Who I Am
Documentary filmmaker based in Elliot Lake, Northern Ontario.
I moved to Canada, fell in love with the small towns, and somewhere along the way became the guy who won't stop telling people to come see for themselves.
The Story
I studied psychology and social work at York University. Before I ever held a camera, I spent my days listening to people. Sitting with them. Learning that what someone shows you on the surface is almost never the whole story.
That never left me. It's why I ask more questions than I shoot, and why the people in my films get to tell their story in their own words.
"I don't just show up and point a camera. I listen first. That's not a tagline. It's how I was trained."
Every time I tell someone I live in Northern Ontario, I get a reaction. Too cold. Too far. Nothing up there. Then I ask when they last visited, and most of the time the answer is never.
That gap between what people think and what's actually here is what Stories Beyond Borders is about. Borders aren't just lines on a map. They're the ideas we carry about places we've never been and people we've never met. My work is about closing that gap, one story at a time.
Because honestly, it's beautiful up here. The lakes, the quiet, the people who wave at you on the road. You just have to see it.
Community matters more to me than anything I make. I know what it feels like to land somewhere and know no one, and I know how much one real welcome can change that.
When I moved to Elliot Lake, I noticed something. There was a Black community here, but you'd never know it from the outside. So I kept bringing it up. In conversations, in meetings, anywhere I could. That persistence helped bring the City of Elliot Lake to the table to sponsor Taste of Flavours, hosted by the AfriCaribbean group of Elliot Lake, and it opened the door to the diversity group meetings that followed. I didn't build that community. It was already here. I just made sure it had a seat in the room.
So a lot of what I do is about helping people find their place. Showing newcomers there's room for them here. Showing the people already here that their story is worth telling. And yes, I'm trying to get people to move here. I'm not even hiding it. Steve Antunes, Economic Development Manager for the City of Elliot Lake, once called me a one man resettlement program and Elliot Lake's biggest cheerleader. I'll take both.
Northern Ontario is home, but the mission is bigger. I'm exploring Canada province by province, city by city, looking for the stories nobody has pointed a camera at yet. The North is where I'm rooted. Canada is the canvas.
Start with the stories. And if you've got one of your own, let's talk.