Location: Ada Slaight Hall, Daniels Spectrum | 585 Dundas St. E., Toronto, ON
Our annual Pitch Competition is back, but with a twist! This year we’re starting the night with a look back at the last 7 years of Pitch Competitions at RPFF, with a lineup of films that were made after being pitched at our festival. And of course, you’ll also have a chance to hear 3 brand new unscripted projects being pitched from the finalists in this year’s competition. The winner will receive a development deal with CBC and $1000 courtesy of RBC!
(2017 Retrospective)
A young girl wears her afro to school on picture day and must deal with the unexpected consequences.
Alicia K. Harris is a filmmaker from Scarborough. Her films have been screened at numerous festivals including TIFF. Her short film PICK won Best Live Action Short at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards. Alicia is dedicated to celebrating the Black experience, with a focus on beauty, spirituality and vulnerability.
(2018 Retrospective)
The act of washing one’s hair and body serves as the touchstone for Wash Day—an intimate exploration into how private, domestic acts such as washing your hair or putting on makeup become a significant re-acquaintance with the body, before and after navigating the politics of one’s outwardly appearance.
Kourtney Jackson is a Toronto-based writer and filmmaker interested in hybridized, experimental forms of storytelling that exist within and transcend the physical body. Centred in the socio-cultural collisions of subjectivity, surveillance, and societal prescriptions of identity, her films 1 versus 1 and Wash Day have screened at various festivals.
(2019 Retrospective)
A young idealistic writer starts her first staff gig at a powerful media conglomerate and quickly discovers they have a terrifying secret to success.
Lu Asfaha is an award-winning writer and director based in Toronto. Her films bends genres to explore themes of identity, belonging, and how things fall apart. Most recently her short horror ‘Fresh Meat’ premiered at Inside Out Film Festival 2022 before being released on CBC.
(2019 Retrospective)
In the animated short My Name is 張麟發 Tommy Lan Phat Truong, Tommy (a.k.a. 張麟發, Jason, Timmy, Tammy, Tim Tam, Lan Phat and T Truong) reveals the story of his many names by exploring their etymology, evolution, and script.
Tommy Truong is a digital artist, filmmaker, and arts educator, whose work explores the ideas of human behaviour, cultural identity, and storytelling; specifically, how they coincide and complement one another. Truong has exhibited in venues like OCAD University, Artscape, The Royal Cinema, Daniel Spectrum, and Art Gallery of Ontario.
Weiye Su is a documentary director and abstract photographer. He recently directed two National Film Board productions – Jia (2020) and A Passage Beyond Fortune (2022). He was selected to be in the Hot Doc Film Festival accelerator program and Yorkton Film Festival mentorship program in 2021.
Vivian Cheung is an emerging Chinese-Canadian female filmmaker. Her directorial debut, ‘For Roy’ earned Best First Time Director and People’s Choice Best Short at the 17th Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon. Vivian also holds a BSc Major in Biology from UBC, utilizing her passions for science and digital storytelling at her role at Fresh Roots.
Kamika Bianca Guerra-Walker is a Jamaican-Chilean-Canadian director, producer, and actress. Her passion is to understand people and help people understand themselves. Kamika is the founder of her own mental health organization, The Walker Foundation, blossoming from her experience with mental illness in her family.
Jason D’Souza is the host of CBC Radio One’s FRESH AIR and the producer and creator of the multi platform series Matheson. He has won multiple RTDNA’s and received his Bachelor of Communication degree from Simon Fraser University. With two immigrant parents from India, Jason is extremely passionate about bringing to air a range of diverse voices in telling the stories of the communities he covers.
As Executive in Charge of Unscripted Development Yasmine works with independent producers to develop factual programming for CBC and CBC Gem, including the coming-soon primetime docuseries Bollywed. Prior to joining the CBC she worked within Canada’s independent production sector for 20 years. Yasmine also served as a content producer for the Banff World Media Festival’s inaugural BANFF Spark Accelerator.
Senior Producer Jacquie Lee got her start at CBC’s Fashion File and carried her love of storytelling on to shows like: Dragons’ Den, Best Recipes Ever, Four Rooms, and Steven & Chris. Before joining CBC Creator Network, Jacquie was at CBC Music producing some of their marquee television specials.
