Lady Kharrazi, the founder and director of Toos Foundation, is an accomplished artist and a successful business woman. As a ballerina and classical singer, she has performed in Europe, Middle East and USA; and as a designer and property developer she has managed many successful ventures. She has established a number of companies and trusts continuing as a consultant to many of them.
Lady Kharrazi is a staunch supporter of the arts and a champion of human rights. She continues to work extensively with children affected by armed conflict throughout the Middle East and Asia and has sponsored many post graduate students from Asia at Western universities through her charities. She has acted as Harvard University’s Ambassador to the Middle East and is a member of Dean’s International Council of the Harris School at the University of Chicago.
Hossein Martin Fazeli, has been writing and directing dramatic and non-fiction films for the past 15 years. His films have been broadcast around the world, including on CNN, BBC, ARTE, SBS, and Canal+.
His film, The Tale of The Two Nazanins, about an Iranian teenage girl imprisoned on death row, was broadcast on CNN and BBC and is credited with igniting an international campaign that saved her life. His most recently completed documentary, Women on The Frontline, is about the women’s freedom movement in Iran.
He was short-listed by the Sundance Institute to take part in their International Filmmakers Award. His films have won 37 international awards.
Jack Silberman studied documentary film production at MIT and has a master’s degree from Harvard. He has produced, directed, and written more than 40 documentaries for Canadian, American (PBS), British (Channel 4), French (ARTE), and Japanese (NHK) television networks, as well as for the National Film Board of Canada, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and others. His film, Island of Whales, was narrated by Gregory Peck, broadcast on PBS, and won 17 awards, including the Gemini award for best documentary. Bombies was also broadcast on PBS and won First Place awards at a dozen film festivals, including San Francisco, Chicago, and the Japan Prize. He has extensive international experience, having worked on location in many different countries. He also spent 6 years living in India and Sri Lanka. His films have won more than 60 international awards.
Gillian Greenfeld completed her MFA in documentary media at Ryerson University, did five years of undergraduate work in anthropology and film, and studied film at FAMU in the Czech Republic. She has extensive work experience in documentary films. She has directed and produced six of her own films, exploring issues of feminism and identity, which were widely screened.
Shernaz Italia has been in the world of film and television for almost 35 years. In 1980 she worked on Richard Attenborough's iconic film ``Gandhi`` and that experience set her on a course for a career in film which continues to the present day.
Since 1986, she has been working in the documentary field on projects like: Top Gear for the BBC; Drugs Inc. Nat Geo; Atlas - India Revealed Discovery; Kumbh Mela Nat Geo; Welcome to India BBC; Dispatches - Terror in Mumbai, Channel 4; Around the World in 80 days with Michael Palin BBC; The Great Moghuls with Bamba Gascoigne, Channel 4; Queen of the Elephants with Mark Shand for Discovery; Gordon Ramsey's Great Escape Channel 4; Several episode's of Human Planet and Human Universe for BBC to name but a few.
Fariba Farjam was a mechanical engineer by profession in Iran. Several years after migrating to Canada, however, she decided to change gears and pursue filmmaking. Aside from executive producing Phoolan, she is currently involved in directing a documentary on Canadian foreign policy as well as making two short dramatic films. Fariba is also the owner and president of a newly established film production company called Soliloquy Productions.
Born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., Kristin began acting for the Canadian series Edgemont which led to her role on the CW hit series, Smallville, as Lana Lang.
In addition to being a face of Neutrogena for 6 years, she performed a cameo in the film Eurotrip opposite Matt Damon, starred in the Sci Fi miniseries Earthsea opposite Isabella Rossellini, and starred in the Canadian feature Partition opposite Jimi Mistry, the Fox feature Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun Li and the independent Vampire.
In television, she most recently starred in 4 seasons and produced the final season of Beauty & The Beast for the CW, and is currently executive producing and starring in Burden of Truth, a 10-episode legal drama for the CBC.
Kristin co-founded Parvati Creative Inc. with her longtime friend Rose Bhura. It is Parvati Creative Inc.'s mission to develop, produce, and support creative projects within the Canadian system for the global market. Parvati's aim is to develop programs that stretch our thinking, push our limits, and create conversation around important issues.
