Gabriela Warrior Renaud, lovingly known as Gaby, is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, a communicator, and a social and climate justice activist. She strongly believes in the power of thoughtful and critical storytelling in our collective fight for equity. As a queer, mixed-race woman of colour, Gabriela understands the importance of intersectional representation and strives to hold these spaces in her work. She is fascinated by the diasporic connections to our roots, our lands and to each other, and seeks to create work that humanizes the difficult and overlooked. She approaches each project with tenderness and care and keeps her heart open to learning.

Gabriela is best known for her documentary project Hyphen, which was born out her own desire to feel whole within a fragmented identity. Building a narrative around mixed-race experiences, Gabriela was able to find the grounding she was seeking, and is humbly reclaiming her South Indian heritage.

Gabriela has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies with a specialization in film production from Concordia University. Her work has been screened at film festivals across Canada, broadcasted on CBC and TVO, and has won awards for Best Director, Best Local Film and Best Experimental Film. Gabriela is a climate communicator by profession, currently working with Farmers for Climate Solutions, a farmer-and-rancher-led coalition working to make agriculture part of the solution to climate change. She lives, works and plays on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People and is an active member of Ottawa’s artistic community, working to make our spaces inclusive and sustainable.

Site logo by Steve St. Pierre, photo by Adrienne Row - Smith