2023 Festival Jury

Filmmaker & Director

Alexi is a filmmaker and award-winning documentary director in the Directors Guild of Canada. His insatiable passion for visual storytelling and social and environmental justice has led him to the directing of his feature debut – a multi-award-winning documentary titled Rematriation. He has recently founded his Vancouver-based production company, Kincentric Cinema, and has multiple projects of varying formats in development and production.

Actor & Producer

Bahram Radan is an award-winning Iranian actor. He got his first big break in 1999 when he was given a starring role in the film “The Passion of Love.” The film achieved great success at the Iranian box office and was one of the country’s top grossing movies of 2000.

Radan has since starred in many productions and has become a household name in the Middle East. In 2010, he was chosen by United Nations as the first Iranian UN ambassador against hunger. Radan has also ventured into music and released his first album, The Other Side, in 2012.

Cinematographer & Director

Gary Prendergast was a cameraman for CBC for 30 years. Since then, he has made many independent films primarily on Vancouver Island that focus on environmental and cultural themes. Born in B.C., the birthplace of Greenpeace, he is grateful to be in a region of the world that has not been severely industrialized. The British Columbia Environmental Film Festival can be a vital tool to communicate the importance of the stewardship of Nature, vital for the health and well-being of the planet.

Ocean Scientist & BCEFF Co-Founder

Jennifer Jackson obtained her PhD from UBC in 2011, where she discovered a new layer in the Arctic Ocean that influences sea ice melt. Since then, she has studied the coastal waters of South Africa and the British Columbia where she studies changes in temperature and oxygen and how they influence the marine ecosystem. Jennifer is passionate about sharing science with people through film.

Filmmaker

Lize Cuveele (Belgium, 1997) graduated in Royal Institute of Theater, Cinema and Sound (RITCS) in Brussels with ‘Blue Bed’, a short documentary about a young couple shown solely in their bed. ‘Blue Bed’ won awards on various international filmfestivals, like Jih.lava IDFF. Currently she is working on developing a children’s documentary. On top of that, she is the coördinator of the Afrika Filmfestival in Belgium, a multidisciplinary filmfestival that showcases film and art from Africa and its diaspora. She has been in the jury FIPADOC in France and Mashiriki African Filmfestival in Rwanda.
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Papy Amani is the Executive Director of the Burundi Film Center. He has worked extensively with the United Nations Systems in film production. Amani is a member of the Berlinale Talent Campus and in 2012 he joined the East Africa Filmmakers through the One Fine Day Film Program. In 2014, in collaboration with Berlin Producers, Amani directed the production of “Dangerous Roads”, a docu film broadcast on ARTE HD. Amani is a member of various Film Festival in the East African Region.

Executive Director, Story Money Impact

Sue Biely is a trailblazer in Canadian independent media, designing and facilitating innovative initiatives to enable the sector to adapt to and utilize ever changing forces. With a history in content, policy, business models, conference design, workshop delivery, partnerships and campaigns — Sue continually works to bring a diversity of voices and mediums to story telling for the common good. For the past 5 years she has been the Executive Director of Story Money Impact, a Canadian charity dedicated to supporting social justice and environmental documentary films being used as tools for positive change in the issue areas they explore. Sue has had the fortune to collaborate with many partners and clients during her career which include: Telefilm Canada, REEL Canada, Canadian Media Producers Association, Creative BC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Film Board of Canada, City of Vancouver, BC Alliance for Arts & Culture, Canada Council, and many provincial agencies in the media-sphere.

Filmmaker, Writer, and Designer

A Kreativ junkie and spiritual traveller, Uzair Merchant is an alumnus of Nottingham Trent and the New York Academy. “Uzi” is a product of the world; with Indian roots, he’s lived between Dubai, London and New York and currently resides in Vancouver, Canada.  But it’s not all lights, camera and action. Music and Martial arts make up the other side to who he is. He holds a 4th degree Black Belt in Shorin Ryu Seibukan Karate from Okinawa Japan. Uzair’s vision is based within Cosmic Creativity; The inner journey to the outer world. His work has been featured in worldwide publications and press such as Rolling Stones, Times of India, Gulf News, Khaleej Times, Urban Asian & Broadcast Pro Middle east.