Regent Park Film Festival + BIPOC TV & Film present A Tribute to Charles Officer

Jake Yanowski is a Canadian-American producer based in Toronto, where he is a partner at Canesugar Mediaworks, a boutique production house that he operated with acclaimed filmmaker Charles Officer for nearly a decade. Jake’s producing credits include the award-winning feature documentary Al Purdy Was Here, Ron Mann’s Altman, and Charles Officer’s acclaimed documentaries The Skin We’re In and Invisible Essence: The Little Prince. He also produced Akilla’s Escape, which won five Canadian Screen Awards.

Thamela Mpumlwana is a Canadian actor. He is most noted for his performance as Sheppard in the 2020 film Akilla's Escape, for which he received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2021. His other credits include Star Trek: Discovery and Creeped Out.

Wendy “Motion” Brathwaite is a Canadian musician, writer and activist from Toronto, Ontario. She co-wrote the 2020 film Akilla's Escape with Charles Officer , for which they won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Screenplay. She has worked as a writer and story editor on the television series Coroner, and was nominated for Best Writing in a Drama Series at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2022. In 2023, she was nominated for Best Writing in a Web Program or Series at the Canadian Screen Awards for her work on the comedy web series Revenge of the Black Best Friend.

Donisha Prendergast is a filmmaker, actress and advocate, sharing stories to propel societal advancement. Collaborating with luminaries like Beyoncé and Sean Paul, her productions amplify marginalized voices and champion cultural preservation. As founder of Humanity Ova Vanity, she pioneers initiatives fostering artistic integrity and community engagement. 

Sarah-Tai Black is the Manager of Programming at Regent Park Film Festival. As an arts curator and critic, their work centers on visual media and art-making with an emphasis on Black, queer, trans, and disabled futures. They are a regular contributing film critic for The Los Angeles Times and The Globe and Mail.