2022 HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB
Joel H. Brewster is an award-winning genre screenwriter living in Victoria, BC which is coincidentally one
of the most haunted places in Canada and a city known for its spooky lore. Brewster is passionate about
bringing diversity to the stories he writes and equally dedicated to pushing the boundaries of the genres
he works in by creating fast-paced screenplays with dynamic resolutions.
Brewster has placed in 8 international screenwriting competitions since 2020, won an award for best
screenplay in the 2021 Vancouver Badass Film Festival, has had six short films produced, one feature
film in post-production, and is a two-time recipient of a Telus Storyhive Grant (2016 & 2022).
His current career goals are to create more horror films in British Columbia based on urban legends and
cryptids of the province, with the hopes to further increase tourism to the beautiful small towns and
fascinating municipalities which he believes are filled with untapped potential for interesting feature
films and TV shows.
One of the founding members of Bad Cookie Pictures Ariel Hansen grew up in the surprisingly
eerie Victoria, BC where there seems to be a haunted building on every block. Growing up in
such a spooky city it's no wonder that after moving to Vancouver to pursue acting she eventually
jumped behind the camera as writer and director to bring her own nightmares to life with Ready
to Burst.
Once she got the bug for directing Ariel was hooked and continued to work on a variety of
horrific shorts that have screened at festivals around the world. During their festival runs her
films have garnered a variety of awards and both her short films Clout and Damned Supper also
won screenplay awards prior to being produced.
Ariel is currently in development on a slate of feature horror films, some of which draw
inspiration from her short works and which she is writing, some with writers she has met through
the horror community, and all of which contain her signature combination of fear and fun.
Adrian is a Canadian-based, Mexican-born Writer/Director/Editor. Renowned horror author Susie Moloney has described his narrative work as, "dark, yet, kindhearted." He has been awarded multiple times with his short film T- Minus (2018) and was part of Bloody Disgusting's horror anthology World of Death. Adrian was also the 2nd unit director for the feature documentary Dogville (2020) and co-edited the CBC feature doc Her Last Project.
James Dixon is an Indigiqueer filmmaker and artist based in Winnipeg Manitoba. With a BA in Film and Native Studies from the University of Manitoba, James' style combines abstract collaging and documentary aesthetics, to create work that revolves around his process of decolonization. His work is regional, autobiographical, and experimental. His films have been exhibited widely in Canada and abroad, including the Gimli Film Festival, Toronto Queer Film Festival, and MIX NYC. James' work has been broadcast on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and collected by the Alexander Street Press.
Emily currently co-hosts We Really Like Her!, a podcast and screening series celebrating women in film. Her film and TV experience includes co-writing and producing episodes of GIRL UP AND DIE. In recent years, has worked for Toronto After Dark Film Festival and Canadian Film Centre (CFC). Emily is also a Marketing Manager for Hollywood Suite.
Josh Korngut is the managing editor of Dread Central, an internet publication focused on all things horror. There he also hosts and produces the popular Development Hell podcast, where he uncovers scary movies that were never made. His film and television credits include GIRL UP AND DIE, BIG BROTHER CANADA, SAY YES TO THE DRESS and BROWN GIRL BEGINS.
Eva is a St'at'imc-Eurasian filmmaker and the founder of Tooth & Nail Pictures, whose work explores death, deconstruction, and doubles. She is an alumna of the BANFF Spark Accelerator, the BIPOC TV and Film episodic writers lab, the Whistler Film Festival Indigenous fellows program, and a Reel World Emerging 20. She is the creator of the dark comedy web series Degrees of Separation, currently in development in partnership with Fae Pictures, and a co-writer of Entity. She is currently in Northern Ontario on a directing block for Francophone children's TV show Couleurs du Nord and writing her TELUS STORYHIVE-funded short film, (E)motionless Girl.
Khizer Khani is a writer and director born in Karachi, Pakistan. He moved with his family to Toronto, Ontario, in 1999 when he was three. He fell in love with storytelling in high school after he read the Wheel of Time book series, trying to learn how to write stories shortly after. This new love for storytelling collided with his love for video editing, and he picked up making montages of video games. The medium of film became a natural home for storytelling for him. With his collaborator Andrew Ravindran they created the short film "To No Man's Land" and took it to festivals like Blood in the Snow and Toronto Shorts, where it won the Audience Award. working on feature film scripts helped him get into the First Features Program at the Reel Asian Film festival in 2018 and 2019. Working on multiple short scripts, he made two short films "For Your Benefit" and "Amidst" in 2020.
Kai is a storyteller and producer of immersive experiences for kids, youth, and their caregivers filled with heart, impact, and giggles. Kai has worked on development to distribution on features, TV, shorts, music videos, and interactive experiences. In 2022, Kai won the YMA-TAAFI John Rooney Creator Fund. Kai gravitates to projects focussed on culture, STEAM, social justice, the environment, and wellness. Kai's work plays with intersectionality and universality with sprinklings of humour as seen in Kai's short "CCF's Solstice Stories" and the AR audio zine "Storytellers' Lime: Journey to Babylon."
