Running Time: 6 x 60 mins
Year: 2017
Original Broadcast Date: April 9, 2017

synopsis

We Are Canada celebrates the next generation of talented and passionate change-makers whose works are shaping and defining our future in imaginative ways. With young filmmakers at the helm, each episode of this prime-time documentary series and its online iteration follows present-tense narratives that will move and inspire. The hour-long episode features three life-affirming stories tied together by a theme. Featured forward-thinking innovators are making new discoveries and connections across many disciplines, including science, technology, politics, business and the arts. We Are Canada will introduce viewers to the young Canadians who are shaping our future as a nation.

The series features:

• Maayan Ziv, a 25-year-old fashion photographer turned accessibility advocate and app developer from Toronto. Born with muscular dystrophy, Mayaan plans to map the world with her app Access Now.

• Andrew Hall and Jeremy Bryant, 26-year-old cousins from Calgary who founded MealShare. For every meal ordered at a participating restaurant, a dollar is donated that buys lunch for a hungry child.

• Edmonton-based Dr. Shawna Pandya, a 32-year-old neurosurgeon, Team Canada athlete and astronaut-candidate for Canada’s Space Agency who is volunteering for a test flight at the National Research Centre for the space company Final Frontier, testing their new space suit.

• Former Olympic athlete-hopeful, Crystal Phillips, 29, of Calgary, founder of the Branch Out Foundation (BOF), an institute that investigates a new branch of medicine blending holistic and conventional approaches to health.

•33-year-old Charles DeGuire, from Montreal, created a robotic arm dubbed JACO – an intuitive, flexible design that attaches to a wheelchair and becomes an extension of the person using it.

• Toronto-based Nadia Hamilton, 29, president and founder of Magnusmode, the company behind the groundbreaking digital life skills app for youth and adults with cognitive special needs.

• Waterloo’s Maya Burhanpurkar, 17, a brilliant young scientist, inventor, award-winning filmmaker, STEM champion and explorer with multiple ground-breaking discoveries in medicine and physics.

• Kahlil Baker, 34, of Vancouver, founder of Taking Root, a Canadian non-profit organization that develops social reforestation projects in collaboration with small-scale farmers in Nicaragua.

• Toronto-based PhD Dan Werb, 36, an award-winning epidemiologist and journalist with expertise in HIV, addictions, and drug policy.

• Founded by serial entrepreneur Mohamed Hage, 34, Lufa Farms built the world’s first commercial, economically sustainable rooftop greenhouse in Montreal.

• Alexander Josephson, 33, co-founded PARTISANS, a Toronto architecture and design firm held together by individuals with the drive to make the world a better place; and marine ecologist, biologist.

• Explorer Maeva Gauthier, 36, founder of the Fish Eye Project in Victoria, BC, which uses technology to connect children and adults with the world’s oceans.

• Using music to spark tough conversations on depression and suicide among youth, Winnipeg’s Robb Nash, 35, engages young people to inspire hope and encourage positive life choices.

• Caro Loutfi, 27, of Montreal, executive director of Apathy is Boring, Canada’s only non-partisan, national organization that is for youth by youth that educates young people about democracy.

• Gabriel Lopez, 33, of Montreal, founder of an educational platform aiming to reverse dropout rates through experiential learning – one student, one community at a time.

• Adam Gobi, 33, from St. John’s, Newfoundland creates leading-edge subsea cameras and robotics for scientists, filmmakers and explorers to allow them to examine the previously unseen depths of the ocean.

• 36-year-old Jane Rabinowicz from Montreal, whose mission is to conserve and advance seed biodiversity, keep seed in the public domain, breed new varieties of grain, and promote ecological seed production; and Director of the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.

• Ry Moran, 38, who has created a permanent archive for all curated materials related to Canada's Residential School system gathered during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Credits

Conceived By Ken Dryden
Produced By Ken Dryden in collaboration with White Pine Pictures
Narrated by Sarah Polley

We Are Canada is produced by White Pine Pictures in association with CBC and Société Radio-Canada with the participation of the Government of Canada through the Canada 150 Fund, the Canada Media Fund,
and the Ontario Media Development Corporation

The #WeAreTheChange digital project was made in collaboration with Ryerson University’s Transmedia Zone and the Faculty of Communication and Design and made possible by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship and Ryerson University

winner
2018 Golden Sheaf award

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