Our Story

Beyond Crisis was started by a small team of filmmakers who rallied to film the historic 2014 People’s Climate March in New York. Shortly following the march, the team incorporated as Toronto PCM (“People’s Climate March”), and evolved a small, committed crew to carry the film forwards.
 
While Beyond Crisis has had contributions from a wide range of talented artists and film professionals along the way, it was carried to completion largely by volunteer efforts with artist-director Kai Reimer-Watts leading the project. The film has always been perceived as a story generated with community, for community, and is now on its way to being shared with all those who inspire it as a tool for community engagement and action.

Meet the Team

We are all co-authors now on our future climate story - if you'd like to team up with us to share the film, please get in touch.

Kai Reimer-Watts
WRITER / DIRECTOR / EDITOR

Kai is a documentary and social change filmmaker, community activist and co-founder of Canadian not-for-profit The People's Climate Foundation, which seeks to empower communities to host dialogues and build a creative cultural response to global climate change. Beyond Crisis is his first feature-length film, as a powerful story for more transformative discourse and action to address rapid climate change.

Kai graduated from the University of Waterloo's Master of Climate Change (MCC) program in 2014, before this completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus on film and video through NSCAD University. Production credits include short works for social change groups such as 350.org, Sustainable Societies Consulting Group, evolvGREEN, the Climate Emergency Institute and the Goenchi Mati Movement among others. In Fall 2018 Kai started a PhD in Community Psychology through Wilfrid Laurier University, with a focus on engaging communities more effectively on building a strong Culture of Sustainability (COS) through connecting the arts and social change theory - a focus area that has grown directly out of his leadership role as artist-director of Beyond Crisis.

Abhilasha Dewan
ANIMATION & GRAPHICS / ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Abhi is an animation artist and designer and co-founder of Better Creative, with roots in her home-country of India and the majority of her training and experience in Ontario, Canada, where she studied animation at Sheridan College. Her passion for communicating complex concepts cleanly and crisply through image is what led her to contribute her diverse talents to Beyond Crisis.

Amanda Hunter
CINEMATOGRAPHER / ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Amanda is a videographer and photographer passionate about bridging cultural gaps and inspiring others through video, photography, animation, and effective design. Along with working as an established portrait photographer, she has a certificate in Environmental Visual Communication, which merges environmental science with visual communication in order to effectively communicate science to a wide range of audiences. Her passion for making the science and solutions around climate change visually interesting and exciting is her greatest motivator for getting involved as lead Cinematographer with Beyond Crisis.

Monica Resendes
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Monica is an educator, researcher and community organizer. She is the current vice-chair of the board for Toronto350.org, a climate justice organization she helped to establish. Her past roles there include both Creative Director and Vice President. She is a consultant for the Ontario Principal’s Associations and is involved in a province-wide project to help build capacity around environmental inquiry and knowledge building in the classroom. As Associate Producer, Monica has worked closely with the lead Producer on story development, messaging and distribution.

Nic Petrini-Woolley
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER / SENIOR SOUND ENGINEER

Nic is an up-and-coming force in the international music scene. An award-winning musician, DJ, and producer known as JustLive, he manages a multimedia studio called MADE Music Lab based in Toronto, ON. Inspired by powerful ideas and not afraid to take a stand for social justice, Nic is currently working on human development projects around the world, contributing to several startup companies, and is proud to be contributing as Associate Producer and Senior Sound Engineer on Beyond Crisis.

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Sign up to our occasional newsletter below for exciting updates on upcoming screenings and events; the climate leadership taking place throughout our communities; opportunities for community engagement and more. Our newsletters are sent out infrequently when there's news and you can unsubscribe at any time. Signing up also gives you access to a free 12-minute preview of Beyond Crisis, so you can "try before you buy". Why not join?