TORONTO — CBC announced today the 21 participants selected for AccessCBC, a national pilot program created by CBC and the ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto, which provides development opportunities and support to Deaf and disabled creators.
Divided into two streams – scripted comedy/drama and short documentary – AccessCBC “offers training, mentorship and, on certain projects, financing support for persons with a disability who work in film, television and/or video content production,” a press release explains.
The 10 scripted comedy/drama participants are:
- Sivert Das (Ontario)
- Shay Erlich (Ontario)
- Courtney Gilmour (Ontario)
- Stefan Hicks-Rubel (Ontario)
- Scott Jones (Nova Scotia)
- Sam Eli MacPhee-Pitcher (Ontario)
- Elizabeth Morris (Ontario)
- Shannon Rayne (British Columbia)
- Anusree Roy (Ontario)
- Cole Vandale (British Columbia)
“The scripted stream of participants recently completed their development workshops, where they received practical experience writing pitch documents, individualised feedback, coaching on how to package and market their project, and the opportunity to network with other industry professionals from CBC and across the industry,” the release says.
This stream of the program was facilitated by CBC scripted executives Gosia Kamela, head of CBC Films, and Sarah Quan, executive in charge of development, comedy. Industry workshop facilitators include: Glenn Cockburn, president of Meridian Artists; Rebecca DiPasquale, producer and co-founder of Robot Monkey Entertainment; Kelsey Lundy, freelance design director; and Karen Tsang, senior vice-president of creative affairs at Pier 21 Films.
The 11 short documentary participants are:
- Desiree Bilon (Alberta)
- Sarah Colbeck and David Campbell (Ontario)
- Taylor Gaudon (Ontario)
- Steff Juniper (Ontario)
- Lynn Matheson (Nova Scotia)
- Megan Milton (British Columbia)
- Leymo Hassen Mohammed (Ontario)
- Avan Neo (Ontario)
- Veronika Swartz (Alberta)
- Kristen Walsh (Ontario)
“Each of the 11 selected participants in the short documentary program will receive development funding for their projects, and throughout the summer, a CBC executive will act as a mentor and provide guidance on their funded development process. There is the opportunity for one project to be greenlit for production at the completion of the program this fall,” the release explains.
The CBC mentors for this stream include: Yasmine Abbasakoor, executive in charge of development, unscripted; Lesley Birchard, executive in charge of production, CBC Docs; Lucius Dechausay, senior producer, unscripted content; Sandra Kleinfeld, senior director, documentary; Jacquie Lee, senior producer, CBC Creator Network; Michelle McCree, executive in charge of production, CBC Docs; Nic Meloney, executive in charge of production, unscripted content; Mike Miner, executive in charge of production, CBC Docs; and Jessica Schmiedchen, director of development, unscripted content.
AccessCBC was initially announced in January 2022.
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