BIPOC TV & Film and Bell Media present the Inaugural Unscripted Producers Lab
The 2023 program welcomes 8 mid-career Canadian producers
February 15, 2023 - A cohort of eight Black and racialized producers have been selected for BIPOC TV & Film’s inaugural Unscripted Producers Lab, presented by Bell Media.
Announced September 2022, the program aims to mentor and train mid-career and experienced producers and showrunners interested in developing and producing original unscripted series. Through high-impact interactive workshops, panels, and case studies, co-designed by Sphere Media’s content executive Andrea Griffith and Bell Media senior production executive Tina Apostolopoulos, participants learn how to produce an unscripted (factual, reality, competition) series from start to finish.
“We are incredibly proud of our inaugural cohort and are honoured to support their career development,” said Kadon Douglas, BIPOC TV & Film Executive Director. “Audiences are seeking new and compelling unscripted content, especially that which challenges, entertains and introduces them to worlds they’ve never experienced. Each producer in this cohort has demonstrated their strengths not only as a gifted storyteller but also as an advocate for change. I can’t wait to see what new stories and people they introduce us to.”
The 2023 lab participants are B.C.-based producers Derek Kwan and Priyanka Desai, Quebec-based bilingual producer and on-air host Sabine Daniel, and Ontario-based producers Vatsala Aron, Jonathan Jude, Camille Lawrence, Oswaldo Quiroz, and Amita Zamaana.
The intensive lab covers various topics such as unscripted storytelling, casting, production and post-production workflows, financing and scheduling, as well as management and career development skills. Participants also get to hear from esteemed industry guests who provide their insights and help mentor the group.
“Our goal with this program is to set up a new generation of diverse Canadian talent who can bring their unique and fresh perspectives to the unscripted media landscape,” said Justin Stockman, Vice-President, Content Development & Programming, Bell Media. “We hope this initiative opens up more opportunities and leads to long-running careers not just for our cohort of creators, but also for many other aspiring producers who will see more of themselves and their stories reflected on screens.”
“Working with BIPOC TV & Film and Bell Media is a dream collaboration,” said lead facilitator and program co-designer, Andrea Griffith, Director of Content, Unscripted at Sphere Media. “We are so thrilled to be supporting the journey of eight talented creators on the journey to becoming showrunners in the unscripted space. We’ve designed a premium program for our participants that builds on foundational skills and follows the exciting life cycle of production. Our goal is to advance this group of leaders, primed to be in the power seat of a showrunner, and set them up for a brilliant trajectory and long-running career in unscripted programming.”
A shortlist of participants was selected in Fall 2022 and invited to interviews led by Apostolopoulos, Griffith, and BIPOC TV & Film programs manager, Hannah Yohannes. Following the lab intensive, to complement the mentorship experience, BIPOC TV & Film will meet with the participants monthly to offer additional wraparound support, including check-ins, career goal-setting activities, and general advocacy.
MEET THE 2023 PARTICIPANTS
Derek Kwan is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC. Naturally gravitating towards stories surrounding food and culture, he strives to bring narratives to screen through a lens not widely portrayed before. Derek was selected as part of Reelworld’s E20 Program as one of 20 emerging Canadian filmmakers for 2021. He directed the documentary film “ME” funded by Telus Storyhive, winning Grand Jury Best Short Documentary at SAAFF ‘19 and DisOrient ‘19. Derek was Producer on the short film “MAUNDY”, a Telefilm ‘Not Short on Talent’ selection and showcased at the Short Film Corner during the Festival de Cannes 2022. Lastly, Derek was also a 2022 Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices fellow.
Priyanka Desai is an award-winning broadcast journalist-turned-TV producer specializing in stories that impact and entertain. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Priyanka is known for her understanding of diverse cultures across two continents. In Canada, her credits include a variety of producing roles for the likes of TELUS Originals, Storyhive, APTN, Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada and AMI. Through her newly founded company, Jugaad Sisters, her goal is to enable immigrant women of colour to achieve professional excellence in Canada.
Sabine Daniel is an award-winning bilingual Canadian Producer & Host creating multiplatform quality productions that reflect the world as we know it. Her work consistently produces the second season of Sunny's Quest, an English-language children's show featuring personal stories told by Black children across the country. This series is broadcast across Canada. Recently, she launched a series of educational and bilingual podcasts entitled, The Incredible Stories of African-Canadians. With more than 15 years of experience in front of and behind the camera, Sabine is dedicated to telling stories that reflect all Canadians and creating more opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour creatives in film, broadcast, and television.
