WHO HAPPENS TO BE BLACK AND A WOMAN
In light of the conversation that’s been had in the entertainment industry about diversity and inclusion so that more people of colour get work in front and behind the camera, AFRONEWS recently had a conversation with Katia Café-Fébrissy, a filmmaker who happens to be Black and a woman, that strives to create content that positively represents people of colour on screen.
“This narrative isn’t old yet. Not yet. Sadly. It’s high time we saw people that look like us on screen. Not in stereotypical or degrading roles. But inspiring, or funny… It’s necessary to tell stories from our many perspectives, otherwise they will be told for us. The Afro world is very diverse!”, says Katia Café-Fébrissy, a Toronto-based award-winning bilingual Writer/Director/Producer & Digital Content Creator. She’s of African descent and French Caribbean heritage. She speaks four languages, and has lived in France, the UK, the US and the Caribbean including Puerto Rico, prior to settling in Canada seven years ago.
Before pursuing her passion for storytelling and embracing filmmaking, Katia worked in behavioural change and organizational development in the corporate world. Probably why, as she explains, the common theme she explores in her films revolves around identity, sense of place and social codes.
Her directorial debut included the National Film Board-produced documentary SOCIAL ME / MES RÉSEAUX SOCIAUX ET MOI (2015) which was broadcast on Radio Canada, CBC’s French counterpart. This was followed by her acclaimed creative documentary ROOT UP / À LA RACINE (2017) which screened across the globe, won four awards for best short documentary and excellence in filmmaking, and secured two international distribution deals.
Guerilla auteur filmmaker at the core, Katia is making the leap into scripted storytelling with groundedtheseries.com, a mockumentary-style comedic family web series about stay-at-home daddying and breadwinner mommying through the lens of a modern French Caribbean family newly emigrated to Canada, that’s not nearly as modern as they think they are! The teaser of this gender-bending digital series in which we discover Jonas, quite the unconventional homemaker, is available on www.groundedtheseries.com.
This project, loosely based on her own experience, and which takes a satirical spin on traditional family roles, was developed under the mentorship of the Regent Park Film Festival’s seven-month intensive web series writing program and Women in the Director’s Chair, of which she’s an alumna.
Katia’s also been working on two Arts Council-funded creative documentary productions to be released in the fall of 2018.
When Katia doesn’t produce, shoot or edit cinéma vérité documentaries, she writes fiction. She wrote an-hour spec script for the comedy drama ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Netflix series, and was hand-picked for the CBC TV Development & Mentorship program for Diverse Content Creators.
In addition to being awarded entry into the prestigious national leadership program, Women in the Director’s Chair where Katia has been developing her directorial skills for scripted content for the past year, she’s a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, a graduate of the Varan Doc Film Centre, France, and holds an M.A. in Languages & Literature from the University of Paris VIII, France.
More about Katia’s filmmaking career can be found on www.cafe-febrissy.com.
Katia has a hearty laugh. To chill out, she watches way too much stand-up comedy shows on TV. Whenever she can, she hangs out in comedy bars to support local performers, consumes all the improv & sketches she can get, and laughs until she aches in the belly!
