HELPING ADVANCE DIVERSITY IN GENRE
(Application Deadline Oct 1, 2024)HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB SUBMISSION INFORMATION
KEY DATES
OUR SPONSORS
HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB TEAM
Carolyn Mauricette (she/her) is a Toronto-based film writer and programmer for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival. Carolyn is 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.
Roger is Writer, Director, Producer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Filmmakers Association. He is one of the founders of the Indigenous Film Summit, and is a graduate of Capilano University's "Filmmakers in Indigenous Leadership & Management Business Affairs" program as well as National Film Institute's Art of Business Management 2022.
As a retired police officer, Keda brings a unique and authentic voice to her consultancy and content development work. After 27 years with Toronto Police, law school and an acting background in Film & TV, she's emerging as a producer with grit. Keda's driven by uncovering the under-told stories of underrepresented communities and amplifying the voices of underserved groups. Her content studio, Broken Whole Media, creates, develops and produces provocative scripted and unscripted content to transform the industry through A.R.T.S. (Amplifying diversity, Revolutionizing narratives, Transformative stories and Surpassing expectations).
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.
HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB - JURY MEMBERS
Dai is a passionate advocate for the power of film as a medium for self-expression and storytelling. Born in Toronto, Ontario, and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Dai discovered a love for storytelling at a young age, influenced by the rich cultural tapestry of her Canadian-Grenadian heritage. As the Founder/Artistic Director of Brown Girls Original Creations, Dai channels her creative vision to celebrate the beauty of the Black diaspora and her mission to transmute the reverberation of colonialism. Her work also boldly addresses issues of the trauma experienced by the female identified community, provoking thought and inspiring change through visual storytelling.
Rueben Martell was raised in Waterhen Lake First Nation in Northern Saskatchewan. Having heard Cree tall tales from his grandmother from a young age, he was enamoured with the oral tradition of storytelling. His imagination pushed him to make the images more physically represented in visual media. In January 2020, he finished principal photography on his first feature film, "Don't Say Its Name," for Chaos Films, which played Fantasia and BITS in 2021 and has been presold to Super Channel Canada. Rueben is currently developing a tv series "RedWater," a feature film script, "A Life Less Empty," and a feature film titled "Tied."
Heidy Morales is the founder of Hye¡Çs Musings, an alternative media website covering film, theatre, along with other arts and culture events. She is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved film reviewer. Born in Guatemala, Heidy now resides in Toronto, Canada where she has been writing and discussing the film scene locally and abroad for 15 years. Heidy is a programmer for Blood in the Snow.
Elizabeth E. Schuch is an award-winning filmmaker with a career that spans directing, storyboarding, and design, as well as producing VFX and indie features. Her debut feature as a director, indie art-house horror "The Book of Birdie," has an all-female cast and 75% female crew. The film won several accolades, putting her on the radar of female-driven genre filmmaking. In lockdown, Elizabeth co-directed the epic documentary "God's Soldiers: Siege of Malta."