Boards & Staff

Gabor Pertic attended the University of Toronto as a Specialist in Cinema Studies, graduating with an Honours B.A. After working as a film critic in Toronto, he transitioned into the world of film festival programming. For several years, he worked in the programming department of the Toronto International Film Festival. In addition to TIFF, Gabor was Executive Director of the Breakthroughs Film Festival and Documentary programmer for the Reykjavik International Film Festival. For the majority of his career, Gabor has been working in the programming department for North America’s largest Documentary-exclusive film festival Hot Docs.

Vivian Belik is a programmer, writer and producer who currently leads programming for the year-round Hot Docs Cinema. She has curated and juried works for film institutions across Canada and abroad including TIFF, the National Screen Institute, DA Films, Available Light Film Festival and Gimli Film Festival.

Alexander Rogalski has been a professional film programmer for more than a decade focusing on documentary and Canadian cinema for festivals across the country including TIFF, Calgary International Film Festival, Victoria Film Festival, Gimme Some Truth, and others. He is the founder of the One Take Super 8 Event, an event started in Regina in 2000 that has spread across North America and produced over a thousand independent films. In addition to working as a film curator, Alex is currently an Outreach consultant with SaskCulture and was previously the Executive Director of PAVED Arts in Saskatoon. He holds a Masters in Communication and Culture from York and Toronto Metropolitan (Ryerson) Universities and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film from the University of Regina and has written for publications including POV magazine.
 

Gugi Gumilang is a dynamic doc professional bridging global creative ecosystems, whose has produced films that screened at Busan, BFI, IDFA, DOK Leipzig, and Hong Kong IFF. As Programme Director of award-winning nonprofit In-Docs, he spearheads initiatives like Docs by the Sea to strengthen Asian documentary storytelling, while shaping industry standards through roles on the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE) Executive Board and as a Hot Docs International Programmer. A dedicated mentor and strategist, he advises on story development, rough cuts, and impact campaigns, while advocating for equitable co-production models that center Asian voices as a sought-after industry speaker. His curatorial expertise extends to selection committees for Sundance Documentary Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, IDFA Bertha Fund, and EURIMAGES, and jury roles at CPH:DOX, DOK Leipzig, Cannes Docs, IDFA Forum, RIDM, and Ji.hlava IDFF, cementing his reputation as a trusted leader in global doc circles.

Carmen Thompson is a programmer, curator and cultural producer based in Edinburgh. She works freelance and consultants across programming, audiences, festivals, training and development, funding and distribution, both in the UK and internationally. Her interests centre around cinema from the African continent and the Black diaspora, perhaps most specifically at their intersections with non-fiction storytelling.

Carmen currently works as Head Distribution & Special Projects for multi-award-winning film exhibition & distribution company We Are Parable. She is one third of the newly-formed Jali Collective in Scotland and is deputy chair of British Independent Film Awards (BIFA). Until recently, she served as the chair of Document, Scotland’s human rights documentary film festival, she previously programmed for Sheffield DocFest 2022-2025 and until last year was programmer of Sub-Saharan African Film at Red Sea Film Festival.

Simone Estrin is a Toronto-based programmer, curator, and filmmaker whose work looks at the experience of art from a social and environmental perspective. In addition to her role as International Features Programmer at Hot Docs, she is a Senior Programmer at Planet in Focus, and also contributes to film programming at TIFF Docs and Le Festival International du Film sur l’Art. Simone holds an MFA in Documentary Media Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University.

Aisha Jamal is a Toronto-based festival programmer, filmmaker, and educator with a focus on documentary and independent cinema. She has programmed for major film festivals, including for Hot Docs since 2017, where she highlights innovative, socially engaged films from Canada and around the world. As a filmmaker, her work often explores themes of family, resilience, and hybrid identity, with her films screening at international festivals and broadcast on Canadian television. In addition to her curatorial and creative work, Aisha teaches film and media studies, mentoring emerging voices and contributing to critical conversations around representation and storytelling. With a career spanning programming, production, and education, she brings a thoughtful perspective and a strong commitment to programming diverse, meaningful cinema.

Mariam Zaidi is a filmmaker, film programmer, and arts manager based in Toronto. She has worked on programming teams at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival since 2016 and the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival since 2020, respectively. Previously, Zaidi was the Executive Director of the Breakthroughs Film Festival. Aside from festival programming, Zaidi has also made short films that have been supported by the National Film Board of Canada, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the CBC. Most recently she worked on the distribution and impact campaigns for the Canadian films, Academy-Award Nominated, To Kill a Tiger (TIFF, 2023) and An Unfinished Journey (Hot Docs, 2024). 

Rolla Tahir is a filmmaker, programmer, and arts worker with a specialist degree in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto. She is the co-founder and artistic director of the Toronto Arab Film Festival. Her past experience includes working as an audio/visual technician at festivals such as Hot Docs, the Toronto International Film Festival, imagineNATIVE and the Regent Park Film Festival. Beyond festival work, Rolla is dedicated to her creative practice as a filmmaker and film-weaver.