The POV from DOVers

Half a decade in, the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices (DOV) Initiative has already graduated hundreds of alumni from TV, film and digital media, some of whom are now seeing their projects from the market access program come to fruition.

Launched in 2018 by the Banff World Media Festival (BANFF), in partnership with Netflix, DOV includes customized industry sessions, market access and industry profile for underrepresented creators and producers. Playback asked five alumni from the program – which also has the support of the Black Screen Office, the Indigenous Screen Office and la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) – about the projects they’re working on.

BY VICTORIA AHEARN

Angela Hanna Goulene Class of 2022

The France-born, Montreal-based writerfilmmaker-illustrator met a U.S. agent while taking part in DOV, as well as a broadcast executive who ended up investing development money into one of her show projects. Goulene has since founded Hannagie Productions and hopes to see three of her projects – two live-action, one animated – “make it to the big screen in the next few years.” She’s also a screenwriter for a preschool show at Epic Story Media, a full-time screenwriter for PlayStation, and is applying for funding for her own game prototypes. She aims to prove that “bold, original” content can sell well.

The market is “starving for original content… from diverse creators,” Goulene says, noting all of her stories “focus on characters who feel different and out of place in the world they’re in. I think that’s something that everyone, but especially minorities, whether sexual, neurodiverse or ethnic, can relate to. I hope that the content I create can help people not feel so alone – and that it can inspire them to create their own.”

Faran Moradi Class of 2022 and 2023

The Toronto-based, Iranian-Canadian filmmaker of Tehranto met a critical partner through DOV in Wes Ambrecht, VP, content, at Titan1Studios. Moradi is now attached as director of the feature Across Waves, which will be produced by Ambrecht under his new shingle, Only Living Boy Productions. Written by Jonathan Wax and Matthew Hoch, the story is about a widowed father who’s lost at sea and the astronaut he connects with via a ham radio. Moradi is also in development on the feature Cry Wolf, about a biologist in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the crime dramedy series Tehranto Taj, about an Iranian-Canadian lawyer who inherits the reins of a Mob family.

Moradi wants to stay and continue working in Canada, “but we need studios and TV producers who want to do something new, and stop playing things so ‘safe,’” he says. “It’s almost like Canadian execs unanimously hire the same group of directors for every show across all our networks – mix it up a little. That’s how you keep things feeling fresh and avoid things having a homogenous ‘Canadian look.’”