About CaribbeanTales
CaribbeanTales was registered as a Canadian charity in 2014.
Our mandate is to foster and encourage intercultural understanding and citizen participation through the creation and dissemination of films that reflect the diversity and creativity of Canadian heritage and cultures.
Our vision is to create an inclusive Canadian audiovisual landscape.
We are committed to strengthening neighborhoods across Canada, nurturing healthy relationships and self-image, cultivating understanding between communities, and supporting and creating an awareness and appreciation of artworks that reflect the rich cultural diversity of Canada.
We continue to build a global network among like-minded artists, cultural entrepreneurs and community builders throughout Canada and the world that supports shared values of greater media inclusivity and authentic storytelling.
Our Mission
CaribbeanTales is dedicated to advancing its mandate through film, education, cultural programming and community engagement. We create opportunities for audiences, filmmakers, artists, educators and communities to participate in and experience diverse stories and perspectives.
Our Global Network
CaribbeanTales continues to build a global network among like-minded artists, cultural entrepreneurs and community builders throughout Canada and the world. Through these relationships, we support shared values of greater media inclusivity and authentic storytelling.
CaribbeanTales connects people through film by running workshops, educating communities with private screenings and acting as a platform for Caribbean filmmakers.
As a Black-owned and Black-led global company, CT denounces all forms of racism and discrimination, in particular anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism.
We offer our sympathies to the families of #GeorgeFloyd. We grieve with them, haunted by flashbacks of similar killings of Black, Indigenous and racialised members of our communities by instruments of racist systems. As we watch the spectacle that has been unfolding across social media and other media platforms, together we rise yet again and stand in solidarity with global calls for an end to systemic racism and assert #BlackLivesMatter.
And, we redouble our efforts to further our mission, to build a comprehensive pipeline for film and television productions that tell our stories – working with black artists to develop and produce new content and exhibit it at our annual film festival. Then finance and distribute it internationally through online platforms. We see hope in the many public and private partnerships we have forged to carry out this mission. We look forward to working together with those partners and others who want to associate with an organisation that is doing something practical to help end systemic racism across all sectors of the society.
Frances-Anne Solomon
FOUNDER & CEO
Diana Webley
DIRECTOR OF FESTIVAL & EVENTS
Nathalia Campos
DISTRUBUTION COORDINATOR
Asis Sethi
DIRECTOR OF TRAINING
Want to know more about CaribbeanTale’s Activities?
Director
Hon Jean Augustine was appointed as the first Fairness Commissioner for Ontario in March 2007. She cares passionately about education and the challenges faced by newcomers to the province.Ms. Augustine attended the University of Toronto, where she earned bachelor of arts and master of education degrees. She became an elementary school principal with the Metropolitan Separate School Board in Toronto. From 1988 until 1993, she was chair of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority. Ms. Augustine was the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to the House of Commons. She was elected in the riding of Etobicoke-Lakeshore in 1993 and sat in Parliament until 2006. During this time, she served as minister of state for multiculturalism and the status of women, sat on several standing committees, and was a deputy Speaker. She also played a major role as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.
Director
Mr. Denham Jolly is President, Chief Executive Officer, and Founder at Milestone Radio Inc. He owns and operates Tyndall Nursing Home and is the principal shareholder of B.D. Jolly Holdings which owns and operates real estate properties. Denham is a former publisher of CONTRAST, Toronto’s weekly Black community newspaper, and was founder and first president of the Black Business and Professional Association of Toronto. He is named in the Who’s Who of Ontario and the International Who’s Who of Professionals. He has served on the Board of Governors for a number of community organizations. Mr. Jolly is the recipient of two medals for his community service including Canada’s 101st Commemorative Medal and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. He is also a recognized philanthropist.
Director & Secretary
Denise Herrera-Jackson is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival. Her other titles include: Member Programming Committee- Harbourfront Centre; Founding Board member, Caribbean Tales; Director, Caribbean-Canadian Literary Expo; theatre producer; Committee member of YWCA Women of Distinction Awards. She is an Information Technology consultant in several industries including Imperial Oil Limited, IBM Canada, Bell Canada, SOCAN, Sunlife Canada, Hewlett Packard, CIBC, Spamedica Cosmetic Surgery, Ministry of Finance and boutique technology companies. She is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario; and gained her Master from York University MES.
