"A Day in the Life" with Toronto filmmaker Yasmine Mathurin

Yasmine Mathurin is a Haitian-born Canadian raised awkward Black girl, and the fruit of the praying hands and sacrifices of two Haitian immigrant parents who braved Montreal and Calgary with her 4 siblings.

Yasmine’s early childhood began in Ayiti (Haiti), a land too familiar with mountains, warriors, storytellers, and righteous rebellion. Naturally these sacred elements shaped her art and writing along with her French and Kréyòl.

In 2011, she was selected to take part in the United Nations Human Rights Fellowship Program for people of African-Descent. This became her starting point to pursue her courageous career in journalism and filmmaking. With every opportunity encountered in her pursuit, Yasmine chooses to tell heart-led stories to shed light to honest stories told from the margins.

Yasmine’s first feature documentary film, ONE OF OURS, which she wrote and directed with support of CBC documentary channel & Sienna Films is the winner of the DGC Special Jury Prize for Canadian Features at the 2021 Hot Docs International Film Festival.

She is an alumnus of numerous film and storytelling labs including the Hot Docs Documentary Lab, the UnionDocs Feature Documentary Lab, DOC Institute’s Breakthrough program, and Yale University’s THREAD multimedia storytelling fellowship and the 2019 Netflix-BANFF Media Diverse Voices Fellowship.

-written by Medgine Mathurin (twin-sister)

Me at a Q&A session after the screening of my feature film ONE OF OURS at the RIDM festival in Montreal (photo by: Maryse Boyce)

I’ve recently started to talk about my creative process as a filmmaker, and it's been very rewarding to do so with younger Black filmmakers. This photo is me at a directing workshop in St-John’s NL. (photo by Joseph Kisusi) — I’ve recently started to talk about my creative process as a filmmaker, and it’s been very rewarding to do so with younger Black filmmakers. This photo is me at a directing workshop in St-John’s NL. (photo by Joseph Kisusi)

Sometimes I cope with the anxiety of the pandemic, by buying myself flowers. (self-portrait)

I get some of my best writing done at night. (self-portrait)

Here’s a photo of me in my home in the annex. (self-portrait)

Photo of me with cinematographer Iris Ng on location in Calgary during production of One Of Ours. (photo by Elana Emer)

I’m a homebody and I enjoy it thoroughly. This is another self-portrait.

Here’s a photo of me reading, in an airbnb in Montreal this past Spring. (self-portrait).

Which ‘hood are you in?

I’m in the Annex.

What do you do?

I’m a writer & director and a podcast producer. I just completed my first feature documentary film, One Of Ours, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2021 Hot Docs Film Festival. It’s playing through a few film festivals and is now showing on the CBC Documentary Channel. It will be available on CBC Gem online sometime in January 2022.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently a TIFF Netflix Talent Accelerator Fellow and developing a feature screenplay. I am also developing a bilingual short animated documentary film called Hope Song | Chant d’Esperance.

Where can we find your work?

You can find my work on my website http://yasminemathurin.com.

“A Day in the Life” with Toronto filmmaker Yasmine Mathurin

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