CrossCurrents Canada Doc Fund Awards $245,000 to 10 Projects

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is pleased to announce that 10 films—seven features and three shorts—have received development and production grants totaling $245,000 from the CrossCurrents Canada Doc Fund. The Fund, established with the support of Netflix, was launched during the 2018 Hot Docs Festival and supports a diversity of voices and perspectives with the goal of building a more vibrant, representative and sustainable industry.

The CrossCurrents Canada Doc Fund is a cornerstone of the Hot Docs Canadian Storytellers Project, generously supported by Netflix. The Project is a five-year initiative meant to address systemic barriers and opportunity gaps that exist within the documentary film community. For their partnership on the Project, Hot Docs and Netflix received the 2021 Business/Arts Community Impact Award this past June.

The Fund, which has disbursed $700,000 in four years, aims to foster original storytelling from creators with unique vantage points, and is open to emerging and sophomore documentary storytellers who are Indigenous, Francophone, Deaf and/or have a disability, racialized and/or persons of colour.

Eligible projects were considered by the CrossCurrents Canada Doc Fund Committee: Lucius Dechausay (Filmmaker & Producer, CBC Arts), Kyla Harris (Filmmaker, Independent), Hot Docs (Olena Decock, Manager, Funds and Labs & Lisa Valencia-Svensson, Acting Industry Programs Director), Mélanie Lê Phan (Executive in Charge of Production, Digital Originals, CBC), Niki Little (Artistic Director, imagineNATIVE), Selin Murat (Consultant, Independent) and Kaya Wheeler (Manager, Programs and Development, National Screen Institute).

Development Funding

THE BLACK ACADEMY (feature)

Director/Producer: Deydra Baptiste

Production company: Independent

A full-length documentary with never-before-explored insight into the hearts and minds of Black female academics and creatives; their testimonials on what it is to be Black in the context of post-secondary education; and a presentation of the diverse and dynamic contributions made to their domains and the world at large.

IM/MIGRANT BUYERS CLUB (feature)

Director: Mirusha Yogarajah

Producers: Mirusha Yogarajah, Amos Adetuyi and Floyd Kane

Production company: Circle Blue Entertainment

Tamil communities use a subversive banking system where people can receive large lump sums of money without interest and credit score assessments.Im/migrant Buyers Club explores this system that comes with many stories of triumph, vilification and growth.

THE SICKLING (feature)

Directors/Producers: Gabriel Badejo & Yazmeen Kanji

Production company: Independent

Gabriel Badejo has only ever known a life controlled by Sickle Cell Disease. As he seeks a cure for this life-threatening illness in a prejudicial system, we follow Gabriel’s journey through the intense physical and emotional changes he experiences.

Production Funds

BEYOND BORDERS (short)

Director: Carol Nguyen

Producer: Audrey-Ann Dupuis-Pierre

Production company: 9424-6899 Québec inc.

Beyond Borders is a short, animated documentary illustrating the director’s journey visiting Vietnam for the first time, where inner turmoil and questions of home began to surface. The film touches upon themes of cultural identity and intergenerational trauma.

LES JOURS (DAYS) (feature)

Director: Geneviève Dulude-De Celles

Producers: Sarah Mannering, Fanny Drew

Production company: Colonelle films

One week before her 29th birthday, Marie-Philip learns that she has breast cancer, and that her “big cancer” will put her through a “big year.” A year of treatment lies ahead of her, in which a director, in her mid-thirties, will enter her life.

KOKUM, WITH LOVE. (short)

Director/Producer: Kim Stadfeld

Production company: Heart’s Path Media Inc.

Flora Bear’s youngest granddaughter searches for truth and answers about her Indigenous grandmother’s life.

OUR GRANDMOTHER THE INLET (short)

Directors: Kayah George, Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos

Producers: Kayah George, Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Rachelle George

Production company: OGTI Productions Inc.

A short poetic documentary film featuring Kayah George that portrays the hardships of being an urban indigenous youth while holding love and intrinsic connection to the water and land. Shot on Tsleil-Waututh territory.

TWYSTED SPIRIT (feature)

Director: Gabrielle Zilkha

Producers: Jenn Mason, Gabrielle Zilkha, Twysted Miyake Mugler

Production company: Four Corners Productions Inc.

Dedicated to creating a better world for Black and Brown 2SLGBTQ+ youth, Canadian ballroom pioneer Twysted Miyake-Mugler reconnects with the religious community he left behind and confronts his painful past in this hybrid dance documentary about personal healing, spirituality and community.

WE SHALL EAT WHEN THE RIVER IS FULL (feature)

Director/Producer: Banchi Hanuse

Production company: Smayaykila Films Inc

The relationship between the sputc (eulachon) and the Nuxalkmc (Nuxalk people) intertwine, merge and separate as the lines distinguishing the Nuxalkmc from the sputc, and all other beings, waver and perhaps disappear altogether in this spiritual tale of wealth, loss and recovery.

WORDS LEFT UNSPOKEN (feature)

Director: Josiane Blanc

Producer: Rayne Zuckerman

Production company: IGP Productions Inc.

After avoiding speaking at all cost for over two decades, Joze Piranian, a severe stutterer, decides to confront his fears. The documentary follows Joze as he makes peace with his stutter and becomes the man he’s always wanted himself to be.