Vanessa Magic is a Canadian Screen Award-nominated director and award-winning writer whose work centers around loneliness and grief, often from the eye of the outsider, with an Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist lens. She is an alumni of Black Women Film, BIPOC Film & TV, The Warner Media Discovery Access x Canadian Academy Writers Program ’22 and Women In the Director’s Chair ’23, Slamdance Mentorship '23 and the Blood in the Snow Horror Lab ’23.
Vanessa’s short film, The Absurdity Of The Black Female Experience, premiered at the Brooklyn Film Festival, where it won the Best Experimental Audience Award 2023. Her short, The Future Above Us, played at The Marche du Cannes and won Best Short at the Breakthroughs Film Festival. Her recent horror short, How to Stay Awake, premiered at Fantasia and won best Horror short at Enterwine’s Horror Short. She has also directed the digital comedy True Dating Stories (CBC/Fuse TV) and six episodes of the digital series Near or Far (CBC Gem).
Vanessa has written for Momolu (TVO), The Game Savers (CBC) and Aunty B's House (CBC), and was the co-writer on the Omni limited docu-series Katiba Banat Sister's in Arms (OMNI). She story-edited and co-produced a Canadian Heritage Minute about Jackie Shane (Historica). She has also directed the short Safron (Blood In The Snow Festival), True Dating Stories (CBC/Fuse TV) and has directed shorts for the Canadian Film Centre.
Vanessa's passion is creating stories that highlight Black female protagonists and leave the viewer learning something new and unexpected. Inspired by her dreams, she is eager to create worlds and narratives untold, unseen and filled with magic. With her sights set on the future, she is excited to create weird worlds, people and words for them to say to connect her to the cosmos.
FOR BOOKINGS:
Jennifer Irons, Meta Talent Agency
For conversations about dreams or cake: vanessaismagic@gmail.com