Toronto.

2017 Venice Biennale Imago Mundi

2017 Basel Art Fair Art Box

Since 1981, I’ve had over 26 solo exhibitions and 33 group exhibitions at various galleries, museums, educational institutions and other art related venues around the world.

Selected Collections include Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston), National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa), Canada Council Art Bank (Vancouver), Art Gallery BC , Winnipeg Art Gallery (Manitoba), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Athabasca University (Edmonton, Alberta), Glenbow Museum (Calgary, Alberta), Private & Corporate Collections Worldwide

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Wayne Dunkley

Wayne Dunkley transmutes his lived experience as a black male into a critical, reflexive and socially engaged practice that utilizes photography, digital media, cultural mediation, community engagement, and mentorship as catalysts for societal and personal transformation. A graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and the University of Toronto, Wayne has worked as a consultant on interactive storytelling and digital strategy with the National Film Board and served as a panelist and advisor for the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, Royal Ontario Museum and the Dak’Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art. He was Cultural Mediator for TMU’s School of Image Arts and has facilitated workshops with the Toronto Art Therapy Institute and Artscape’s Launchpad program. He is currently the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Advisor for Capilano University.

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Candace Elder

Candace Elder is a strategic thinker and arts advocate with over fifteen years of professional experience in the arts and cultural sector. Through her work at the National Music Centre, the Banff Centre and in her role leading mentorship & leadership programs at Business/Arts, Candace is committed to the cultivation of communities where artists and organizations feel supported and empowered to carry out their vision. As a values-driven, collaborative facilitator, she brings an aptitude for conceptualizing ideas and building effective partnerships. Meaning-making is central to Candace’s process, observing and exploring how we understand ourselves and our relationship to the world. As a Certified Ontological Coach with a Master of Arts in Arts Leadership, Candace provides unique and highly attuned guidance to individuals and organizations seeking to build meaningful connections while creating compelling and transformative experiences.

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Elyse Portal

Elyse Portal is a settler, foraging, creating and living on the traditional lands of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Wahnapitae First Nation. Walking, listening and care motivate her interdisciplinary ecoart practice. With the support of the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, Elyse has been expanding her knowledge of ochres, respectful foraging, and paint making with Tilke Elkins and Heidi Gustafson. In conversation with John Sabraw, she has been learning how paint can be made from industrially contaminated sites, while cleaning waterways. Her current research work, How Far Back is Home (2022-23), centres Ukrainian diaspora together with foraged pigments, and is being made in consultation with Sandra Semchuk. She has a deep appreciation for the text Ecoart in Action (2022), with potent examples of ecological art as social practice. She is on the board of Myth & Mirrors Community Arts. Elyse will be part of a boreal pigment panel with Betty Carpick and Manidoo Bineshiinh as part of the Pigments Revealed International Symposium (June, 2023).

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Emilio Portal

Emilio Portal is a mixed transdisciplinary artist, maker, designer, musician, producer & sound engineer who was born in New Westminster, BC. In a sonic revolt against the hook, and any other abusive methodologies or schemes, Portal has adopted the perspective that sound isn’t just some thing that can be manipulated, but rather, sound is an entity itself. Emilio started playing drums in 1995. In 2000, he started experimenting in electronic music. His focus is rooted in Latin & Andean music, African rhythms, jazz, hip hop, improvisation, indeterminacy, electroacoustic music, experimental sound art, and how to decolonize art, music and sound. Portal has exhibited throughout Canada, notably at Open Space, Grunt Gallery, la Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, l'écart, DARC, Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film, On The Edge, Up Here, Banff Centre & Debaser. Emilio holds a BFA in fine art from Laurentian university, a bachelor of environmental design studies (architecture) from Dalhousie university, a permaculture design certificate, a natural building passport issued from OUR ecovillage, and a MFA from the University of Victoria.

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Tara Windatt

Tara Windatt is an artist and arts administrator of settler and Indigenous ancestry from Northern Ontario with a Liberal Arts degree with concentrations in fine art and history from Nipissing University. She is a member of the distance between us arts collective (distancebetweenus.ca), and her practice includes installation, performance, poetry, media arts, visual arts, photography, and craft. With over a decade of experience in the not-for-profit arts sector, Windatt has worked with a number of arts organizations including the White Water Gallery, the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, Jumblies Theatre, Zakide, and the Future in Safe Hands Collective, and currently holds administrative positions with both the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival and Aanmitaagzi Story Makers. Specializing in non-profit bookkeeping, grant writing, database management, website development and communications, she is also a consultant with Win Win Consulting, an arts-specific consulting firm she co-founded and operates with her partner Clayton Windatt.

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Katelyn Asselin

Katelyn Asselin is an illustrator and graphic designer who is from North Bay, Ontario. Katelyn is going into her second year of Graphic Design at Canadore College. She mostly does illustrations such as, fan arts and original designs. She also does photography and design work such as, posters for events. Katelyn is looking forward to working with many different people to learn from them and to grow her own skills along the way.

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Jacob Solomon

Jacob Solomon is an illustrator and graphic designer living and working in North Bay, Ontario. Currently a second year attending Canadore College for graphic design and working for many companies. Such as Canadore College media and art design as a media representative, Northland wrestling and ARCA as an illustrator and doing personal commissions and game character design during his free time. Doing a mixture of illustration, graphic design and photography to build his skills and art work of all kinds.