Vatsala Aron brings a decade-plus of producing experience in India and the Asia Pacific. Until 2021, she worked full-time as a head of production with Vice Media. Vatsala has worked across various formats with leading media companies, including Amazon, Netflix, Discovery, Fox Life and Bacardi, and across subcultures: music, travel, lifestyle, true crime, food, investigative, comedy and children’s programming. Her latest work includes Indian Predator, a true crime docu-series for Netflix India. Vatsala recently completed a MA in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University and is now based in Toronto. Vatsala aims to consciously produce content behind the scenes and help facilitate change at a community level. She values a people-first approach driven by emotional and cultural awareness. Her strength lies in owning risks, trusting the process and embracing unfamiliarity. In between projects, Vatsala finds her way to the Arctic, reads psychology, and plays the piano.
Producer, director, and creative collaborator Jonathan Jude is an award-winning professional in the Canadian documentary and unscripted television industry. Jonathan is passionate about inspiring change through media and has recently produced the 2020 CSA Best Factual series, Employable Me. Jonathan’s directorial debut garnered tremendous media attention through CBC Gem title Dream Boxer (2019). Jonathan has recently produced and story-edited two seasons of the series, Canada’s Got Talent (2022/2023) and was the digital producer of big hit shows like CBC Gem’s, The Ultimate Challenge Canada (2023) and the prime-time CTV unscripted series Holmes Family Effect (2019). Jonathan's next project, Spice Girl Eats: India brings the most vulnerable side to his storytelling, documenting his sister’s journey back to India following their family cookbook while educating audiences about the diaspora of Indian food and communities across Canada.
Camille Lawrence is an accomplished television professional with eight years of industry experience across various genres. She has successfully driven many projects from inception to completion as a production manager in the animation industry to story producing, casting, development and post-production in lifestyle and competition reality programming. Camille leads with curiosity and is passionate about authentic unscripted storytelling. Some of her notable credits include: The Amazing Race Canada, Canada’s Got Talent, Best In Miniature, and The Umbrella Academy. She holds an honours bachelor of arts degree in communication studies from Wilfrid Laurier University and a postgraduate certificate in Children’s Media: Writing, Production and Management from Centennial College.
Oswaldo Quiroz, a.k.a "Ozzy," started his film and television career in 2009 after graduating from the POV Film organization and completing an internship at Radke Films in Toronto. His early honours earned him a nomination for George Canyon's Better Be Home Soon at the CCMA for the music video of the year under the mentorship of director Warren P. Sonoda. Ozzy works freelance as a unit production manager and producer on countless commercials and unscripted productions in English, French, Spanish and Farsi. In 2016, he launched Latinx Nation which supports Latin artists through education, providing free annual production workshops to the Latinx community for young people wishing to enter the film industry. He also supports and volunteers at CARAS, POV Film as a board member, and at the Canadian Hispanic-Latin American Virtual Museum as media director. In 2022 he created, produced and directed his first unscripted series, Pizza Town, to be released in spring 2023 with support from Bell Fibe TV1.
Amita Zamaana is a writer, producer and director for both scripted and unscripted television. Her work has been featured on CTV, CBC, Netflix, MTV and Roku. She is a Senior Producer on the The Great Canadian Show, is currently in production on a CBC doc, and is in development on a scripted comedy series as well. As an intersectional storyteller, Amita's production company, Fig. 5 Productions, inherently addresses underrepresentation, misrepresentations and erasures of important voices and stories in film/television/digital arts. Fig. 5 has an original and innovative slate of scripted and unscripted projects in development that Amita is extremely excited about.
OUR PROGRAM PARTNER
ABOUT BELL MEDIA
Bell Media is Canada’s leading content creation company with premier assets in television, radio, digital and out-of-home media, including 35 television stations that are part of the CTV and Noovo networks; 27 specialty channels, including sports leaders TSN and RDS; bilingual TV and streaming service Crave; the iHeartRadio Canada brand encompassing 215 music channels, including 109 radio stations in 58 Canadian markets; and the Astral out-of-home advertising network. Bell Media is also a partner in Pinewood Toronto Studios, Montréal’s Grande Studios, Just for Laughs and Dome Productions, one of North America’s leading production facilities providers. Bell Media is part of BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada’s largest communications company.
Learn more at BellMedia.ca.