Tanis Parenteau is an actor/producer and member of the Metis Nation of Alberta - Region 6. TV credits include Billions, FBI: Most Wanted, Gossip Girl, Designated Survivor, House of Cards and Tribal. New York theatre: The Public Theater, Signature Theater, 59E59 Theaters and La Mama. Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her production company, TDEP Productions, focuses on decolonizing the entertainment space by uplifting contemporary Indigenous stories by Indigenous writers, smashing harmful Indigenous stereotypes and creating opportunities for Indigenous people above and below the line. Her debut short film, 'A Big Black Space', garnered a broadcasting deal on ARTE in Europe, won best Canadian Short at Dreamspeakers Film Festival and the Royal Reel Award at the Canada International Film Festival. Tanis has been funded by Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Media Fund, Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society, Bell Fund and is in prep for an APTN lumi short form original digital series which she will also star in. Tanis is on the board at Peace Region Independent Media Artists Association and is a member of Alberta Media Production Industries Association and Canadian Media Producers Association. Master of Fine Arts in Acting from The New School for Drama.
Vickie Ramirez (Tuscarora) is a founding member of Chukalokoli Theater. Her work has been developed and/or produced at Native Voices at the Autry, Alter Theater, The Public Theater, The Roundabout Theatre Company, and Labyrinth Theater Company. Honors: Resident-New Dramatists through 2027, Winner-2020 Smith Prize for Political Theater (NNPN), The Kilroys-Honorary Mention 2019 for Pure Native and 2014 for Standoff At Hwy#37, Semi-finalist-Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2019, Semi-finalist Eugene O'Neill National Playwright's Conference 2018, Alumna-Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group (2009). Productions: Pure Native - Alter Theater (Summer 2022) and Native Voices at the Autry, Standoff at Hwy#37 - NV Autry and the University of South Dakota, Glenburn 12 WP - Summer Shorts at 59E59, Smoke - Mixed Phoenix Theatre Group at Pershing Square Signature Center. Published: Monologues for Actors of Color: Women, Monologues for Actors of Color: Men and Contemporary Plays by Women of Color Edition 2: (Routledge Press), Glenburn 12 WP - Short Plays: Vol 1 (TRW press). Member: Dramatists Guild, PEN America Consultant: Outer Range for Amazon TV.
Brian Quintero is a Canadian-Costa Rican filmmaker born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. As a diverse and new generation voice of emerging filmmakers, he has written and directed several short films and music videos, such as his recent collaboration with the rock band Living Dead Girl and their latest music video, Poltergeist (2021). Brian's short film work includes Walk Away (2018) and Days Gone Bye (2020), which had a sold-out world premiere at the Toronto Black Film Festival. Recently, Brian wrote and directed Oldtimers (2022). This horror-dark comedy stars veteran actors Julian Richings and Conrad Coates, which had its international world premiere at Fantasia Film Festival, winning the Silver Audience Award for Best Canadian Short Film 2022.
Ray Raghavan's first short film MAYA GETTING BORN, won Best Student Film at the Vancouver Int'l South Asian Film Festival. Ray's directorial debut feature film VIOLENTIA went on to play at various genre festivals and even won Best Director at Berlin Sci-Fi Festival. It was then acquired by Gravitas Ventures for worldwide distribution in 2019. Ray's latest short film ALIENATION is having a phenomenal festival run in 2022 - FilmQuest, Trieste Sci-Fi, Morbido, Ravenna Nightmare and Blood In The Snow Festival as of now. Most recently, Ray has also been selected to the 2022 Horror Lab at Blood In The Snow Festival in Toronto to develop PHOREN further. Ray resides in Vancouver, Canada but grew up in rural UP, India. He was surrounded by the right ingredients required for artistic endeavours. Parents Fighting Gangsters; Class wars & Caste wars; Religious differences & Regional differences. A timid outlook and a voracious appetite for stories ensured an escape. Movies & books - Bollywood, Hollywood and everything in between that he could get his hands on.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg is a Contributing Editor for ScreenAnarchy, the Executive Director of the Miskatonic Institude of Horror Studies, and a programmer for Wench Film Festival. Her first short films MEASURE and FLOW have played at festivals around the world. Her book THE SPANISH FANTASTIC: CONTEMPORARY FILMMAKING IN HORROR, FANTASY AND SCI-FI was published in 2016.
Christina Saliba started a career in wildlife biology before launching into the world of cinema as a film production manager on independent short and feature films. In 2017, she joined Goldrush Entertainment as a development executive, discovering new intellectual property to produce, creating pitch materials, and providing support in pre- to post-production. Recently, Saliba graduated from the Canadian Film Centre's Producers' Lab, won the Whistler Film Festival's Power Pitch Competition, and is in post-production on her horror short, White Noise, which was funded by the Harold Greenberg Fund, Bell Media's Crave and SODEC.
