Isak Vaillancourt

Isak Vaillancourt is an award-winning director and multidisciplinary artist of Somali-French ancestry, whose practice includes photography, filmmaking, and arts-based programming. As a creative, he relies on dynamic and vibrant imagery to explore the entanglement of identity and aesthetics from a lens of Black healing and decolonization. Through the unapologetic use of creativity* he recognizes that we can construct our own liberation through cultural creation. Isak’s documentary films have been featured in regional, national and international festivals. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours, Cum laude) in Communication Studies from Laurentian University. Recently, he completed his Masters of Arts in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University where he explored race relations, advanced production, immersive technology, and visual culture within a social-justice framework. He is the proud recipient of an Ontario Arts Council New Works grant, OUTtv Award in Master of Arts in Media Production, Aditya Jha Graduate Award in Media Production, Black Graduate Student Scholarship & Ryerson Graduate Fellowship. Isak is also a Co-Founder and Director of Black Lives Matter - Sudbury, a non-profit organization committed to dismantling systemic racism and supporting cultural creation in Northern Ontario.