Joanna Decc Writer/Director

Joanna Decc is an actor, writer, and emerging filmmaker. She studied English and Performance at the University of Toronto. While at UofT, Joanna received a number of awards including the prestigious Donald Sutherland Award for Best Performance presented to her by Maev Beaty, the UofT Drama Award for Best Performance in a Play, and the TCDS Drama Award for Best Performer. Outside of school she has continued pursuing performance, however she has also has returned back to her original love of film. She is particularly interested in analogue film and capturing the mundane and the uncomfortable having created a number of shorts on regular 8mm and super 8 film. Bleak as the Setting Sun marks her first true narrative short. The script was a Quarter-Finalist at the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, Second Rounder at the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, and given an Honourable Mention by the Finish Line Script Competition.

Suzanne Friesen Director of Photography 

Suzanne Friesen is a Canadian/Polish cinematographer and filmmaker based in Vancouver, BC. Deeply rooted in analog still photography, Suzanne's approach to narrative and documentary filmmaking incorporates conscientious composition and unhurried movement. The viewer is able to fall into the frame, as if passing through a gallery, merging with the moment as it arrives / as it departs. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) in Film Production from Simon Fraser University, a Bachelor of Sciences in Microbiology and Biology from the University of Manitoba, and a diploma in professional photography from Prairie View School for Photography in Winnipeg, MB. Suzanne works as an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia teaching cinematography in their Theatre and Film Department, and as a Director of Photography on projects in Canada's independent film industry. Suzanne also works as a Cinematography and Camera Instructor at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and Capilano University’s Motion Picture Arts Program. Suzanne has received numerous awards within her artistic practice, and her work has been screened and recognized within Canada and internationally.

Ahlam Hassan Producer

Ahlam Hassan is a writer, director and producer for the screen and stage. Much of her work focuses on using humor to subvert the rules of the everyday, often beginning with comedic and rap improvisation. She holds a BA in performance, directing and architecture design from the University of Toronto, where she wrote an undergraduate thesis titled Locating + Naming African-Canadian Performance History, in response to the absence and presence of Blackness in theoretical and practical performance education, culminating in the creation of a new post-secondary syllabus. She also received the Jackman Humanities Scholar in Residence Award for her contributions to Professor Maria Assif’s research project New Voices, New Vistas: Contemporary Arab Women Writers Database. She is a permit at IATSE Local 873 union with training in Grip, Set Decoration, Props and Script Supervision. In 2021, she directed short films Missing Little Jamaica for Free Up! on CBC Gem, co-wrote and co-directed BATHROOM BREAK for Soulpepper Theatre’s Queer Futures 2099 and What Are You Supposed To Be? for the Toronto Fringe Festival.