Laura Tremblay is a Metis actor, singer, songwriter and filmmaker with endless creative drive and intense work ethic. Tremblay created Lucky Dime Films in 2016, a production company geared towards making quality films on minimal budgets. She has produced a variety of feature and short-length films including: MOTHERLY (Shudder; Official selection of Blood in the Snow Film Festival, Calgary Film Festival, Grimmfest UK, Frightfest) A DINNER PARTY (CBC Canadian Reflections, 2021) HE & ME (Winner of Best Canadian MicroFilm at Videodrunk Film Festival in 2019, Winner of Best Cult Film at Queen City Film Festival in 2019, Winner of Best Ultra-Short at Alternative Film Festival in Toronto, 2019), HERE'S GINGER! (Official selection of Seoul Web Fest, Minnesota Web Fest, & Sao Paulo Web Fest), DOORS (Official selection of Toronto After Dark Film Festival), and many more. Tremblay prides herself on supporting strong voices in the Canadian film industry.
KEY DATES
OUR SPONSORS
HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB TEAM
Kelly Michael Stewart (he/him) began his career as a contributing film writer to Fangoria Magazine and has more than 250 reviews, interviews and articles published online and in print for various websites and publications. As a filmmaker, he wrote and produced the short film "One More For the Road" and co-wrote and produced the horror anthology feature film "Late Night Double Feature". Kelly founded both Blood in the Snow Film Festival in 2012 and the Deadly Exposure Industry Conference in 2018.
Carolyn Mauricette (she/her) is a Toronto-based film writer and programmer for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival. She is also the Director of Canadian Programming for Fantasia International Film Festival. She has written pieces on diversity, women in sci-fi, and film reviews for Graveyard Shift Sisters and Cinema Axis; both online and print editions of Rue Morgue Magazine and Grim Magazine, and is a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.
Mariam Bastani (she/her) is a writer/producer based in Toronto. She is the operations coordinator of Rue Morgue Magazine and co-founder of QTIBIPOC focused multimedia horror creators Audre's Revenge Film. Mariam has curated Canadian, US and International horror screenings and was the Editor-in-Chief of Maximum Rocknroll Magazine. She has been on a number of academic speaking tours regarding PoC in punk culture and several Women in Horror panels.
Alison Lang is a writer/editor based in Toronto. She has written for Rue Morgue, ByNWR.com and Art of the Title, among others. Her book Women with Guts, a collection of essays and interviews with women working in horror, is available via the Rue Morgue Library and she has also contributed to Satanic Panic: Pop Culture Paranoia in the 1980s (Spectacular Optical) with a chapter on Geraldo Rivera's Devil Worship special. She has presented on topics related to horror and gender for the Ax Wound Film Festival (Vermont), Final Girls Film Festival (Berlin) and the DePaul University Pop Culture Conference (Chicago).
Jerri is an award winning Inuvialuit film director and television producer from the Northwest Territories of Canada. Her work is often centred within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region preserving language and culture with the Inuvialuit Communications Society since 2014. Outside of television she has co-produced films internationally working various roles on-set. In 2015, she joined the Arctic Film Circle consisting of circumpolar Indigenous film directors, this collaboration was created by the International Sami Film Institute (ISFI). Currently, she is working with ISFI on a second circumpolar anthology, Arctic Chills.
HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB - JURY MEMBERS
Ophira Calof (she/they) is an award winning Disabled artist with credits including Generally Hospital and Literally Titanium. Ophira also works as a curator, educator, and consultant with projects including COVID-19 through a Disability Lens: Storytelling and Filmmaking Project, and Making Space: Stories of Disabled Youth in the GTA.
Thirza Jean Cuthand (she/her)(b. 1978 Regina SK) makes short videos and films about Indigiqueer issues. She completed her BFA at ECUAD in 2005, and her MA at Ryerson University in 2015. She is Plains Cree/Scots, and a member of Little Pine First Nation.
Katherine Connell (Katie) is a critic, programmer, and educator. She is a staff writer for the London-based feminist film journal Another Gaze and her writing has appeared in various publications including Bitch Media, Canadian Art, Cinema Scope, Hyperallergic, MUBI Notebook, Reverse Shot, Tor.com, and POV Magazine. Katie has participated in film programming for both Pleasure Dome and Inside Out. She writes most frequently about queerness and spectatorship, literary adaptation, horror, and the subversive pleasures of fandom.
Alex Hall is a writer based in Toronto, Ontario. She is the creator of, Lezzie Borden, an Instagram account that examines and archives depictions of queer women in horror. Her work specializes in the interplay of hauntings, queerness and theory. You can read her work in Room, Feels Zine, Gayly Dreadful, Anatomy of a Scream and Neon Horror. Most recently, she has contributed a chapter to a forthcoming book of essays on Queer Horror.
In the beforetime, Petula hosted her podcast at In a TIFF (http://inatiff.com/) about films and the Toronto International Film Festival. Now she is the co-host for Back Issue Bloodbath, a podcast about comic books. You can enjoy those alone at home (https://geekhardshow.com/category/podcasts/bib/)!
Victor Stiff is a Toronto-based film critic who has written for POV Magazine, The Playlist, Film School Rejects, Screen Rant, and the Canadian Academy and hosts and produces the YouTube series Dope Black Movies. Victor is the current news editor and senior critic at That Shelf, where he has covered TIFF, Sundance, Hot Docs and the Montreal Festival du nouveau cinema. In 2020, Victor received the Toronto Film Critics Association's Emerging Critic award.
