The time has finally come to introduce Elwood Jimmy, our fantastic new Program Director! Elwood brings a unique combination of media arts expertise, programming know-how and a strong foundation in community based programming. He comes to the festival at a critical time, as the festival sharpens its focus on inner-city experiences. We’re thrilled to have him on board as part of the Regent Park Film Festival team!

The deadline to apply for the committee is Monday, May 13, 2013 at 11:59pm.

Click here to fill out an application form!

The successful candidate will be responsible for the following:

• Establishing the overall programming direction for the Regent Park Film Festival, in conjunction with, and with the approval of the Executive Director and the Board
• Developing, implement and maintain the artistic and community profile for the Regent Park Film Festival
• Working with Executive Director to ensure that all programming adheres to the mandate and organizational priorities of the Regent Park Film Festival
• Arranging and manage technical details of the festival’s operations
• Assisting with the implementation of the festival’s marketing and outreach strategies
• Contributing to the smooth administrative operations of the Festival office

Festival Programming

• Scout and invite films to be submitted for consideration at the Regent Park Film Festival
• Manage and build the festival’s Call For Submissions distribution
• View all received submissions, keep records and create a short-list for the programming committee to review
• Maintain detailed programming notes on an ongoing basis, delivering at end of year a full report (contacts, leads, research and recommendations)
• Facilitate the work of the various programming committees as they review Festival submissions and make Festival selections
• Provide regular reports on programming activities to the Executive Director, chair of the programming committee and/or board as required
• Work with Executive Director to secure co-presentations
• Organize and coordinate festival jury
• Provide a post-Festival evaluation of programming based on consultation with programming volunteers and staff

Year-round programming

• Program and organize year-round community screenings
• Identify and develop new opportunities for implementing festival workshops
• Build and maintain a library of past festival films
• Identify and develop new partnership opportunities within Regent Park, and with other similar inner city communities

Operations

• Arrange and manage technical and logistical details regarding venue, equipment, projectionists, etc. for the festival and year-round screenings
• Arrange rental and negotiate fees with exhibiting artists and/or distributors
• Oversee all venue activities as required, including all receptions, panel discussions and screenings
• Arrange hospitality, travel, accommodation, and support for film-related guests of the Regent Park Film Festival
• Oversee the development of the annual festival trailer
• Assist in the coordination of the Festival’s fundraising event

 Outreach and Marketing

• Assist in the execution of the Festival’s communications strategy
• Represent the Festival at relevant meetings, in the Regent Park community and the city’s cultural environments
• Participate in programming related aspects of publicity,
  i.e. conducting interviews with print, television, radio & web-based media outlets
• Service media requests for materials and information (as needed by the Publicist);
  work with the Publicist and staff to develop PR materials, such as press releases
• Coordinate and implement certain aspects of catalogue production including gathering photo stills and other relevant materials
• Maintain familiarity with community events and issues relevant to the inner city

Fundraising

• Prepare and submit grant requests and grant reports related to programming, including but not limited to annual Project Grants from the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and Canada Arts Council
• Support sponsor and fundraising opportunities by providing programming related input, and coordinating any programming requirements they might have (example: identifying appropriate film for the fundraising screening)

Administrative

• Develop and work within an established programming budget and timeline, and manage expenses and revenue related to programming
• Ensure that all programming databases are up-to-date
• Assist in overseeing the smooth operation of the office: maintaining phone and e-mail lists, database, filing, record keeping.
• Field phone and e-mail inquiries
• Assist with general administrative duties as needed

Skills Required:

• Experience in media arts programming.
• Familiarity with the not-for-profit arts sector
• Strong oral and written communication skills
• Highly organized, able to multitask, work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Computer literacy (word processing, excel, email, web)
• Knowledge and familiarity with inner city issues and context
• An appreciation for the intersections of community building and professional arts
• Strong problem solving skills, ability to take initiative, and work well in a team

The following will be considered assets:

• Strong interest/experience in media arts study, education and practice
• Familiarity In living or working in Regent Park, or similar inner city communities

Terms of Contract

Position: Full time, Contract. Immediate start date, to December 31, 2013.

