Victoria-based Entyre Films is prepping a documentary on the Wingspan Disability and Deaf Artist Residency Program.

The Wingspan Dis/Ability Arts, Culture & Public Pedagogy is an accessible and inclusive disability and Deaf artist residency program in Canada’s schools and the University of British Columbia VPRI Excellence Cluster.

Helming the doc is Entyre Films’ Thomas Buchan, with Dr. Leslie G. Roman, UBC Professor of Educational Studies as co-director. Filming began in February across schools in three provinces and wrapped mid-June.

The film follows Wingspan artists and students in the schools of B.C., Manitoba, and Ontario.

Artists featured in the film include classical, folk, and rock singer Jugpreet Bajwa, who lost sight in both eyes due to eye cancer, and jazz pianist and saxophonist Connor Derraugh, Métis artist Candace Lipischak, Wingspan touring artist Natalie Sluis, who turns her hearing loss into the language of contemporary performance dance, Felicia Byron, a Caribbean-Canadian neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist and photographer living with cerebral palsy, and Danielle Hyde, a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist with lived experience of an invisible mental health disability.

The filmmaking team will be seeking broadcast partners and also plan to hit the doc festival circuit after production is completed.

Photos courtesy of Wingspan; pictured (L-R) Danielle Hyde, Candace Lipischak, Connor Derraugh, Felicia Byron, Jugpreet Bajwa