Shasha Nakhai | Founder & Co-President
Shasha is a Filipino-Iranian director and producer based in Toronto. She grew up in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Bacolod City, Philippines, before moving to Canada in 2003.
She is an alumna of TMU’s Journalism Program, Berlinale’s EFM Toolbox, Banff Spark, the DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program, Hot Docs Doc Accelerator, Hot Docs Incubator, WIFT’s Ubisoft Toronto Mentorship, the Reel Asian First Feature Lab, and TIFF’s Talent Accelerator.
Shasha was named one of Toronto Life’s New Hollywood North, The Kit’s Power List of Canadian Women in Film, Canadian Immigrant’s Women of Inspiration, and recently nominated for RBC’s Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards.
She is a member of the Director’s Guild of Canada (DGC) and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCT).
When she isn’t making movies, she is an avid gardener and yogi, and fan of all things horror and kawaii.
Rich Williamson | Founder & Co-President
Rich is a writer and director with over a decade of experience as an editor and cinematographer.
Born and raised in London, Ontario, his body of work blends the best of fiction and documentary technique together with a focus on social-issue subjects.
Rich was named one of Toronto Life’s New Hollywood North, and his recent feature Scarborough was dubbed “a micro budget masterpiece of Canadian film.”
He is an alumna of TMU’s Image Arts Film Program, the Reykjavik International Film Festival’s Talent Lab and the Canadian Film Centre’s Cineplex Entertainment Film Program.
Rich is a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCT) and the Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) guild.
In his spare time, he also creates fan trailers and mashup edits for his YouTube channel, Flash Sideways, which has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, AV Club, Slashfilm, Screenrant, Gizmodo, Mashable, Collider and Nerdist.
Kenya-Jade Pinto | Head of Marketing & Distribution
Kenya-Jade Pinto is an Indo-Kenyan-Canadian documentary photographer, filmmaker, and lawyer. She grew up chasing crabs on the Kenyan coast, before moving to Alberta’s foothills as a teen. Her hyphenated worldview informs her work where she focuses on non-fiction and narrative projects that navigate themes of displacement, belonging, and access to justice.
Kenya-Jade blends her creative eye with thoughtful precision, and most recently supported Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson as an associate producer on Scarborough – all the way to the Toronto International Film Festival and beyond.
Kenya-Jade’s training as a human rights lawyer has deepened her practice as a documentarian on projects like Not Yet Home, Level Justice, and more recently, The Sandbox. She has participated in DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program as well as HotDocs’ Emerging Filmmaker Program. She’s the filmmaker-in-residence at York University’s Refugee Law Lab, and in 2021, she was named a National Geographic Explorer. She is currently directing her first documentary feature with frequent collaborators, Compy Films.
Stephanie de Bem | Production Manager
Stephanie "Sherlock" de Bem graduated from the Image Arts: Film Studies program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2019. She specializes in producing, production managing/coordinating, and locations managing. Upon graduating, Stephanie has freelanced for several Toronto production companies including Compy Films, Storyline Entertainment, Scarborough Pictures, Visitor Media, and Great Pacific Media.
Stephanie’s producing work includes her short films: Your Mileage May Vary, which was aired on the CBC in August 2018; Fish Out of Water, which won "People's Choice Award" and "Best Child Performance" at the Toronto Metropolitan University Film Festival; The Next Right; and Not Just For The Nerds.
Steph became a member of the Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television after being awarded a membership through Toronto Metropolitan University and Boat Rocker Media's partnership program which awards promising film students opportunities in the entertainment industry. She has also won four film-related scholarships: the Universal Studios Scholarship in Filmmaking, the HSBC Best 4th Year Producer, and two Norman Jewison Filmmaker Awards.