The Live Script Lab returns to the festival in partnership with ACTRA Toronto. Now in its second year, four emerging screenwriters will have their scripts performed by actors selected by the ACTRA Diversity Committee, in front of a live audience with industry leaders in attendance.
Featured Scripts
Distant Cousins
Written by Winnifred Jong
Estranged from her cousins, Chinese-Canadian Trixie has flashbacks and dreams which lead her to uncover a longstanding family secret.
Winnifred Jong is a Toronto-based filmmaker and an alumna of the Women In the Director’s Chai (WIDC) and Ryerson University. Her recent work can be seen on CBC’s Frankie Drake Mysteries web series. Chosen as a Wattpad Studios creator, she is currently producing/directing the short film Destin. The comedic web series, Tokens, which Winnifred Jong created is slated to shoot in Fall 2018. She is in pre-production for her third short, a passion project, Distant Cousins. She was a Finalist in the Reel Asian Film Festival “So You Think You Can Pitch?” for Distant Cousins.
Is Nanabush Still Alive? Legend & Myth Meet the Urban World
Written by Pamela Matthews
In the tales of the unexpected, set in the urban world, ordinary characters encounter mysterious phenomena of native mythology – and we wonder – is Nanabush still alive?
Pamela Matthews (BSc, MFA) is a Producer, Director, Editor, Professor and Actor and has been working in Theatre and Film/TV for three decades. She teaches Film Studies at Ryerson University, Centennial College and OCAD University, and, since 2002, has been teaching filmmaking to Native youth for the American Indian Film Institute (AIFI) in San Francisco, where she has Directed and overseen the production of approximately 50 short films.
Sonder
Written by Elene Meketé
Sonder Bar utilizes technology that has been outlawed by the government in order to manipulate thoughts through specially formulated cocktails. The bar allows people to dive into the world of “what-if”s. A space where anyone can confront the issues they never could seem to confront on their own…
Elene Mekete is an award-winning screenwriter & filmmaker based in Toronto. She began her career by working as an assistant in the production offices of several network television series, including Hannibal, Black Mirror and The Handmaid’s Tale. Elene is dedicated to creating unique characters and diverse worlds through her storytelling.
Sqúad
Writer by Helena Morgane and Aba Amuquandoh
Four and a half vibrant women of the African diaspora move in together for a one-year pledge to navigate friendship, life in Toronto and dirty dishes. They reach peak sisterhood nonsense as they get dragged into a next-level police investigation because of their roommate’s rich sugar daddy/boyfriend.
Helena Morgane is an Afro-European (French) multidisciplinary performer and filmmaker based in Toronto. She trained as an actor in New York City with Seth Barrish & Lee Brock (The Barrow Group) and Maria Psomas. After kickstarting her career by working on Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s award-winning ‘Poetic Justice’ music video, she then started freelancing as a director/producer. Helena Morgane is committed to uplifting her communities and telling complex multicultural stories, one character/project at a time… In front and behind the camera.
Aba Amuquandoh is an actress, writer, playwright, director and a recent graduate of the University of Toronto. Her most recent plays include I Can’t Trust Anyone, Everyone Hurts Me: A Comedy, written with Celeste Yim. Outside of creating, and acting, Aba is also a stand up comedian as well as a sketch comedy writer and performer. You can expect to see some of her writing in a feminist comedy book that will be published by Demeter Press later in the year, as well as an excerpt from her upcoming play, Ghanada, which will be featured in Living Hyphen this Fall. Aba will also be involved in plenty of upcoming shows in Toronto, and you can keep up with her on twitter @abaquan
