The Filmmakers
Donna Davies with Morgan Toney.
Donna Davies, Producer & EP
Donna Davies is an award-winning writer, producer, and director. Her films have toured festivals internationally and aired on CBC, Bravo, The Movie Network, IFC, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Starz, and EPIX.
Donna’s long list of credits includes the dramatic short films Monster Proofing, Seven Crows, and A Space for Sara. She has established herself as an outstanding voice in documentary filmmaking with popular feature docs such the music documentary A Sigh and A Wish, Helen Creighton’s Maritimes, Nightmare Factory, and Fanarchy, all of which have won dozens of international awards, including Best Documentary Feature at the Atlanta Horror Film Festival, Award of Excellence at Indie Fest, Best Documentary at Boston SciFi, Award of Excellence, Rhode Island International Film Festival, and Best Documentary Feature, Atlanta Horror Film Festival.
Donna is the recipient of a 2018 Women in Film and Television Award for Best Director and a 2017 WAVE award for outstanding leadership and vision in the Atlantic Canadian Film industry.
Ann Bernier, Producer & EP
With more than three decades of experience in the Canadian screen industry, Ann has garnered a reputation for producing high-quality award-winning films.
Ann served as Director of Operations and Development for imX Communications, known for award-winning films such as Margaret’s Museum starring Helena Bonham Carter, and Love and Death on Long Island starring John Hurt and Jason Priestly. While there, she produced Thom Fitzgerald’s The Wild Dogs and the Canada/France co-production Folle Embellie. Ann has worked closely with Ruby Tree Films, where she has produced numerous documentaries, including the multi-award-winning feature documentary Fanarchy. She has a long-standing partnership with acclaimed filmmaker John Walker and has been producer on his last three feature documentaries, including Assholes: A Theory, which was nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards and a WGC Screenwriting Award. Recent work includes two one-hour documentaries for CBC TV, including The Mill, which was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary.
She is a member of Screen Nova Scotia, Women in Film and Television Atlantic, and the Documentary Organization of Canada, and sits on the Board of Directors for FIN Atlantic International Film Festival and the Canadian Media Producers Association.
Dawn Wells, Co-Director
Dawn Wells grew up in Cape Breton on the Mi’kmaq reserve of Membertou. She was a radio host at a local radio station and worked as a reporter for the local outlets of CBC & CTV News. She graduated from the Radio and Television Arts program and recently received her business administration diploma during the quarantine. She managed a community radio station for over ten years. She created short stories for radio and YouTube, and has filmed, edited, and wrote five short film projects.
Dawn is currently writing a feature horror film script, for which she received a creative screenwriting grant from Telefilm. She has received two awards from the Canada Short film festival for the Youtube web series Haunted Cape Breton, and won four awards for her short horror film The Short Cut. She runs her own film production company, Cape Haunts Till Dawn Productions Inc. Dawn is currently directing an episode of Land & Sea for CBC on Mi’kmaq language.
Jah’Mila, Co-Director
Wrapped in the roots of the reggae family tree, Jah’Mila has been called a musical prodigy in the making, with music that is lyrically creative, tastefully arranged, masterfully delivered, and positively inspiring.
She is the daughter of legendary roots reggae guitarist Earl Chinna Smith, a key player in Kingston, Jamaica’s reggae scene. Growing up in a family where music was paramount, performance became an inseparable part of her life.
Jah’Mila has toured as supporting vocalist with bands such as The Wailers (with Aston “Family Man” Barrett), Groundation, multi-Grammy award winning band Black Uhuru (with Sly and Robbie), Marcia Griffiths, Cedric Myton (The Congos), among many more. She is currently working on her debut album and has electrifying singles including Reggae Soul, Black Woman, and Free from Babylon. She has wowed audiences in Switzerland, Italy, Canada, and Jamaica with her solo performances, and she is determined to keep spreading her musical gifts every chance she gets.
Her approach to the music industry is somewhat special as she hopes to integrate her reggae legacy into a service of love. Determined to be an instrument of positivity, her ‘message music’ is aimed at raising the collective consciousness of all who hear it. Jah’Mila worked on documentaries series for Arcadia Entertainment in 2021.
Jeff Miller, Co-Director
Working alongside musicians within the Halifax music scene (Joel Plaskett, Gabrielle Papillon, Jon Samuel of Wintersleep, Walrus, Erin Costelo and Villages) Jeff Miller has been creating and capturing the sights and sounds of Nova Scotia music for nearly a decade. As a director and editor, Jeff has garnered acclaim from the East Coast Music Association and Nova Scotia Music Association by receiving multiple nominations for his music videos. Recently, Jeff worked closely with Joel Plaskett on the visual rollout for his album 44, including the music video for his single “Just Passing Through.”
Nominations include ECMA Music Video of the Year 2020 for “Maggie of the Cove” by Villages, ECMA Music Video of the Year 2017 for “Wearing It” by Walrus, and NSMA Music Video of the Year 2018 for “Act I: Infatuation Slowly” by Nicole Ariana.
Watch Villages Music Video for “Maggie of the Cove” (nominated for 2020 Video of the year ECMA)
Dylan Jewers, Host
Dylan Jewers runs his own roots music label, Big Turnip Records, based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. His involvement in the preservation of regional traditional music and interest in how it is evolving is incredibly deep. He has spent the last four years working to showcase how these traditions have influenced the present. He’s currently working on an archival project to release twenty-five never released recordings from the Helen Creighton Collection in vinyl, CD, and booklet form.
Dylan is passionate about preserving these old sounds that could be lost with time. He’s obsessed with finding hidden gems just waiting to be dug out of Nova Scotia’s historical musical archives. Working creatively on a shoe-string budget, Dylan uses small grants and minimal funding for his work, often securing free recording space or paying out of pocket for mixing and mastering or recording sessions in studios around the city.
Visit Big Turnip Records on Facebook
Visit Big Turnip Records on Instagram
Read “Dartmouth folk music project bridges gap between past and present” On The Signal
Charlie Benoit, Director of Photography
Charlie is a director of photography, music photographer, and musician. Along with production partner, Jeff Miller, he has shot over 25 music videos in recent years for artists such as Joel Plaskett, Walrus, Jah’Mila, Dave Sampson, and Villages.
With an extensive background in both scripted and unscripted film and television, Charlie has served as the director of photography for episodes of the television documentary series Sight Seers (AMI) and drama series Jumping the Apex (OutTV). He has been a member of the lighting/camera team on The Curse of Oak Island, Bad Chad, Books of Blood, Spinster, Mr. D, and This Hour has 22 Minutes.
A third generation touring musician, Charlie has deep connections to the east coast music scene. From performing with the bands Jah’mila and Dub Kartel, booking the annual Cold Smoke Festival, shooting music videos and being a go-to music photographer for album artwork and live performances, he has a unique level of immersion into the music community to go along with his extensive filmmaking experience.
Watch Live Jah’Mila Video Session for Canadian Immigration Museum
Victoria Germain, Production Manager/Producer
Victoria has worked in the film and television industry in various capacities for over 18 years. For the past 6 years, she has worked as a production manager on various documentary series for Discovery US, Smithsonian, Travel Channel, CBC’s Nature of Things, CBC Gem, and on the award-winning feature documentary Drag Kids.
Under the guidance and mentorship of Donna Davies and Ann Bernier, Victoria is taking the opportunity to learn about the producing side of the film and television industry.