About

This project is conceptualized, organized, and hosted by Andrew Bateman, Ella Tetrault, and Cyrus Sundar Singh and it’s supported by the Faculty of Arts at Ryerson University, the Toronto Birds Celebrations, and the Joint Program in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University and York University.

Andrew Bateman is a documentary media artist working with film and photography to explore performance and politics, human relationships with objects, and environmental justice. His films have been screened in Berlin, Toronto, Edmonton, and Portland while his artworks have been exhibited in Toronto, Berlin, Bergen, Istanbul, and Brussels. His most recent film, Four Days at the National Preservation Centre, is premiering at Hot Docs this year. He is also a PhD Candidate at Ryerson University and his practice-based research unravels the myriad connections between the Canadian Arctic and Toronto.

Artist and researcher, Ella Tetrault is the founder and curator of the Fuller Terrace Lecture Series, a non-traditional venue for lectures and storytelling held throughout Nova Scotia and Germany until 2018. She is the former artist in residence of the Working Skills Centre and has worked with many ecological and arts based organizations including the Brier Island Whale Watchting and Research Team. She is especially interested in collecting stories and experiences from people with lived experiences working with animals.

Cyrus Sundar Singh is a Gemini Award-winning filmmaker, composer, singer-songwriter, poet, author scholar, and change-maker. Cyrus’ directorial debut Film Club is the winner of both a Gemini Award and the National Film Board of Canada’s Reel Diversity Award. His writings are published in books, peer-reviewed journals and poetry anthologies; his on-location productions have taken him around the world including: India, Israel, Spain, Haiti, Jamaica, and Sri Lanka. On the foundation of his documentary/storytelling career, he conceived and successfully explored a new site-specific hybrid live-documentary genre, Performing the Documentary, with back-to-back world premieres at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival: Brothers In The Kitchen in 2016; Africville in Black and White in 2017 and in 2018 at the Atlantic Film Festival.