Filmakers

Giselle Portenier is a Canadian journalist and documentary filmmaker who consistently focuses on human rights issues around the world, especially the human rights of children and women.  Her ground-breaking films have shown globally and have received numerous prestigious accolades, including two Peabody Awards.  More importantly, they have helped change minds, hearts and laws.  Honour Killings in Pakistan, Child slavery in Africa, Female Infanticide in India, and Sex Slavery in Thailand are among the tough topics Portenier tackled while based in London for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC.).  She is now an independent filmmaker living in Vancouver and continues to be passionate about human rights.  She is determined to turn her new documentary, In The Name Of Your Daughter, about the most courageous girls in the world running away from mutilation, into a powerful tool for change.

Cathy Gulkin is one of Canada’s foremost picture editors. Educated at the prestigious London Film School in England, she has been working in Toronto since 1978. She edits documentaries, drama, comedy and children’s programmes. She has cut 8 Genie nominated and/or award-winning short and feature length documentaries including: Shadowmaker, Forbidden Love, and Paul Strand: Under the Dark Cloth. She has also won best picture editing awards from the Directors Guild of Canada and the Canadian Cinema Editors for Guantanamo’s Child, a Gemini for Cry of the Ancestors, and Best Editing from the Atlantic Film Festival for Forbidden Love.

Deborah Parks has spent thirty years working in the television and film industry producing an array of award-winning documentaries, many on social justice issues. Among the films she has produced are Lowdown Tracks about homeless musicians which won the “Top 10 Audience Favorite Award’ at Hot Docs in 2015; Life with Murder, about a man who is serving life in prison for murdering his sister, which won an International Emmy Award as well as Canada’s Donald Britain Gemini for best Documentary; Crimes of Honor about the terrible reality of honor based murders of women in Jordan, another International Emmy Award Winner; Running Guns, a documentary about the small arms trade filmed in South Africa, Bosnia, Moldova, the United States and Canada, which premiered at the IDFA documentary film festival. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Samson Kapinga is one of the most promising young cinematographers in Tanzania. He studied at the Tanzanian film institute and has worked on documentaries ranging from sports to human rights and social justice issues. Most recently he won an award for a documentary about premature babies fighting for their life, made for Tanzanian television. His Motto is ‘Be the Change.”

Laurent Kiria has worked on numerous Tanzanian and International video productions, including travel programs and documentaries.He is deeply committed to this project about the Safe House in Mugumu, Tanzania.