Salary: commensurate with experience

Schedule: Office hours Monday-Friday, with some evenings and weekends

Reports to: Executive Director

Application Information:

Please email your resume and letter of interest to careers@regentparkfilmfestival.com, Attn: Hiring Committee. Refer to Program Director in your subject line

Closing Date: March 15, 2013

All applications will be reviewed by festival staff and the Board of Directors. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted. Please no telephone inquiries.

Wishing our friends a relaxing holiday season and a very happy new year!

2012 was a landmark year for the festival, as we returned our headquarters to Regent Park and held out most attended festival ever. Here’s to an even bigger 2013!

- The Regent Park Film Festival Team

Photos from the 2012 Regent Park Film Festival trailer, directed by Richard B. Pierre.

Most Promising Filmmaker: Chase Joynt

Rogers Audience Choice Award: THE INTERRUPTERS

Toronto-based filmmaker/artist Chase Joynt was awarded the Most Promising Filmmaker Award at Closing Night of the festival for his short documentary AKIN, which screened in the React and Recover program. AKIN is a lyrical exploration of the relationship between an Orthodox Jewish mother and her transgender son, and was chosen as the winner by a jury consisting of Sheena D. Robertson, Jeff Kariuki and Hubert Davis. Chase wins a $1000 gift certificate to William F. White and a Production Membership plus $500 in equipment rentals from the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT). Congrats to Chase on his win!

The 2012 Rogers Audience Choice Award went to THE INTERRUPTERS, Steve James’ powerful documentary about violence prevention in Chicago. The film screened to a packed house at Daniels Spectrum on the Friday of the festival, and was followed by a panel discussion on violence prevention strategies for Toronto moderated by Olu Quamina, Executive Director of the youth engagement organization Concrete Roses. Panel participants included Cobe Williams, one of the interrupters featured in the film, and leaders in violence prevention in Toronto. Congrats to everyone who made this such a meaningful night.

All photos by Kristen Hanson.

Atom Egoyan and Clement Virgo hang out at our Opening Night reception.

Our awesome volunteer Masha hands out name tags.

Selling posters for the Liberation Cooperative Organization in the lobby before the show. Candy also for sale.

The crowd gets seated!

Our Star Panel in action! From left to right: moderator Sandra Cunningham and panelists Jennifer Holness, Sudz Sutherland, Clement Virgo and Atom Egoyan.

The emerging filmmakers from our Community Stories: Youth Media Arts Program during their post-screening Q&A.

The launch of our tenth annual festival is a major milestone, but we haven’t forgotten where we started: as an idea in the brain of one inspired educator and artist named Chandra Siddan. Ten years — and many more screenings — later, we chatted with Chandra about how The Regent Park Film Festival first got off the ground and the vision that underpins its roots.

How did the festival get started? Where did you get the idea to start a festival in Regent Park?

You might be surprised to hear that it came of a homework assignment! When I was working on my Bachelor of Education, I was a new immigrant and living in St. Jamestown and attending classes here in Regent Park, where York University had opened a new campus with the aim of preparing teachers for community-based education. In my paper on multiculturalism, I wrote that it would be just the thing for Regent Park to have a film festival as a way of breaking its isolation from the rest of the city.

More to the point, I found the various communities in the area—if not the whole city—isolated unto themselves. I wanted more interaction between the communities, some with historical enmities. New solidarities needed to be built. A film festival would provide the forum where we could learn about one another, acknowledge our histories and imagine new relationships. We could discuss issues of common interest, like race, class, immigration, local and global citizenship, inner city life, affordable housing, cultural identity, parenting, sexuality, and human rights. We could celebrate the opportunity we have of living among people from all over the world, relate dynamically to new situations, and self actualize in powerful new ways. We could question static notions of identity and culture and see them as an ongoing process where we are the agents of our present and future.

What were some of the challenges in the beginning?

