OBAC Focus Group
OBAC is conducting a nation-wide research project on Black youth/filmmakers’ personal and professional experiences on set and other professional film environments, and identifying barriers that impede Black filmmakers in their career goals. At the end of this research project, OBAC will publish a report on our findings as well as data-driven directives that will be available to equip production companies, department heads, and
key-creatives with the tools to hire and retain Black emerging talent in safe professional spaces where they can thrive.
We are seeking Black filmmakers aged 18-30 to participate in up to two focus groups to talk about their experience working and establishing a career in the film and television industry. All participants in the focus groups will be granted anonymity so that they can speak openly about their experiences without fear of potential reprisal.
To register for our Toronto Focus Group, sign up here !
Honorarium: $100 CAD for anonymous participation in a 60 min focus group. Participants’ identities will remain anonymous.
You are an Ideal Candidate if you are:
- are an emerging filmmaker
- aged 18-34
- have participated in and/or completed film training and/or professional development programs (both academic and non-academic)
- have had job placements, internships, and shadowing opportunities in the film and/or television industry
Your Focus Group Facilitators
Kourtney Jackson is a Toronto-based writer and filmmaker interested in hybridized, experimental forms of storytelling centred on Black subjectivity. As a self-taught filmmaker, she wrote, directed, and shot her first short film 1 vers[us] 1 in the spring of 2018. The film had its World Premiere at the Regent Park Film Festival where she won the Emerging Directors Spotlight Pitch Competition to fund and create her second film, Wash Day—an award-winning short documentary that indicted her as one of ten 2020 Sundance Ignite Fellows. She also served as a Story Editor in the second season development room of CBC Gem’s Next Stop, as well as the Story Coordinator/Writer for the second season development room of KindaTV’s Gay Mean Girls. Outside of filmmaking, Kourtney continues her videography practice in theatre, integrating documentary media and community outreach to ideate accessible storytelling in the performance arts.
Emmanuel Tabi is a Black Studies Professor at McGill University. He completed his doctoral degree in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at OISE/University of Toronto and holds an M.Ed degree in Human Development and Applied Psychology. He has also successfully completed a postdoctoral appointment through the Black Child and Youth Studies Network at the University of Windsor where he co-chaired and facilitated the African Diaspora Youth Conference. This fellowship was created as a multidisciplinary, multi-institution research program and policy development incubator to address issues of inequity and racism experienced by Black children and youth through structures and systems of education (including Kindergarten to Grade 12 and postsecondary education), child welfare, policing, healthcare, housing and criminal justice. He was the Research Officer for the Peel District School Board (March, 2021-August, 2021) where he designed, implemented and interpreted research and evaluation projects to support system-wide strategic goals, equity and diversity initiatives, and curriculum and instruction programs. He was also the Research Coordinator, Black Experience Project (December 2019-March 2020) which provided the opportunity to build on positive narratives about the GTA’s Black community, portraying its rich diversity, successes, and contributions; and creating a better understanding of obstacles and challenges that the community faces.