Wide Lens
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Wide Lens is the Canadian Media Producers Association’s equity, diversity and inclusion training platform developed for members.
Wide Lens aims to help producers recognize and eliminate systemic barriers for individuals from Indigenous and equity-deserving communities, and to create new opportunities for engagement, partnership, and collaboration.
The program also aims to help producers understand the root causes of unconscious bias and systemic racism, develop policies and frameworks to address these issues, and implement best practices in community engagement and authenticity in storytelling.
Individual training sessions offered through the Wide Lens program are developed in partnership with subject-matter experts and community leaders, with deep expertise and understanding of the issues covered.
Throughout the year, the CMPA Wide Lens program will offer CMPA members the opportunity to sign up for training sessions and access supporting resources.
Current programming:
Navigating the production of trauma informed stories
CMPA members are invited to register for the upcoming Wide Lens webinar – Navigating the production of trauma informed stories, which will take place on Thursday, October 3, 2024 at 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT.
Join us for an insightful, and interactive conversation featuring award-winning director and producer, Clement Virgo and filmmaker Maya Bastian, moderated by Kelly Lynne Ashton.
About the session
Canada’s media production sector has a long history of tackling difficult stories that are often rooted in personal or historical trauma. While it is important to bring such scripted and documentary stories to the screen, these projects can trigger trauma responses in those working on the productions, and require care in management.
This Wide Lens workshop will identify various types of traumas than can arise through the production of such projects and the shooting of difficult scenes, and provide guidance on how producers can create trauma informed workspaces, while also managing their own mental well-being.
Clement Virgo is one of Canada’s foremost film directors. TV directing credits include Empire (Fox), Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (Netflix), The Wire (HBO), and the OWN network drama series, Greenleaf (2017), on which he also served as Executive Producer with Oprah Winfrey. Virgo’s most recent feature film, Brother, based on the award-winning novel by David Chariandy premiered at TIFF 2022, won 12 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction and two NAACP Image Awards for Best International and Best Independent Feature Film. He directed and co-wrote the 2015 miniseries adaptation of Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes, which was nominated for two U.S. Critics Choice Television Awards, including Best Limited Series and four 2015 NAACP Image Award Nominations including Best Miniseries and Best Writing (Virgo, Hill). His first feature film, Rude, premiered at Cannes in 1995 and played festivals around the world including London and Sundance. Other feature films include Poor Boy’s Game, and Lie with Me, which played top tier festivals including Berlinale and TIFF and sold in over 40 countries. He recently wrapped production in Belgium on his next feature, Steal Away, starring Angourie Rice and Mallori Johnson.
Maya Bastian is an award winning Tamil-Canadian filmmaker with roots in conflict journalism. For the past 15 years, she has engaged with communities around the world, specifically in conflict/post-conflict zones. Her work has been supported by HBO, Netflix, UN IOM, Telefilm, CBC and the Canadian Film Centre. She has taught storytelling to war torn communities in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Iraq and Palestine with the aid of organizations such as American Aid, the United Nations, British Council and Internews. She is a producer on the BIPOC women-led development team at CineFAM, is the founder of the X-Wave Mentorship series for BIPOC creators at Trinity Square Video and sits on the board of Art With Impact. She specializes in exploring untold stories from around the world, integrating the voices of each unique community through active engagement, research and open dialogue.
Kelly Lynne Ashton has worked in the Canadian film, television and digital media industries as a business affairs executive in television production companies, as a producer at a children’s web studio, as manager of an online youth research company and in government relations and media policy for a talent union. Kelly Lynne has authored several public and internal research papers covering the film, television, interactive digital media and performing arts sectors. Her most recent research work has been the ‘Being Seen’ reports on authenticity and inclusion in the screen industries, together with Toolkits and Considerations for Writing Engagement Plans guides. As a multi-racial Canadian, diversity and inclusion are a priority in her work, and she brings that lens to everything.