Staff

Derek Jenkins (Canada/USA) is a motion picture photographer born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1980. His practice is handmade, personal, and documentary, with an interest in labour, ecology, and technology—specifically the reciprocal relationships between tools, materials, and ways of knowing. He received a BA (2003) and an MA (2008) in English from the University of Arkansas, and an MFA in Documentary Media from Toronto Metropolitan University (2021). His films, including Contents (2018), The Shouting Flower (2019), Livestock (2019), and Grounders (2020), have been exhibited at festivals, museums, and galleries, including DocLisboa, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, McMaster Museum of Art, ARKIPEL – Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Antimatter Film Festival, the8fest, FRACTO Experimental Film Encounter, Photophobia, Media City Film Festival, and Experiments in Cinema, among many others. He is Executive Director of Hamilton Artists Inc. and previously worked as a technician at Niagara Custom Lab.  He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Robin Riad is an Egyptian-Canadian Toronto-based experimental filmmaker, animator and
artist. Robin works primarily with analog mediums, specifically 16mm,Super8, and Regular
8mm film. She experiments with different modes of processing and printing techniques,
along with direct animation, for her films. Robin is inspired by feminist and queer literature
and experiences, and aims to explore these themes in her work. As one of the Technical
Coordinators at the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT), she supports
many artists and independent filmmakers with their arts practice. Robin also works as a
technician at Niagara Custom Lab.

Almudena Escobar López is an independent curator, archivist, and researcher from Galicia, Spain. She is Assistant Professor on Film History, Film Preservation and Collection Management at the School of Image Arts of the Toronto Metropolitan University. Her interdisciplinary research centers around documentary and artist’s moving image practices concerned with decoloniality, visual historiography, and alternative information ecologies. She holds a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester, and a MA in Film and Media Preservation from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation. Some of her more recent projects include Cinema of Sensations: the Never-Ending Screen of Val del Omar, an exhibition devoted to the work of José Val del Omar at the Museum of Moving Image in New York with the support of the Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the 67th Flaherty Film Seminar, Continents of Drifting Clouds which he co-curated with Sky Hopinka.

One of Christine’s first jobs was presenting sneak-peek screenings of summer blockbusters for Citytv Edmonton. She also hosted the movie reviews segment for Breakfast Television and moved on to becoming a video journalist in Vancouver at Shaw TV. Specializing in conceptualizing and creating content, she now joins the Reel Asian team after honing her marketing skills at places like NXNE and Momofuku. Christine is also an actor and writer.

Karan is a Montréal, Canada based writer, filmmaker, and community artist. Born in Shimla,
India, after immigrating to Canada, Karan started his film work with a short film ‘Faceless’
(2012), which explored supremacy of the white majority in the LGBTQI+ communities in North
America. As a gay person of South Asian origin, Karan’s projects aim to bring South Asian stories
to an international audience. Karan is currently working on his first feature film ‘Zoya iman
Ayaz’, which receiving screenwriting mentorship at the Canadian Film Centre and his latest
short film ‘Mum Singh’, received funding from the Canadian and Québec Arts councils, is in the
festival and exhibition circuit. Having served on various film festival juries including the
Percéides International Film and Arts Festival, the Yorkton Film Festival and the South Asian
Film Festival of Montréal, Karan is currently part of the Montreal Arts Council’s cinema jury for
a three-year term.

Krishna Anaberi, founder of Anaberi Films, is a Film Producer based in Montréal. He is dedicated to amplifying stories about the South Asian diaspora and beyond. Anaberi studied Media Production at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he honed his skills in visual storytelling. He then pursued an MA in Creative Writing at Kingston University, London. With over a decade of experience in film production and film financing, Anaberi began his career in Hyderabad, India, before contributing to Bollywood productions in Mumbai. He has primarily worked as a film development producer and a script doctor, shaping compelling narratives and refining screenplays. Currently, Anaberi is completing his recent directorial project Hear Me while also serving as Chief Strategy Officer at a Singapore-based private equity media fund.

Muriel N. Kahwagi is a writer and curator, working primarily across publishing and programming. Her research is centered on the politics of collecting and archiving the performative; and the act of listening as a form of preservation in and of itself. In 2023, she was the TD Curatorial Fellow at Art Windsor-Essex, and a curator as part of Vtape’s Curatorial Incubator, v.19. She has previously held editorial positions at the Sursock Museum (2015-2021) and the Arab Image Foundation (2021-2022). She is currently the Assistant Curator at Contemporary Calgary and a programmer at the Toronto Arab Film Festival.

My name is Yuma Hester. I am half Anishinaabe (Neyaashiinigmiing), and half Ililowuk (Moose Factory). I have spent the better part of the last 20 years in community development, working and consulting with over 30 First Nations communities. I specializes in consultation and facilitation skills, relationship development, open and effective communication, and solution-oriented discussion. I am currently a founding member, and Creative Director with Bawaadan Collective. Along with a diverse group of Indigenous artists and accomplices, we work to continually develop our collaborative approaches to modern artistic storytelling and film production processes. It is one of our primary goals to constantly adjust our organizational structures and modes of storytelling to create inclusive, mindful spaces, and better represent Indigenous peoples in the mainstream.

Leila Almawy is a Muslim- and Arab-Canadian filmmaker and activist whose work centers marginalized voices and underrepresented communities. Her films serve as emotional and visual records that bridge the gap between personal and collective memory, where individual stories contribute to a larger narrative and truth. Leila sees film as a means of educating and empowering her communities, with the aim of reclaiming agency and finding a path to collective freedom and understanding.Leila’s previous films include Listed (2023), a documentary that shares the personal account of a Canadian man’s experience with surveillance and racial profiling. In 2020, she released Rumaan, which follows the story of a pomegranate tree transported from Palestine by her late grandfather when he was forced to flee the Nakba in 1948. Leila’s forthcoming feature film, No-Fly List Kids, follows the stories of children and youth with Muslim or Arabic names who are falsely flagged on Canada’s No-Fly List.