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:
Authenticity meets opportunity: Producing queer projects for global audiences
Members are invited to register for the CMPA’s upcoming Wide Lens session, designed to equip producers with the strategic, business, and creative knowledge needed to successfully bring LGBTQ2IA+ projects to market without sacrificing authenticity.
On Thursday, November 20, 2025, moderator Andrew Murphy (film festival professional, film programmer and industry producer) will guide a practical discussion with award-winning producers Alyson Richards and Gharrett Patrick Paon. Together, they will share insights gained from Inside Out’s Film Finance Forum and from their own careers developing, packaging, and selling queer content across Canada and internationally. Topics will include assembling aligned creative teams, navigating niche and mainstream buyers, identifying financing pathways, and strategically leveraging festivals, streamers, and distributors to maximize audience reach and revenue potential.
To register for this session, click here to login.
Alyson Richards is a multi award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer recognized for bold, inclusive storytelling. She wrote and produced the queer slasher and Globe and Mail Critic’s Pick The Retreat (Showtime, Hulu). As a producer, her film credits include Before I Change My Mind (Locarno), Don’t Talk to Irene (TIFF), Polaris (Sitges), Soft (TIFF), and Docking (Sundance). Her television credits include Children Ruin Everything (CTV/The CW), Home Sweet Rome (HBO Max), and Queer For Fear (Hulu/Shudder). Alyson won the 2024 Director’s Guild of Canada Award for directing I WAS HERE and the 2025 Canadian Screen Award for producing ‘Best Comedy Series’. She is currently nominated for another DGC Award for directing the “Horror” episode of Children Ruin Everything, featuring David Cronenberg in a cameo role.
Gharrett Patrick Paon is an award-winning actor and producer from Nova Scotia. Through his company, Rebel Road Films, he has produced acclaimed projects such as Wildhood (TIFF/AFI Fest), which earned six Canadian Screen Award nominations in 2022, including Best Motion Picture. His producing credits also include The Mohel, winner of Best Live-Action Short at Palm Springs Shortfest, and I Am Syd Stone (OutTV/Roku), a six-episode series he co-adapted from the short film in which he starred. Additional credits include Spirit Talker (APTN, two seasons), Wildfire (Screen Nova Scotia Award for Best Short), and Hell of a Summer, which premiered in TIFF’s Midnight Madness program (2023). Most recently, he produced Live from the Round Barn, a four-part concert series for Bell Fibe TV1.
Gharrett holds a Commerce degree from Dalhousie University and is an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre’s Producer’s Lab (’17).
Andrew Murphy brings 25 years of experience in global film festivals and creative industries as an executive leader, film curator, and creative connector. Most recently serving as Co-Head and Artistic Director at Inside Out – Canada’s largest 2SLGBTQ+ film festival – he oversaw all programming and cultural strategy. Here, Murphy developed the festival’s industry programs, including spearheading the world’s first 2SLGBTQ+ film financing forum.
Prior to Inside Out, Murphy served as Programming Manager at the Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he curated galas, special presentations, and the Queer and Genre specialty strands. Murphy also co-created ViewFinders Youth Film Festival to help establish an international platform for young filmmakers.
Murphy has served on numerous panels and festival juries over the course of his career including the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy Jury, New Orleans Film Festival, Cardiff’s Iris Prize Festival, and Windsor International Film Festival. Murphy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Bachelor of Journalism and is still finding new ways to put them to use.