OUR CREATIVE VISIONARIES
ATTA offers micro-grants up to 1000$ to changemakers, leaders, artists and activists who, just like us, want to create a more just and compassionate world.
Calvin Liu
"洋洋"(Yang Yang)
The Project
After being hidden by his uncle and his aunt at 4 years old from his family in China, his own mother had to kidnap him back to return to Canada. A director collects firsthand accounts from various family members. This quest for the truth leads him to confront his past and reconnect with his estranged and mysterious uncle and aunt, whom he hasn’t seen for 20 years.
The Creative Visionary
Calvin Liu is a Chinese-Canadian documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in Montreal. Born in Canada to Chinese parents, Calvin's upbringing was deeply influenced by his dual heritage, inspiring him to explore the Chinese diaspora in Canada through his work.
Recipient of the Jean-François Bourassa Award for Outstanding Cinematography (2023), winner of the Spark Project at the Nanlite International Competition (2023) and recipient of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers award for Best Cinematography (2025) at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival for his short film Motel Grand Pré.
His artistic practice has been introspective, exploring the theme of his family, origin, and memories.
Allison Gacad
Inbetween Stories
The Project
Inbetween Stories is a six-part docuseries that takes a critical look at the knowledge, capital, and humanity behind our climate solutions. Journalist and host Allison Gacad meets with innovators to unpack the technologies that will shape our future in our changing climate – across our transportation, energy, food, and fundamental need to remove greenhouse gas emissions from our atmosphere.
The Creative Visionary
Allison is a journalist, writer, and emerging documentary filmmaker. Her work looks to interrogate the futures we are building in a changing climate. Allison’s stories assess the science, politics, and economics of climate solutions, with the goal of equipping audiences to confidently navigate a warming world.
She was born and raised in Toronto to Filipino immigrant parents and graduated from UBC with a BSC in Global Resource Systems. Allison owes her curiosity to multiple seasons spent outside on a farm, riding her bike, climbing rocks, and the occasional wave caught on a surfboard.
Sanjana Chawla
The Currents
The Project
The Currents is a digital platform that connects individuals with globally relevant content related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, along with actionable steps to make a difference. These action items include participating in protests, fundraisers, petitions, or joining groups, all tailored to their location and immediate community.
The Currents empowers users to engage immediately with issues they care about. It’s set to inspire and remove any barriers to action, with a goal to take the individual's motivation to create change as far as it can go, and help them “shape the current”.
The Creative Visionary
Sanjana founded this group to channel her passion for peace activism and advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
United by their collective commitment to sustainability, peace, and social justice, the group draws inspiration from renowned peace activists like Gandhi and Thich Nhat Hanh. Through this project, they aim to promote these shared values and inspire others to create positive, peaceful change.
linkedin.com/in/sanjana-chawla
Colleen Qiu & Andrea
Di Marco Montgomery, PhD.
Afghan Senior Women: Journey to Belonging
The Project
Using art as a medium for healing, this project is grounded in increasing the participant’s sense of belonging to the larger community, and for creating a space that allows us to wrap in care and support an established group of Afghan refugee-immigrant women. The group has been given space at MOSAIC for meeting weekly as they support one another and help newcomer Afghan refugee-immigrant women adjust to the profound changes they experience as newcomers to Canada.
This project seeks increased emotional expression through art, a deepening sense of being supported by and belonging to their new communities, and individual and collective healing.
The Creative Visionaries
Andrea is a PhD in refugee-immigration and global equity. Her research and work focus primarily on women refugee-immigrants and immigrants seniors, and the lived experience of rebuilding lives in Canada, while focusing on the presence of white colonial supremacy and the marginalization of the Indigenous people in Canada. Andrea teaches Feminist and Decolonizing Research Methodologies to doctoral students and delivers Anti-Racism Courses and workshops, both locally and throughout Canada.
Colleen is a digital media artist, engineer, planner, and activist. With experience in photography, classical Chinese painting, public art, graphic design and beyond, she creates art that fuses various media and cultures. She is a first-generation Chinese settler-immigrant on Turtle Island and has found her passion for harnessing art's power to express her voice and move others. She also aims to help amplify other voices and identities within the racialized immigrant community in every way possible - she is excited to be doing that through the creation of an immersive virtual gallery, as part of the Senior Afghan Women: Journey to Belonging project.
Julia Lespine
I Am River
The Project
In this collaborative short film inspired by the I Am River children’s storybook, the St Lawrence river becomes our narrator - a living, breathing force with stories to tell. Flowing through time and memory, the river shares its journey: the life it nurtures, the beauty it holds, and the weight of human impacts on its waters.
Blending visual storytelling with poetic narrative, this film invites youth to see the river not just as a body of water, but as a being with a voice - one that is calling for care, respect, and reconnection. Rooted in wonder and responsibility, the project hopes to awaken a sense of stewardship in the next generation, reminding us that the future of the river depends on how we choose to see and protect it today.
The Creative Visionary
Julia Lespine is a Montreal-based conservation photographer and filmmaker with a background in environmental engineering and firsthand experience in marine conservation.
Her work is driven by a deep commitment to protecting the environment, and she now focuses on crafting visual stories that foster connection with the natural world. Guided by a passion for storytelling, Julia weaves science and creativity to spark awareness, inspire stewardship, and encourage action.