CaribbeanTales Youth Film Festival

Alison Duke is an in independent filmmaker with a history of making compelling social issues documentaries. She worked as a segment producer/director for several internationally syndicated documentary television series and has written, produced and directed a string of documentaries which have received national television broadcast, theatrical releases and/or film festival premieres. Alison brings a variety of different skills to each production including producing, directing and camera operation. She has many corporate and community clients including: Toronto Public Health, Aecon, Toronto City Hall, Women’s Health In Woman’s Hands and the Women’s Intercultural Network.

Alison began her career in the mid-90s producing music videos for some of the biggest names in Canadian urban music, i.e. Maestro, Nelly Furtado and Glen Lewis. Raje Filmhouse, a production company she co-owned, received 19 Much Music Video Award nominations in four years.

In 1999, she decided to make documentaries and directed the groundbreaking award-winning hip-hop documentary, Raisin’ Kane: a rapumentary (2000) produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Since then she has been a well sought after director. Some of her most notable works include, A Deathly Silence (2003) produced for CBC Witness and Newsworld and her Sex TV productions such as a Player’s Ball and Booty Nation with Chum Television. Her work has appeared on various other television networks including MuchMusic, TVOne, Oxygen, Starz!, Encore, Life, Rogers, The Superchannel, BET, Vision TV, OMNI Television, Raptor TV and the Sundance Channel.

Alison also started to co-produce documentaries for other artists, such the award winning film Sister’s In Cinema, by Yvonne Welbon, a film that uncovers the hidden history of African American women in cinema. This film featured, Julie Dash, Euychan Palsy, and Kasi Lemmons. In 2007 she co-produced, Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home (2007), a feature documentary that captures the eco-footprint of a Canadian Family. In 2008, GTRSAH screened at Hotdocs and the United Nations Association Film Festival. The film is currently airing on The Superchannel, and is scheduled to broadcast on the Sundance Channel later in 2009.

Throughout the past five years Alison has also completed several notable commissions that bring to light a range of social issues. Hear the Story (2005) is a 28-minute documentary commissioned by the City of Toronto, Mayor’s office that looks at the marginalization of racialized youth in Toronto. Traditions and Transitions (2007) is a 40-minute commission by the Women’s Intercultural Network, which highlights the activism of six extraordinaire senior immigrant women who became super activists. And The Woman I Have Become (2008), a 60-minute commissioned sponsored by several HIV/AIDs organizations in Ontario, Canada, which highlights the life of eight African and Caribbean women living with HIV. The film was endorsed by the Ministry of Health in Canada and has been translated into five African languages.

Currently in-production includes, A Love/Hate Supreme, an erotic mystery directed by legendary Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald; Thomas Allen Harris’s much anticipated feature documentary, Through a Lens Darkly which captures the context of black photography from 1860 to today.
Alison brings variety skills to every project. While she is usually, commissioned as a director, her production company, Goldelox Productions can be engaged to support small to medium sized productions.