You have a creative vision.
I want to help you get there.
Working best in arts and media-focused teams, I bring my 6+ years of experience of implementing collaborative media projects, conferences, speaking tours, and film productions across 60+ productions. As an accomplished community leader, I have experience planning and executing over 45 unique events and managing project and production budgets.
“Fonna you have been an amazing soul and cheerleader throughout the project. I would not have gone far without you, in fact, I might have quit, thank you for lending your equipment, providing moral support, and space. You have been one of the hearts of this project.”
“Thank you so much for your care and attention to detail throughout the project. It’s been such a pleasure reading your thorough reports and gaining some extra insights into the journey - your team is lucky to have you!”
“Thank you for always creating an amazing and kind atmosphere for the team.”
“It was an absolute pleasure and privilege to work with Fonna, providing guidance for the RISE Initiative; a grassroots project to support vulnerable youth. Fonna brought a wealth of experience and expertise in project planning and execution. And through her guidance, I was able to avoid many of the pitfalls, newly founded social ventures often face. I’m appreciative of all Fonna’s support and look forward to collaborating with her again.
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“You make this set feel like the summer camp of my dreams. Thank you!”
“Thank you for being Fonna lol. People that have worked with you know. You do the things so thoroughly and with so much care it echoes into so many facets of production. You save lives!”
“I’m pretty convinced that you are a wizard of some kind. Definitely magic cause that’s exactly what you bring to production.”
“I’ve been on many sets and I can honestly say the people you’ve gathered on this particular shoot have created an environment that will do nothing less than produce an incredible film. In terms of learning, I don’t think I’ve ever been on a set thats been this conducive to learning and growth. Words will never accurately describe my gratitude for sharing space with you all.”
“It was such an awesome experience working on set with you! I appreciate the conversations we had, I enjoyed them a lot. Also, thank you for being so accommodating and friendly. You are such a star for handling everything throughout the whole process of Disclosure. I want to let you know that I acknowledge the hard work you did. It was great working with you and I hope to see you on another set.”
“Last of my #WCW, this lovely Femme of Color Fonna (said like Phone Ahh). She is an awesome community builder networking between so many organizations and initiatives. She is a community archivist documenting Queer and Trans art and culture through photography and video. She is also an amazing assistant to both myself and the Mr. and she makes everything more possible.”
Select Projects
CSA Award Winning, BEING BLACK IN TORONTO, was created in partnership with the OYA Emerging Filmmakers program and the Fabienne Colas Foundation, six directors/writers were given the opportunity to helm an original short documentary about being Black In Toronto, currently on CBC.
6 writer/directors, 6 unique projects about the Black experience in Toronto.
Funders and Supporters: Fabienne Colas Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Black Film Festival, Oya Media Group, Black Youth Pathways to Industry, Mattru Media, Goldelox Productions, Lucas Joseph Media
Role: Producer / Project Coordinator - Being Black in Toronto Cohort
Year: 2019
virgins! the series on CBC GEM
Too modest for the big city and too provocative for the East-African homes they come from, virgins! is a dramatic comedy that follows the lives of four 20-something year-old women awkwardly navigating adulhood as millenials and love and relationships as virgins.
Role: Producer
Year: 2021-2022
Fresh Meat
A young idealistic writer is excited to start her first staff writing job at a major media company until she discovers a terrifying secret: they’re eating people.
Role: Producer
Year: 2021
Charlie still has hope and is adamant in caring for her mother, Yolonda Thomas, as her health takes a turn for the worse. Loyal, she insists on sticking by her mother’s side until the very end. But when her school begins to notice Charlie’s absence, she is placed under a system of surveillance and Charlie will soon come to find that some decisions are outside of her control.
Project Supported by: Goldelox Productions, William F. White, Lucas Joseph Media, Gearshift, York University, Stolen From Africa, Black Youth! Pathway to Industry
Production Company: Oya Media Group
Director: Alison Duke
Executive Producer: Ngardy Conteh George
Producer: Fonna Seidu
Cinematographer: Lucas Joseph
Behind the Dust, a project of This is Worldtown
The Behind the Dust series is a portal into a world that is curated and created by Women of Colour, showing the possibilities of imagining beyond convention, and “behind the dust†of inflammatory and one-dimensional portrayals of communities under fire. As a collective, the media-makers are Muslim, Indigenous, Black, Women of Colour conveying in-depth visual stories about their communities, celebrating the fullness of experience in all its layers. What does it mean to visiblize these experiences? How are we learning from the past and creating for the future?
Role: Digital Media Project Coordinator
Year: 2017 - 2018
Creative Connect, a project of Nia Centre for the Arts
Creative Connect (CC) is a professional development project for early career artists seeking capacity building and career opportunities in the creative business sector. The project utilizes a customized approach to the development of mentorship opportunities, apprenticeships, job shadowing, income generation and internships in creative fields. Participants combine a diverse range of professional development opportunities with professional workplace experiences and mentorships from workplace professionals in the creative fields.
Role: Project Coordinator
Year: 2016
The Turning Tables: Documentary Impact Campaign Tour
The Turning Tables tour is designed to bridge the gap in accessibility between Indigenous Youth and role models like Joshua DePerry, aka Classic Roots, an up-and-coming music producer and DJ who blends Indigenous sounds with modern techno and house music. The communities we intend to visit include remote areas with lack of resources such as Webequie, areas suffering from mass youth suicide such as Attawapiskat, as well as a number of First Nation reservations who have expressed interest in hosting Classic Roots but have not had the funds available to make it happen. Bringing subjects from the film specifically to these communities to speak further than the film and engage directly with these youth will provide a deeper connection to the underlying message - that dreams are attainable and there is support to achieve them. The Turning Tables Tour is designed to address four key objectives; to strengthen Indigenous culture and community, inspire creative confidence, create a positive environment for youth, and encourage self-expression. We intend to reach these objectives through various art-based workshops, including film, photography, music and dance.
Role: Travel Coordinator
Year: 2018 - 2019
Learn More
Public Speaker
Topics of focus:
Working with youth
Project management for artists and creatives
Introductory photography
Feedback from a few project management workshops:
“Very rarely do I find breakout activities useful- but these were! Thank you!”
“Great job, loved your energy.”
“I learned more about details of how to manage a project and specifically how to deal with issues and risk, as well as keep me thinking of how to deal with gold plating.”
“Thank you so much. You open my eyes to a lot of things I can improve on.”
“Loved the amount and freedom and consideration you gave the participants. It was refreshing.”
“I thought the person that ran the workshop was amazing positive and energetic.”