ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
Synopses
Poster (24 x 36)
Directors/Producers Bios and Photos
Hi-rez Stills
Credits
ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
Synopses
Poster (24 x 36)
Directors/Producers Bios and Photos
Hi-rez Stills
Credits
FILMMAKERS
Jennifer Mesich, Producer
Driven by a passion to produce powerful female-focused content, Jennifer Mesich established in Nunavut, Canada. One of her latest films “Castle In The Ground” screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (2019) and “Trouble In The Garden” was released earlier this year. Her other films “She Never Died,” “Catch & Release” and “The Corruption of Divine Providence” are enjoying their festival run and are slated for release over the next few months.
A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre Producers’ Lab, Jennifer previously worked at Don Carmody Productions, quickly rising to become Director of Development and Production for Film and Television. She is an award winning filmmaker whose films have played at such festivals as Tribeca,Vancouver, Calgary, Whistler and Palm Springs.
An alumnus of the Berlinale Talent Lab, TIFF Talent Lab, Trans Atlantic Partners and Telefilm Canada’s PITCH THIS!, Jennifer is also a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, Canadian Media Producers Association and the Directors Guild of Canada. Her company is currently in development on the feature film “12 Days” which is based on true events.
Rechna Varma, Producer
Canadian Film Centre alumni Rechna Varma is a storyteller who continues to capture the disfunction of people regardless of her role and medium. As a Canadian in the U.S. Rechna is currently developing a series she’s created with eOne called LOVE RULES. Her initial pilot was shortlisted as a semi-finalist for Content London in 2019 and gained Rechna an invitation to the NETFLIX-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative Professional Development Program in 2020. The script went on to win an award at the 2020 Panel Presentation & Juried Script Competition for the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) Virtual Conference.
Rechna produces under her banner Rechna Varma Productions. Recent films include CATCH AND RELEASE (2019) which is an adaptation of the Pulitzer nominated play “Keely and Du” and MARGARITA (2012) which won Best Feature at Inside Out Toronto. Her scripted television work as director of development at Sphere Media Plus includes: THIS LIFE (CBC), 19-2 (CTV) and BAD BLOOD (Netflix). Rechna also has extensive experience working in lifestyle television. Series include: SMART WOMAN’S SURVIVAL GUIDE (W NETWORK), PARTY MAMA’S (SLICE), THE UNSELLABLES (HGTV). As the executive in charge of production & post at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto she cultivated talent and over saw production for 100+ productions per year.
At heart Rechna is a life learner and traveller seeking memorable experiences and as a sun monger she finds her happy place is the beach.
Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert, Directors
Internationally acclaimed directors Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert, who have won over audiences and critics with their signature ability to combine feminist activism with compelling storytelling, continue to use film as a medium for sharing the global truth of women’s lives.
Their honest, accessible style can be seen in the recent drama MARGARITA, which played at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Gay!La Hers) and won the Audience Award at Toronto’s Inside/Out Film Festival. The film has been lauded as both “a potent cocktail of heart, humour and humanity” (Sight and Sound) and “a crowd-pleasing gem” (So So Gay).
The directing team’s first feature, FINN’S GIRL, screened at Outfest: Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, where it won the Outstanding Emerging Talent Award. Variety endorsed it as “an intelligent juggling of disparate elements including pubescent unrest, single parenting, lesbian widowhood and anti-abortionist violence” and The Vancouver Sun applauded a “taboo-busting piece of cinema”.
Their first short dramatic film, BELOW THE BELT, was selected for both the Berlin International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival and nominated for a Genie (the Canadian Oscar equivalent). Cinemascope called it a “story of first love, captured perfectly in all its naïveté and confusion.”
Cardona and Colbert’s documentary THANK GOD I’M A LESBIAN, featuring Dionne Brand, Julia Creet, and Lee Pui Ming, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival before a successful tour of over 100 festivals worldwide. A “snappy, intelligent spielfest” (Variety), the film has won numerous accolades, including Audience Awards at Créteil International Women’s Film Fest and Torino Gay and Lesbian Film Fest. Their ground-breaking 1997 doc, MY FEMINISM, featuring Gloria Steinem, bell hooks, Urvashi Vaid, and Urvashi Butalia, premiered at the Montreal International Film Festival and won Best Feature Documentary at Reel Affirmations Washington D.C. Ithaca College’s Patricia Zimmerman described it as “empowering, edifying, mobilising.” Still considered ‘must watches’ in many women’s studies curricula, both films are included in the collections of Stanford University and many other prestigious archives.
PRESS
May 2020
So proud of our amazing “Keely”, Laurence LeBeouf. The critically-acclaimed CTV medical drama “Transplant”, in which she plays a passionate resident, was not only renewed for a second season, but also picked up by NBC.
November 9, 2019
Thrilled to announce the first Toronto screening of Catch and Release: The Female Eye Film Festival, November 9th at 1pm, the Scotiabank Theatre (259 Richmond St.)
October 27, 2019
We’re proud to be part of Reel Women’s Film Festival Supporting Planned Parenthood. Catch and Release is screening at 2 p.m. today, followed by a Q&A with directors Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert.
PRESS
May 2020
So proud of our amazing “Keely”, Laurence LeBeouf. The critically-acclaimed CTV medical drama “Transplant”, in which she plays a passionate resident, was not only renewed for a second season, but also picked up by NBC.
November 9, 2019
Thrilled to announce the first Toronto screening of Catch and Release: The Female Eye Film Festival, November 9th at 1pm, the Scotiabank Theatre (259 Richmond St.)
October 27, 2019
We’re proud to be part of Reel Women’s Film Festival Supporting Planned Parenthood. Catch and Release is screening at 2 p.m. today, followed by a Q&A with directors Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert.