Everything Patricia Chica directs wins multiple awards, gets selected at numerous film festivals and generates rave reviews. This daring, vivid and non-conforming Canadian director, writer, producer, editor and Chi Energy acting coach has created over 60 hours of content and garnered numerous awards in her 20-year career.

Producers and clients from all across North-America have trusted Patricia Chica's ability to deliver outstanding performances from her actors, combined with compelling visuals that present a unique sensibility in storytelling. Her unique creative process is based on the use of Energy to bridge the gap between storytelling and performance in cinema.

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Dread Central wrote "Patricia Chica is known for making bold, edgy, and visually striking independent films" and put her on the list of the Rising Female Filmmakers. Variety wrote that she is "a prolific director of shorts and TV projects."

A graduate from the Film Production department at Concordia University (with distinction), she specializes in high-quality character-driven content that depicts strong emotions, thought-provoking stories and a profound message.  Patricia Chica is an alumna of the TIFF Filmmaker Lab, Netflix-Banff Diversity of Voices program, CMPA Pre-Sales Pitches in L.A. program, Málaga MAFIZ Lab, SODEC_LAB in Cannes, as well as a recipient of the Temerty Family Fellowship - Share Her Journey Program. 

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Besides her personal independent film work, Chica has also directed and/or worked as a producer on world-class primetime broadcast content for networks such as National Geographic, Showcase, Bravo!, MTV, Oxygen, ARTV, CBC, CBS, UniMás, and El Rey Network just to name a few. She is perfectly fluent in English, Spanish and French and has built a loyal social media fan base and connections in those three markets.

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Patricia Chica was born in war-torn El Salvador, grew up in Montreal, did her internship in Paris and has had professional residencies in New York, Orlando, Toronto and London. She has received support from the Canadian Arts Council, National Film Board of Canada, SODEC, CALQ, CMF, The Harold Greenberg Fund, and Telefilm Canada funding organizations. She is presently in production of her feature film Montréal Girls, the first feature film ever made with the use of the Chi Energy method.  Since 2014, Chica divides her time between Montreal and Los Angeles. She is represented by MoJo Management in Hollywood.

Patricia Chica is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, Canadian Media Producers Association, Canadian Cinema Editors, Women in Film, Film Fatales and the Canadian Academy for Film and Television.

Kamal John Iskander is an award-winning writer and director whose work has been lauded and reviewed in indieWIRE, Fangoria, FilmThreat, Starburst Magazine, and Rue Morgue. As a director, his film JESUS COMES TO TOWN was an Official Selection in 30 international film festivals winning 7 awards. Film Threat called it, "Black and white neo-noir glory... a delight to behold!"

 

His screenplay awards and accolades include Semi-finalist and Quarter-finalist in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, “Best International Screenplay” Winner (Oaxaca FilmFest Global Script Challenge), and Semi-finalist (Scriptapalooza, Screencraft, BlueCat), and Second Rounder in the Austin Film Festival's screenwriting competition.

 

Iskander’s short horror comedy A TRICKY TREAT, written for Canadian director Patricia Chica, premiered at Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, it was called “deliciously vile” by Fangoria, “A fantastic story,” by UK Horror Scene, and “A dainty little treat,” by Horror Movies Uncut. It has screened at Screamfest, Dragon*Con, Lund Fantastik Fest in Sweden, and Morbido in Mexico and is currently featured on Eli Roth’s CRYPT TV where it’s been viewed by nearly a half-million horror fans.  

 

Iskander lives in Los Angeles and has written over ten screenplays. His award-winning script collaboration, MONTRÉAL GIRLS was incubated in the TIFF Filmmaker Lab, has been financed by TELEFILM and SODEC, and won Best Feature at the Los Angeles International Film Festival.

After years of working in the administration of several feature films, Bahija jumped into film production by creating the company Objectif 9 and producing two short films. The first was Outsiders by Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaidi (A Thousand Months, Death for Sale...) which represented Morocco in the Short Plays collection of short films presented during the football World Cup in 2014.

