DON JORDAN – ACTOR, SINGER, DIRECTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER

President of the jury

Don Jordan is an accomplished actor, choreographer, singer, director and master jazz dance teacher. The President of the actors’ union, ACTRA Montreal (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) for the past 5 years, Don is the first black president of ACTRA in Canada. Don has been seen in over 60 films and television series, countless television and radio commercials, and he has voiced cartoons and video games. Don was the Artistic Director of the Black Theatre Workshop for the 1987 through 1989 seasons, where he directed numerous plays and musicals. He has sung in many musical theatre productions, gospel choirs and on television, and has also performed on three separate occasions at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. Don was the recipient of the 2010 Black History Award for achievement in the arts issued by the City of Montreal and the Round Table on Black History Month.

IAN BOYD – PRODUCER (LES FILMS DE L’ISLE)

Ian Boyd has been a producer since 1983. His numerous productions and co-productions include the feature films The Passenger by François Rotger, Yellowknife and Full Blast by Rodrigue Jean, and Royal Bonbon by Charles Najman, as well as the following documentaries: La Savane américaine by Jean-François Méan and Ian Lagarde, Ullumi directed by four Inuit directors, Danser Perreault by Tim Southam, and Gabrielle Roy by Léa Pool, all of which were selected for and won awards at a number of film festivals. Three of his recent productions will be coming out in theatres in 2011-12: Les états inventés d’Amérique, inspired by the photographs of Pierre Guimond, La route devant by Bulgarian director and director of photography Stefan Ivanov, a film about returning to his roots, and Mesnak, a feature film by Huron Wendat director, Yves Sioui Durand.

DANIELLE LEDUC – ACTRESS

A graduate of Concordia’s Fine Arts acting program, Danielle Leduc has appeared in the following television series: Chambres en ville (Vanessa Ashley), Cormoran (Flavie Bellavance) and Montréal Ville Ouverte (Mme Claire Drapeau). She has also appeared in plays such as Sans rancune aucune, Drôle de couple au feminin and Pygmalion. A mother of two boys, Danielle went back to school to learn more about art management at HEC Montreal. Passionate about films, she would always go on her jaunts to movie theatres or video clubs. She is very happy to have received the invitation to sit on the jury of the 2011 Montreal International Black Film Festival. Danielle would like to thank them for all the energy they put into this festival, and she is looking forward to the experience of viewing all these magnificent master films.

LEO KALINDA – JOURNALIST

President of the jury
A journalist for the public affairs program, Dimanche magazine, Léo Kalinda began working for Radio-Canada in 1976, where he worked on various radio and television programs. He was part of the first year of La grande traversée and on the team of Présent dimanche, the predecessor of Dimanche magazine. He was also part of the national and international editions of Présent. He has worked for Le Point, Première page, Dossiers hebdos, Vingt heures and was a reporter on the program Nord-Sud at Radio-Québec television. Léo was the co-recipient of the CIRTEF’s Grand prix international du reportage télé award in 1986 for the series Afrique du Sud, four portrayals of life under apartheid. In 2006, he directed Mères courage about survivors of the Rwandan genocide, which won various awards.

NICOLA BRIDGE – JOURNALIST AND RESEARCHER

A journalist and documentary researcher, Nicola Bridge has worked on documentary films for over 25 years. At Radio-Canada, she was a researcher for the programs Dossiers, Le Point and Enjeux. She has worked as a researcher and interviewer for many independent documentary productions aired on Radio-Canada, Télé-Québec, Historia and Canal D, including Lili St. Cyr, les Grandes Institutions du Québec and two documentary series called Les Artisans du rebut global and Les Citadins du rebut global (Télé-Québec). More recently, Nicola has collaborated on We Shall Remember Them and Pour ne pas les oublier, two special Remembrance Day documentaries about Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

KARIM OUADIA – JOURNALIST

In his twenties, between 1991 and 2001, when he was working as a reporter for the Algerian French-language radio station, Chaine Trois, and as a news anchor at Canal Algérie for five years, Karim Ouadia was rubbing elbows with famous people in the Algerian radio and television scene. When he came to Montreal, he changed vocations and worked in the world of banking for a number of years before going back into journalism. He is currently a journalist working for the Internet section of Radio-Canada’s newsroom.

(narrative, documentary, animated)

ANNE-MARIE DUPRAS – DIRECTOR

President of the jury
It was with a small short film at KINO that Anne-Marie Dupras got hooked on cinema and began her career as a director. She then went on to make a number of films of different genres, but she became most recognized for her comedies, both behind the camera and in front of it. In films like Dodos à gogo (winner of the Best Short Film Award at the 2006 Montreal Haitian Film Festival) and L’autruche (selected to be shown at the 2009 MIBFF), she deals with racism and homophobia with a touch of humour peppered with reflection and self-deprecation. Be it as a screenwriter, editor, actress, musician, comedian or journalist, Anne-Marie loves to tell stories, but especially to make people laugh and think.

STEVE BASTIEN – ACTOR

A Montrealer of Haitian origin, Steve Bastien is an actor, host and social worker. He has been working at Collège Lionel-Groulx for several years. As an actor, he works in theatre, film and television (Jasmine, Les Bougons, Lance et Compte : la reconquête, among other shows). Steve hosts various cultural events in both Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec. He is also a regular conference speaker (psycho-social themes). This multi-talented man volunteers for social causes, and has been, for the past two years, the Chairman of the Board of African Rainbow, an organization dedicated to supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered individuals of African and Caribbean origin in Quebec, and helping them flourish.

WILL PROSPER – ACTIVIST AND DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER

Will Prosper is one of the founders of and spokespersons for the Montréal-Nord Republik (MNR) citizens movement, which is known for having helped launch the public inquiry into the Fredy Villanueva case. Will also initiated and organized Hoodstock, whose motto was “Organize and Rise.” He actively participated in the creation and development of the Coalition against Repression and Police Abuses, which tries to help victims of police abuse. Will is currently the director of a youth centre in Montreal-Nord that, among other things, tries to encourage the civic participation of young people between 13 and 30 years of age. He is also a documentary filmmaker and is working on activist films, while developing a blog dedicated to advancing black culture in Quebec.