CREW
Sharon Lewis
Director & Producer
Sharon Lewis' focus in her directing career is to tell entertaining stories with a unique cinematic flavor and heavy-hitting performance. She has been nominated for 8 Canadian Screen Awards (CSA) and recently won a CSA for Best Direction for a Factual Series. Sharon's feature film debut, Brown Girl Begins (2017), is an Afro-futurist sci-fi tale of a young black woman who saves her community through her connection to Caribbean spirits.The film continues to play on Hulu, Amazon, and HBO, was recently named “one of the top 15 Black Sci-Fi Films” by Ranker.com and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Screenplay. Sharon's first feature documentary, Disruptor Conductor (2019), is about the first openly-gay, black orchestral Conductor in Canada and it won “Best Documentary” at both Black Alphabet Film Festival 2020 and G International Film Festival 2021. Sharon’s recent TV directing credits include Netflix's Ginny & Georgia, POWER Book IV: Force for STARZ, NBC's Law & Order: Organized Crimes and many more. In 2021, she wrapped up a movie for the Oprah Winfrey Network and was in Newfoundland directing for the series Hudson & Rex. Her latest feature documentary, With Wonder (2021), is about the LGBTQI+ community's grappling with the question: can you be Christian and Queer? Sharon was born in Toronto, Canada and trained in Los Angeles, but she still has strong ties to her Jamaican/Trinidadian roots and works hard at giving voice to black people and people of color in all the projects she has the privilege of directing and producing.
Byron Kent Wong
Producer
As a producer and creative director, Byron has over two decades of creative development experience. He is the founder and lead of the Emmy-nominated production eco-system, ZERO11ZERO.
Over his career, Byron has produced television series, feature films, music, immersive installations and documentaries and won multiple awards and nominations including Emmy and Genie/Canadian Screen Awards. He believes in art and engagements that allows for unique collaborations between educators, musicians, community-leaders, artists, and storytellers; specializing in the intersection of education and entertainment to tell stories of often marginalized and muted voices.
Byron has worked with HBO, Netflix, CBC, NBC, CBS, Michelle & Barack Obama, David Bowie, Kelly Rowland, Regina King, Twitter, The Toronto International Film Festival, Kanye West, The National Arts Centre of Canada, Doctors Without Borders, Myseum of Toronto, The San Francisco Symphony, Choir!Choir!Choir!, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and The Downie Wenjack Fund. Notable Documentary work includes the Emmy-nominated, ‘Jason Day: Never Say Die’, ‘Choir!Choir!Choir! Hallelujah with Rufus Wainwright’, ‘Disruptor Conductor’, ‘Player Zero’, the Arctic- based ‘From Far and Wide”, ProMax BDA-awarded ‘4 Days in April’ and projects with BMW, Toyota and renowned Toronto LGBTQ community centre, The 519.
Justin Lovell
Cinematographer
Justin Lovell began in documentary and music video editing, later turning to VFX and design for MuchMusic, Ford and features like “Land of the Dead”. Finding even more passion behind the camera, Justin’s distinctive style as a cinematographer comes from his firm understanding of visual movement, composition and creative sculpting of natural lighting. Shooting around the world, his award winning work has been highlighted internationally at festivals such as Sundance, Berlin Nomos and ReelWorld.
His work has been broadcast on HBO, Bravo!, NBC, CBC, FOX, YTV, MTV, ESPN and TSN to name a few. His work has received tens of millions of views inclusive of projects with: athletes, musicians, martial artists and world-class brands like Giorgio Armani, The Blue Jays, Choir!Choir!Choir!, Metric, BMW, Coors, ElectronicArts, RBC, and many more. Justin has also done socially impactful work creating opportunities for underprivileged families and individuals.
Justin shot the Emmy-Nominated documentary, ‘Jason Day: Never Say Die’, CBC Docs’ ‘Player Zero’, and completed two back-to-back feature films with teams from Suicide Squad, Triple X and Netflix’ Marco Polo. He has been nominated by the Canadian Society of Cinematographers for his Documentary work and nominated for a CSC award for his accomplishments in Lifestyle/Reality Cinematography. He is also an IATSE 667 DP/Operator having worked on many acclaimed shows including Netflix’s Umbrella Academy and Locke & Key.
Justin is also a proud father, enjoys meditation, and studies spiritual, vibrational / sound therapy. He explores healthy body optimization strategies and is recognized as a high level snowboard coach/instructor. You’ll often find him smiling in a ball cap that says ‘JUST LOVE’.
Kejd Kuqo
Editor
Kejd Kuqo is an award winning filmmaker and a graduate of the Humber College Film and Television Program where he is majoring in Editing, Cinematography and Directing.
Kejd’s short documentary "Building on Sand” has screened at various international festivals and has premiered in OMNI1. “Bosniak” has screened about 25 festival including Riverrun Film Festival, HollyShorts, Festival Du Nouveau Cinéma, and Air Canada enRoute Film Festival. Bosniak aired on CBC as part of it’s Canadian Reflections program as well as in Air Canada flights. The film has gone on to win several awards including Best Film, Best Directing and multiple Audience Choice Awards. Kejd is the recipient of the Kenneth Post Achievement Award for Excellence.
Kejd’s been a part of the Emmy-Nominated ZERO11ZERO ltd creative team since 2016 with such projects as “On The Ropes” “From Far and Wide” and is currently developing a feature documentary “Lazarat” on the biggest secret drug operation in Europe’s history.