The biggest challenge was a lack of enough funding, which meant years of voluntary labour on a full-time basis for several months of the year for the first few years. There was also a lack of knowledge on my part about how community organizing works. After all, I had no background in social work or community organizing — I was coming from a full on aesthetic film programming mode. Like many new organizations, I suffered from trying to do everything oneself, an inability to delegate, difficulties of asking for assistance from people, and not being able to effectively utilize it when offered, since volunteer coordination is a job unto itself! The festival also struggled to build audiences, and bridge different types of stake holders. Finally, now that there is a beautiful theatre, I can acknowledge that setting up the theatre and the projection used to be a real logistical trial!

What’s it like to see the festival now, at its 10th anniversary?
It’s absolutely thrilling and gratifying that it remains true to its roots and keeps on going! That such wonderful people who believe in it are supporting it is a clear sign that it will survive into the future! I’m so happy that all that work amounted to something that lasts.


What was your most memorable moment from the first festival?

My favourite memory is of the Q&A after the screening of Cyrus Sunder Singh’s Film Club. I felt so wonderful and fulfilled at this beautiful way of being with people, the joy of building community. Also after the screening of Safina Uberoi’s My Mother India, a film about her white Australian mother and her Sikh Indian father who lived through the riots against the Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 after the assassination of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. An audience member came over and expressed his pleasure at how the film questions nationalism from a richer, more expansive perspective.

Why does Regent Park need a film festival?

As I mentioned earlier, it’s important for its ability to facilitate conversations between the diverse communities of the neighbourhood. What should also be added is how the festival facilitates a dialogue with the city as a whole.  As a community of social housing in downtown Toronto, Regent Park’s historic importance as the space of housing for the poor and new immigrants needs to be constantly acknowledged. As downtown becomes more and more gentrified, the poor are removed from central neighbourhoods and pushed towards distant suburbs. Gentrification constantly renders the underclass invisible. The festival protests that erasure and silencing, and holds the space for public discourse on class, race, inner city issues, multiculturalism and social justice. The festival, like the other cultural organizations of the area, builds social capital and civic pride in the place of shame.

What are your hopes for the Regent Park Film Festival in the future?

I just hope that it continues to thrive and explore the issues above mentioned through thought-provoking films and other visual media.

-Interview by Erin Charter | Photo credit: Diana Kurtzer Photography

Scroll down for pics from the night, then swing over to this link to check out the festival’s full program.

Program Director Richard Fung announces the lineup for the 2012 Regent Park Film Festival.

WE ARE WISCONSIN director Amie Williams.

Youth Filmmaker Gabriela Alejandra Argueta Ochoa chats with OMNI television.

Our awesome volunteers showing off their new duds.

Festival founder Chandra Siddan!

All photos by Diana Kurtzer Photography.

Her name is Shaniqua Latifa Shamar Hansen (aka TAAFI) and you can check her out below!

And before the screening gets started, we’re announcing the lineup for the 2012 Regent Park Film Festival. It’s going to be a big night! Click here for tickets

Funds raised at this event will make it possible for our festival and yearlong screenings and workshops to remain FREE and accessible to everyone. Yes, Toronto is a city of wonderful festivals. But not all of the city’s residents are able to experience this wonderful programming. Our organization brings high-quality independent films to the residents of Regent Park, so they can enjoy the festival atmosphere, hear stories that resonate with their experiences, and engage with issues that matter to them.

WE ARE WISCONSIN is a film that addresses such crucial issues. After Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker introduced a bill to dramatically cut public employees’ wages and do away with collective bargaining, Wisconsin citizens spend the next 26 days protesting at the state capitol, sleeping on the floor of the rotunda, marching outside, and talking to one another about what is at risk and what could be done to protect public debate. Director Amie Williams plunged into the action as these protests unfolded, and her provocative film is the result of her time spent in the midst of this historic protest.

2012 will mark the 10th anniversary of the Regent Park Film Festival, and we see this landmark as more than just a number. This is a watershed year for the Festival, as we lay down roots in our new home at the Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre and look ahead to another 10 years of ambitious and provocative community programming. Your support is essential to our vision for the future, and we hope you’ll join us in supporting the festival this October 11. Click here to purchase tickets.