Montreal Education Film Festival
October 7â9, 2027
Montreal, QC, Canada
As a multilingual festival in Montréal, we welcome films from diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. Films selected for in-person screening must have subtitles in both French and English if the original language is neither English nor French. Please review the full guidelines for the specific subtitle requirements applicable to your film.
Meet the Team
Mama Adobea Nii-Owoo
Co-Director & Assistant Professor
Mama Nii-Owoo is Co-Director of the Montreal Education Film Festival. An Assistant professor at McGill University and self-taught documentary filmmaker, her work spans critical applied sociolinguistics, comparative international education, and teacher education across Montreal and Accra. Her debut research film No Vernacular, made with Ghanaian teachers during her PhD studies at OISE, has been nominated at and selected as a finalist at festivals including the Accra Indie Film Festival, the Toronto International Women’s Film Festival, the IBDFF, and the Lift-Off Global Film Festival. It reflects her commitment to using Cinema and storytelling to make the sociolinguistic realities of Global South communities known beyond academic walls.
Amir Kalan
Co-Director & Associate Professor
Dr. Amir Kalan is an associate professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. His research aims to develop a sociology of cultural production that provides insights into the cultural, political, and power-relational dimensions of literacy and art. In his work, he employs ethnography, practitioner research, narrative inquiry, and arts-based inquiry. He engages in different forms of research-creation that use poetry, drama, and film as tools of inquiry. He is the director of the film After “Night” (2015) and the producer of Women, Life, Philosophy (2025). He is also the author of Tweets of Love and Protest: A Poetic Inquiry (2026) and The Delicate Violence of Evaluation: A Play Written for a Graduate Seminar in Social Sciences and Humanities (in press, 2026).
Bianca Gonzalez
Co-Director & PhD Student
Bianca Gonzalez is a PhD student in Educational Studies at McGill University’s Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE). Her work brings together decolonial and Chicana feminisms, land-based literacies, and critical arts-based inquiry to examine the language and literacy practices of minoritized culture workers in urban, translingual, and transnational contexts. Continually weaving creative practice into her scholarship, she engages in research-creation through collage-making, multimodal and junk journaling, photography, and film. She is currently producing her first academic short film, Ephemeral Listening: Junk Journaling as Creative Inquiry in Motion.
Claudia Mitchell
Distinguished James McGill Professor
Claudia Mitchell is a Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education. She is the founder and director of the Participatory Cultures Lab, a research and training unit supporting participatory visual and arts-based initiatives, especially with young people in relation to gender transformative practices. The PCL is well known for establishing and hosting the McGill International Cellphilm Festival, now its 14th year, and for housing Gallery Transforming, an art space dedicated to ‘ephemeral practices and long lasting impressions’. Claudia has pioneered work on the production of composite videos in community-based research. She has authored and co edited 35 books in areas such as participatory visual and arts based methods, girlhood studies, social perspectives on childhood and youth studies, and narrative practices in teacher education.
Mama Adobea Nii-Owoo
Co-Director & Assistant Professor
Mama Nii-Owoo is Co-Director of the Montreal Education Film Festival. An Assistant professor at McGill University and self-taught documentary filmmaker, her work spans critical applied sociolinguistics, comparative international education, and teacher education across Montreal and Accra. Her debut research film No Vernacular, made with Ghanaian teachers during her PhD studies at OISE, has been nominated at and selected as a finalist at festivals including the Accra Indie Film Festival, the Toronto International Women’s Film Festival, the IBDFF, and the Lift-Off Global Film Festival. It reflects her commitment to using Cinema and storytelling to make the sociolinguistic realities of Global South communities known beyond academic walls.
Amir Kalan
Co-Director & Associate Professor
Dr. Amir Kalan is an associate professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. His research aims to develop a sociology of cultural production that provides insights into the cultural, political, and power-relational dimensions of literacy and art. In his work, he employs ethnography, practitioner research, narrative inquiry, and arts-based inquiry. He engages in different forms of research-creation that use poetry, drama, and film as tools of inquiry. He is the director of the film After “Night” (2015) and the producer of Women, Life, Philosophy (2025). He is also the author of Tweets of Love and Protest: A Poetic Inquiry (2026) and The Delicate Violence of Evaluation: A Play Written for a Graduate Seminar in Social Sciences and Humanities (in press, 2026).
Bianca Gonzalez
Co-Director & PhD Student
Bianca Gonzalez is a PhD student in Educational Studies at McGill University’s Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE). Her work brings together decolonial and Chicana feminisms, land-based literacies, and critical arts-based inquiry to examine the language and literacy practices of minoritized culture workers in urban, translingual, and transnational contexts. Continually weaving creative practice into her scholarship, she engages in research-creation through collage-making, multimodal and junk journaling, photography, and film. She is currently producing her first academic short film, Ephemeral Listening: Junk Journaling as Creative Inquiry in Motion.
Claudia Mitchell
Distinguished James McGill Professor
Claudia Mitchell is a Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education. She is the founder and director of the Participatory Cultures Lab, a research and training unit supporting participatory visual and arts-based initiatives, especially with young people in relation to gender transformative practices. The PCL is well known for establishing and hosting the McGill International Cellphilm Festival, now its 14th year, and for housing Gallery Transforming, an art space dedicated to ‘ephemeral practices and long lasting impressions’. Claudia has pioneered work on the production of composite videos in community-based research. She has authored and co edited 35 books in areas such as participatory visual and arts based methods, girlhood studies, social perspectives on childhood and youth studies, and narrative practices in teacher education.
The first edition of MEFF will be held
from October 7-9 2027
No Vernacular by Mama Adobea Nii Owoo
No Vernacular is a 30 minute documentary about African multilingualism, teachers and language policy that takes you through the historical twists and turns of Ghana’s educational quest to teach literacy to its multilinguals.
Colours of the Alphabet by Alastair Cole
Colours of the Alphabet was released at the 2016 Glasgow Film Festival and went on to screen at more than 40 international film festivals. It was broadcast in 30 languages across 52 countries internationally and won multiple awards, including a nomination for a Grierson Award in 2016.
Women, Life, Philosophy: The Life and Work of Sayeh Meisami
Through the lens of the life and work of influential Iranian-Canadian-American philosopher Sayeh Meisami, this film explores the experiences of Iranian women studying philosophy within academic institutions.
PĂĄâÄapa: A Mt. Rubidoux Story by Daisy Ocampo Diaz
A documentary exploring PĂĄâÄapa, also known as Mt. Rubidoux, and the cultural, historical, and community stories connected to this place.
Gender Is Like an Ocean by Rob Simon
Gender Is Like an Ocean is a film by Rob Simon exploring gender, identity, and the fluidity of human experience.
The Guerrilla Archive by Shahrzad Mojab
The Guerrilla Archive explores memory, resistance, documentation, and the importance of preserving stories that may otherwise be lost.
With award-winning leadership, McGill Education prides itself on innovation and discovery in the fields of teaching and learning, social change, educational and counselling psychology, and kinesiology and sport science.
For more details, visit McGill MosaĂŻque
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