For over a decade, Rose has worked in the Media and Communications field, first as Executive Producer and Director of Media for two companies involved in creating and syndicating health and lifestyle programming across North America. She has also worked in the field of marketing, brand, and strategy for numerous clients ranging from Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFFG), Relais & Châteaux, to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Rose co-founded Parvati Creative Inc. with veteran Canadian actor Kristin Kreuk. Rose oversees business strategy and creative direction.
In her personal time, Rose volunteers within the arts community and with international development charities focused on helping women and children through micro-financing. She holds a Masters in Communications from the University of Houston, and recently earned her Executive MBA from Queen’s University.
Liz Marshall is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker (writer, director, producer) based in Toronto. Since the 1990s she has created a body of work including broadcast, theatrical, campaign, and cross-platform documentaries shot around the world, largely exploring social justice and environmental themes. Liz is best known for her feature length films Water On The Table (2010) and The Ghosts In Our Machine (2013), for which she also produced a successful global audience engagement and impact campaign.
After spending 10 years in the Indian film industry, Neelima Goel has spent the last 10 years working on international projects. Her experience ranges from assistant directing several series on the BBC to line producing and casting for international documentaries for BBC, the Discovery Channel, Nat Geo and many more.
Vince Arvidsen graduated from the University of Calgary and from Vancouver Film School. Over the past decade he has shot award-winning documentaries, commercials, tv programs , and 4 dramatic feature films. His films have been broadcast on Discovery Channel, SuperChannel, Spike TV, MTV, TSN, CityTV, and others. His documentary, Uganda Rising, was broadcast nationally in the US, won the audience award at Hot Docs, and the Special Jury Prize at the International Human Rights Film Festival (Paris).
Apal, 43, is an independent cinematographer and still photographer based in Nainital, India. He has an interest in both the documentary and fiction film formats and his body of work includes documentary films, features and drama, both on celluloid and video. He has worked with leading international broadcasters such as the BBC, National Geographic, Discovery, ABC, ITV, Channel Four to name a few besides almost all the Indian broadcasters. He has experience of working in over 50 counties, on wide ranging issues, from war to peacetime stories.
Ashraf is an award winning independent visual communication professional based in New Delhi, India. As Director of Photography, he has worked on a diverse range of film and television programmes for national and international television channels and renowned production houses, such as HBO, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel (USA), BBC, Channel 4, PBS, Axn TV, BBC (WST), UNICEF, UNDP, and UNESCO, among others. He also works as a professional Photographer. He has been conferred with Best Cinematography Award for the wildlife film Tiger – A Death Chronicle at the Yaan International Animal and Nature Film Festival, China. Recently he has been selected as the First runner Up in the photography contest by UNESCO World Heritage City : Ahmedabad. Currently, he is passionately engaged with documenting Shahjehanabad, the Walled City of Delhi for his photography exhibition.
Alec has worked as an editor and director in Vancouver for the past 18 years. Recent editing credits include Spiral, a Telus Optik dramatic web-series, Keeping Canada Safe and Keeping Canada Alive for CBC. He has also worked on the lifestyle series First Dates seasons 1&2, Eat Street seasons 2-5 and had stints on reality mainstays Highway Thru Hell, Timber Kings, and Yukon Gold.
O.V. Sathiyaseelan - Sound Engineer: With experience in over 50 national and international productions, O.V. Sathiyaseelan’s experience as a sound engineer has spanned 20 years. He has worked on a number of feature length international documentaries, as well as other journalistic television series with the BBC, CNBC, National Geographic Channel, ABC, Discovery and other major networks.
Bhavesh Kumar received his BA from J.P. University, Chhapra. He has been working for 15 years as a Sound Recordist. He's worked on 15 Documentaries for Discovery Channel and is currently working on Delhi Cops film for Channel 4. He has received the Best Location Sound Recordist Award for National Defense Academy Films from Discovery Channel.
Born in Iran and raised in Vancouver, BC, Sammie has a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia and earned his Professional Program in Producing certificate from UCLA. Previously, Sammie worked as a producer at Brightlight Pictures, one of the leading film and TV production companies in British Columbia.
