Kristen Lambie: Screenwriter – Creative Producer and next talent to watch in the Canadian Film Industry

BY SELINE MCCALLUM

Kristen Lambie was born on the beautiful island of Jamaica and moved to Canada when she was nine years old. Her involvement in the arts started at a young age, and since then, storytelling has become her number one passion and motivation in life.

She went on to receive her Master of Arts in Media Production and an Honours BA in Communication and Film Studies.

Lambie has been accepted into a few programs to advance her career in filmmaking. She was in the OYA Emerging Filmmakers Mentorship, BIPOC TV/Film Kids Writing Bootcamp, BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative and Reelworld E20 Program. Recently she was accepted into Caribbean Tale’s Incubator program where she got funding to create a Proof of Concept for her series called Fever Street.

She has also gained experience in writer’s rooms in Toronto. She was the Junior Story Editor and Writer for the award-winning tween show, The Next Step. She was also the Junior Story Editor and Writer’s Assistant for Pretty Hard Cases. Lambie was also the Script Coordinator on the series Hello (Again).

Lambie is the Founder and Creative Producer of Colrize Productions. She has a drive to tell authentic and relatable stories for women of colour like herself. She is incredibly excited to create stories that symbolize diversity and build on representation. One of her projects, Pretty for A Whack Girl, is a quirky mini web series about the struggle of love and dating in the digital age for a young Black girl.

“I really wanted to highlight a part of myself. I’m a Black woman, and I want to see myself on screen.” said Lambie. “So, I know my mandate was to tell stories that really centered on young Black women and that’s most of the projects I’ve made so far. Moving forward, I definitely want to focus on having Black people, especially at the centre of my stories, and I love to tell stories that feature people who are going along the journey of growth and self-discovery. I think self-discovery is a common theme in the projects I’ve created so far, and that’s something I want to continue on with when telling the type of stories, I’m telling through Colrize.”

In Lambie’s new project, Fever Street, one of the themes is gentrification. A new property manager in a predominantly Black neighbourhood wants to buy out the businesses to make room for his developments. Lambie relates this to her trying to find her sense of belonging coming from a small island to a big country.

“I spent part of my life in Canada, and part of my life back in Jamaica. It’s the reason why most of my stories involve self-discovery and belonging. It was definitely a culture shock for me to come here and to see this new space, which is why I decided to talk about a small Caribbean community in my series, Fever Street, because I come from a small Caribbean Island. When I came to Canada, I didn’t fully feel like I fit into this bigger space.”

As a storyteller, she often draws from the duality of her own identity; and the questions she often has about her culture. Lambie says in order for more Black actors and actresses to land roles, they need to have more stories with characters that they belong and fit into.

“There aren’t many shows here in Canada that feature a young Black girl, just living your life and being herself. So, number one, we just need more storytellers and more BIPOC storytellers to write those stories, and then we will be able to give young Black actors an opportunity. There are so many talented BIPOC actors out there that just don’t have the opportunity to lead a story.”

The screenwriter thanks her mom for always being supportive and pushing her forward when she feels like giving up.

“My mom was my number one supporter. She supports me in this very difficult industry. This industry is not easy. This career path is not easy, and some Caribbean parents may not always think that this is a realistic career path. Thankfully my mom has been very supportive. She keeps encouraging me even during the difficult times where I feel like ‘Oh, what am I even doing in this career? Why did I choose this life?’ She keeps pushing me and encouraging me.”

Lambie’s ultimate goal is to be inspired and to inspire others through the art of storytelling too.

“My goal is to make Colrize Productions an empire. I want to make it a type of production company where we have our company and then we have sub companies underneath it. I also have my initiative, Colr Your Life, and right now it’s a grassroots non-profit that is here to push Black creatives into the professional industries by giving us the exposure to create the content.”

She also looks up to very famous and award-winning writer, Issa Rae.

“Issa Rae is that girl. She started off doing her web series, and then was able to do a TV show that blew up and that’s where she made a big name for herself. Now she has a business that has multiple streams where she’s able to have her division for digital content. She’s able to have her division for film and TV and she has her division for music. She’s the definition of self-made. She has been able to create a whole empire, and also give other people opportunities to create content that we’ve never really seen before in the mainstream.”

You can learn more about Kristen Lambie and watch some of her awesome projects on her website: www.kristenlambie.com/