 

In 2019, she produced Les Vieux Chums by director Claude Gagnon. A "craft" production funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec and Sodec. Les Vieux Chums stars Patrick Labbé and Paul Doucet, is set to be released in the fall of 2020 and is distributed by Maison 4:3.

 

In the winter of 2020, Bahija and Objectif 9 will also produce the first short film by director Ève Saint-Louis, La Traversée. The film, funded by Sodec (Young Creators Programme) and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, will also be released in the fall of 2020 and is distributed by Filmoption International.

Montréal Girls by director Patricia Chica is the latest feature film to be produced by Objectif 9, shot in August 2020 and financed by Sodec and Telefilm Canada. It will be distributed by Filmoption International.

 

Bahija received the Prix d'excellence from the CMQ Gala (Congrès Maghrébin du Québec) in 2013 for her film Québécois de Souk.

Samuel Gagnon started in the industry as a film distributor for Aska Films, located in Canada, where he distributed films such as Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai), L'Anguille (Shohei Imamura, Palme d'Or) and La Vie de Jésus (Bruno Dumont) to name a few.

 

During his time at Aska Films, he also produced his first feature film. In 2000, he created his own production company Zuno Films and produced five feature films, as well as a few shorts and an animated web series, while working with directors such as Claude Gagnon, Denis Côté, Karim Hussein and Takako Miyahira. 

 

The film Kamataki by director Claude Gagnon received a special mention from the Jury at the Berlin International Film Festival, Kinderfest 14+, after winning a record five awards at the Montreal World Film Festival.

 

In 2019, he produced the film Les Vieux Chums, by Claude Gagnon, with Bahija Essoussi. The film will be released in Québec during the fall of 2020.

 

Samuel has been a member of the ACE (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen) since 2012.

Before he became a cinematographer, Alexandre did 6 years of film school at UQAQ, Concordia and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and worked for 3 years as a lighting technician on big American productions.

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Since 2003, Alexandre has been working full-time as a cinematographer and his credits include 9 feature films, hundreds of commercials, music videos and short films and a few tv series.

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Determined and driven by passion, Alexandre has owned three 35mm film cameras.  Like a mad scientist, he had them modified and upgraded in order to experiment with the medium.  A long-time film lover, he quickly mastered the new digital technologies.

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For the cinematography of Montréal Girls, Alexandre used color palettes based on the characters' energies and the chakra colors' vibrations to convey precise emotions through the lighting and color correction.

Hailed as an ‘incredible artist’ by the legendary Hans Zimmer upon hearing her orchestral music, Suad Bushnaq is an internationally acclaimed, multi-award-winning film and concert music composer whose versatile style spans a number of genres, and whose music, described as ‘reflective and touching’ by the BBC, has moved listeners to their core. With more than 40 film credits to date, she scored award­-winning features & shorts that screened at festivals like Locarno, Hot Docs, Edinburgh, Dubai, and Clérmont -Ferrand to name a few. 

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For the score of Montréal Girls, Suad received instructions by director Patricia Chica to use the frequencies and vibrations of specific chakras to convey specific emotions through music.

 

In 2021, Suad was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award in the Best Score category. 

Born in the South of France, David Deïas is a composer and multi-instrumentalist musician from the independent Montreal scene. He is the founder of Waveyard, a New-Surf project and also plays in several local groups like The Breastfeeders, The Men in Gray Suits, Kandle & the Krooks (2013-2018) and Yardlets. David Deïas' music is often used in commercials and independent films, including the Quebec feature film Montreal Girls by filmmaker Patricia Chica, for which he composed and directed the punk songs and in which he appears in the role of the drummer he himself inspired.

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For the creation of the punk songs of Montréal Girls, David collaborated closely with writer Kamal John Iskander (who co-wrote the script and also the lyrics of the songs) and director Patricia Chica who also is the editor of the film. They came up with a system to make sure the songs had that live punk band feel while at the same time being strategically placed within the timeline of the script so the songs' live performance  could be intercut flawlessly with live-action dialogue scenes.