Village Keeper

Karen Chapman | 2024 | Canada | Fiction | 83 minutes | English

KEYWORDS: Black mental health, trauma, income inequality, racism

Village Keeper follows a family grappling with secrets that upholds domestic abuse and unresolved rage. After life’s precarious scale tips her fortune back into poverty, Jean relocates her children with their grandmother to the community housing project where she grew up. Jean lives in constant fear of everything that could go wrong, going to great lengths to shelter her children, so when a spree of violence comes to her doorstep, she secretly cleans an abandoned crime scene, which unknowingly leads her on a path that exposes generational chains of silence, self-discovery and finally putting herself first.

SCREENING FOLLOWING OUR 2025 Rendezvous with Madness Festival Fundraiser.

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POST-SCREENING PANEL AND Q&A

KAREN CHAPMAN (Writer/Director/Producer) At the service of every story, award-winning filmmaker Karen Chapman strives to center work that is grounded in storytelling and impact. Chapman holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University and is an alumnus of the Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre’s – Director’s Lab, the Banff Centre for the Arts, Women in the Director’s Chair, and the CaribbeanTales Incubator Pitch Winner, HotDocs Accelerator, The TIFF Talent Lab, TIFF Accelerator and Every Story Accelerator. She is also a recipient of the 2023 Micki Moore Fellowship. 

Her Canadian Film Centre’s thesis film, Measure, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019 and won the International Hollywood Foreign Press and Residency Award at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards as well as the CineFilm’s Best Overall Film, and Best Directing in 2020 at the Women in Film and Television – Toronto Showcase. Chapman’s Quiet Minds Silent Streets premiered at the 2022, Toronto International Film Festival and received the award for best Documentary at the Canadian Film Festival along with winning Best Mental Health, Non-Fiction Film at the Yorkton Film Festival and a Silver Medal at the 2024 Anthem Awards.

Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist, Mediator, and Workplace Mental Health & Sexual Violence Consultant

Nada Johnson is a highly respected Registered Social Worker and Psychotherapist (MSW, RSW), Family and Workplace Mediator, EMDR-trained Therapist, Certified Racial Trauma Clinician, and Workplace Mental Health and Sexual Violence Consultant at Nada Johnson Consulting & Counselling Services.

With nearly a decade of experience, Nada has established herself as a leader renowned for her deep expertise and compassionate approach across private practice, corporate, and community sectors. She provides virtual clinical counselling across Canada to women coping with the impacts of childhood trauma, racism and discrimination, and low self-esteem. She also provides group facilitation and organizational consulting locally and globally, helping individuals and institutions address trauma, gender inequality, and inequities, racial equity, and mental well-being with insight and integrity.

A passionate advocate for trauma-informed and culturally responsive care, on an individual and group facilitation level, Nada works collaboratively with clients to uncover their strengths and navigate life’s challenges. Her holistic approach recognizes the interconnectedness of race, culture, faith, identity, and lived experience in shaping mental health and resilience.

Nada earned a Master’s in Social Work from York University, an Honours Bachelor of Arts (with Distinction) in Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Family Mediation Certificate from Herzing College. She has also earned advanced certificates in Diversity & Inclusion from Seneca Polytechnic and Minnesota State University.

She is proud to serve as a panelist for The Village Keepers panel discussion, contributing her professional insight on Black mental health, trauma, income inequality, and resilience—topics that reflect both her expertise and her unwavering commitment to community healing.

Keisha Greene is a Registered Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor based in Toronto, Canada, and is currently an adjunct professor and sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto in the Applied Psychology and Human Development Program in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education department.  Keisha has been a practicing clinician for over 10 years with BIPOC+ populations and has experience working with clients in community mental health, outpatient mental health and private practice.  Keisha’s research interests are in understanding how racialized individuals can be best served in the therapeutic process so that they achieve their desired outcomes.

Victor Stiff is a Toronto-based entertainment journalist and member of the Toronto Film Critics Association. He is the News Editor and Senior Critic at ThatShelf.com and host of UFO Movie Club on YouTube. Victor has contributed to the Canadian Academy, POV Magazine, Global News, The Playlist, Screen Rant, We Got This Covered, In the Seats, and Sordid Cinema. Victor received the TFCA’s 2019 Emerging Critic award and served as a jury member at the 49th Festival du nouveau cinéma. He’s currently a programmer for the Rendezvous With Madness Festival.

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY SCREENING

Friday, October 10, 2025
CAMH Auditorium | 1025 Queen St W, Toronto
Box office: 6 PM | Film 7 PM

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