Director & Chair Person
Anne-Marie is an independent management consultant with over thirty years’ experience in helping to create and lead effective organisations. Her professional career spans the public, private and voluntary sectors. She also consults to international development agencies. Her areas of expertise usually focus on Diversity and Equity and include: Organizational change management ; Strategic planning and implementation; Human resources management and development; Policy and program evaluation. Previously, she served as an Assistant Deputy Minister with the Ontario Government. Prior to this, she was Superintendent of Human Resources at the Toronto Board of Education where she had overall accountability for the recruitment, development and placement of educational administrators and teachers at every level in the system. She began her professional career in the private sector as a Senior Organization Development Consultant to the President at ManuLife with responsibility for recruiting and training senior officers across Canada and the United States.
Director & Treasurer
Susan is an Accounts Executive at C.H.Hill Post Production Services. Previously, she was the General Manager at CaribbeanTales responsible for financial, personnel and contract management. She was Project Manager on many of their film and television projects., including Line Producer on the 26-part documentary series, Literature Alive, and on the first season of Heart Beat. She was the Producer on the award-winning feature film, A Winter Tale. Before joining the company in May 2003, Susan worked as an Administrator, Manager, Accountant and Fund-raiser for a range of non-profit organizations.
Director
Shawn has been active in the Arts and Entertainment industry for over 25 years, working with the dance, fashion, music and film/ TV industry. Shawn later moved on to operate his entertainment enterprise in his Toronto studio. Shawn shines in the international entertainment industry as a force in planning and designing top-notch performances of all scales as well as providing exceptional talent for numerous high profile events and clients.
Director
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall is a design anthropologist, public intellectual, and design advocate who works at the intersections of critical theory, culture, and design. As Dean of Design at Ontario College of Art and Design University, she is the first black and black female dean of a faculty of design. She leads the Cultures-Based Innovation Initiative focused on using old ways of knowing to drive innovation processes that directly benefit communities.With a global career, Dori served as Associate Professor of Design Anthropology and Associate Dean at Swinburne University in Australia. She wrote the biweekly column Un-Design for The Conversation Australia. In the U.S., she taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She organized the U.S. National Design Policy Initiative and served as a director of Design for Democracy. Industry positions included UX strategists for Sapient Corporation and Arc Worldwide. Dori holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University and a BA in Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College.
Director
Senior Partner of Nordicity, Peter is an internationally recognized expert in the arts, media and communications industry with almost 30 years of consulting experience. He has participated in all facets of the regulatory, policy development, program evaluation, economic analysis and business strategy formulation in the digital and traditional media and communications sectors in Canada and abroad. He has broad cross-creative sector expertise, involving multiple creative sectors in terms of common issues and solutions (e.g. skills development, financing and R&D/design).
Peter has deep knowledge of the arts and cultural industries, including the film/TV production sector, in particular through its transmedia incarnation through multiple platforms. His digital media experience has been gained through the evolution and convergence of the broadcasting and broadband distribution sectors. He led the study of distribution trends and the impact of digital technology on the creative sectors in Canada that was featured at the Digital Media at the Crossroads (DM@X) Conference in January, 2016. He was the primary author of a full review of the literature sector for Creative Scotland, primarily about writing, writers and publishing with some 38 recommendations for Scottish government and arts institutions. Museum sector projects include work on Canada’s Museum Assistance Program for PCH. A member of the Board of Directors of Canadian Stage in Toronto, he has worked on performing arts projects in Canada and internationally.
As a former chief of staff of the Minister of Canadian Heritage (when it was Secretary of State), he has maintained a professional interest in public support mechanisms for the cultural sector. From 1998-2002, Peter was the national lead partner for the Information Communications and Entertainment/Media practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. He has served on the boards of high tech firms, TV broadcasters and not-for-profit arts, education, political and social-service organizations. He is currently the vice-chair of the board, and chair of the impact investment committee of Inspirit Foundation, which is a national grant-making organization that supports young adults in building a more inclusive and pluralist Canada.
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