In the last year alone, their most recent film, A Mother Apart, took home three awards at the Inside Out Film Festival and won the DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film. This spring, they’re diving into the world of scripted content with a new first-look deal with Blue Circle Productions and a slate ready for Series Mania in France later this month.
In this interview with Wider Lens, Alison and Ngardy reflect on the paths that brought them together, what they look for in a project, how mentorship has become a core part of their work, and why documentary continues to shape their thinking about storytelling across genres.
“There’s been a growth in demand for content beyond Black History Month, and that’s allowed more space. There are so many ways to explore culture and contribution without it always being History with a capital H.”
– Director/Producer Ngardy Conte George
How did each of you find your way into the industry, and how did your partnership first take shape?
Director/Producer Alison Duke: I started in the industry later – I originally had a career as a kinesiologist. I thought I was going to work in sports therapy and biomechanics, but I was always writing and always had a passion for story. A friend got me involved in producing music videos, so that was my entry point. I eventually made my first documentary, a music doc with the National Film Board of Canada, which really launched my career as an independent Producer and Director. I worked in television for a few years as a Segment Producer, then had the independent film bug for many years.
Director/Producer Ngardy Conteh George: When I was coming out of film school, I first heard about Alison doing music videos, because that’s always a great entry point into the industry. I had gone to school outside Canada on a track-and-field scholarship, and when I came back to Toronto, I didn’t know anyone in the industry or how to get in. At that time, I wanted to work as an Editor because I knew directing and producing weren’t necessarily things I’d get to do right away. My first real production job was as a Production Manager, and I had the opportunity to direct some episodes of Literature Alive, a documentary series exploring Caribbean Canadian authors. I always knew I wanted to work in documentary, and that’s what I gravitated toward.
I later worked as an Editor at Bravo and in the CHUM building for years, while still doing my own projects on the side. That’s how my production company grew. Eventually, I made my first feature documentary, The Flying Stars. While we were making it, we asked various producers for feedback on cuts, and Alison always gave the strongest feedback. That was really helpful. Then we worked together more directly, and by the time my documentary, Mr. Jane and Finch, came around, we joined forces. The rest is history.
What is it about your working styles, backgrounds, and shared values that makes your partnership work so well?
Ngardy Conteh George: Because I come from an editing background, I’m more on the tech side. That’s my comfort zone. Alison comes from more of a writing background, and that’s her zone, where we don’t overlap as much. In directing and producing, though, we do overlap. I think we’ve always had a shorthand.
Alison Duke: It was always so easy. Maybe it comes from working in television, where everything was so fast. You had to produce quickly. We both came out of that environment.
Ngardy Conteh George: We’re also both former athletes. Alison was a basketball player, and I was a track athlete. I think we come from that team-effort mentality: all hands on deck, keep pushing, one hundred percent effort. Our communication styles and work ethic are very similar, which allows us to work so well together. We both want to tell stories from the African diaspora and our communities, and that sense of purpose has always mattered to us.
Alison Duke: We also both understood the business. Even though they were small, we each had our own production companies early on and were already producing content. We both had a sense of the business of making films: deal memos, accounting, reporting, all of that. We were developing those skills almost at the same time, which made it easy to come together as a company.
“All of our projects have a little twist, even in the documentary landscape. We’re drawn to stories that speak to the power imbalances in our world.”
Director/Producer Alison Duke
When a project comes across your desk, what are you responding to first? And how do story, audience, and cultural specificity all come together in that process?
Ngardy Conteh George: It has to be a good story, with exciting characters. We definitely have different tastes – Alison loves her gory thrillers, and I have a soft spot for rom-coms and romance, but at the end of the day, a strong story is what gets us excited. Although we love telling stories about our communities and our histories, we’re television and film enthusiasts first.
Alison Duke: They have to be entertaining to watch, with great characters and twists and turns. All of our projects have a little twist, even in the documentary landscape. We’re drawn to stories that speak to the power imbalances in our world; that’s always interesting to us. There’s also the question of how to position our stories and tell them in a way that embraces and respects the culture, while still connecting with a wider audience.
As Black women filmmakers, have you had to push back against assumptions about the kinds of stories you were expected to tell?
Alison Duke: There was a lot more pushback ten or twenty years ago. It used to be really hard. We’d be pitching, and they’d say, “That’s great, but we want you to direct our story.” They didn’t want to listen to our story.
Now, when people look at the work, they can say, “That’s a great film. It’s well made.” So part of it has been erasing those assumptions through good, compelling storytelling and craft. If our film is about a Black woman doing something, it could just as easily be about a different woman doing the same thing. We’re simply adding her culture, race, and background.
Ngardy Conteh George: I also think there’s been a growth in demand for content beyond Black History Month, and that’s allowed more space. There are so many ways to explore culture, contribution, and history without it always being History with a capital H.
There are only so many Black trauma stories you can tell. That spectrum is much wider than that. Stories are not just about trauma or identity. We’ve had to push back against the idea that our stories should only be those kinds of explorations.
Mentorship has become a major part of your work, both on your productions and through the Black Arts Coalition. How did your mentorship initiatives grow into a more formally structured program?
Alison Duke: Ngardy and I were both already doing that independently in our own production companies. We’d always bring on younger people, whether as Production Assistants, talent, or crew. We were also intentionally looking for people of colour and women to work with us behind the camera. When you’re telling stories about certain communities, there’s something stronger when the craft behind the story is also diverse. There’s something in the sauce.
When we came together, we both said that if we were going to do this, we wanted some kind of program or opportunity for young people from our community. It happened naturally, and it’s been part of what we do from the beginning.
Ngardy Conteh George: It started out as one program, and while we were in production on Mr. Jane and Finch, we brought young people onto that project. It wasn’t an add-on. It was really a continuation and a more formal version of what we had already been doing.
We ran that for three years and saw such a need and demand for it. Then 2020 happened, and the industry was asking for it too. So we went from one program to multiple programs and housed that work under the nonprofit Black Arts Coalition. It really grew from something we had always done into a separate organization.
How did the first-look deal with Circle Blue Productions come together, and what does the next phase look like for you?
Alison Duke: As we started moving further into scripted, we knew we needed the right support and wanted to be in a position where there were no questions about whether we could deliver in that space. I’d worked with Amos Adetuyi (Circle Blue Founder and CEO) before as an independent director on Skin Deep, and we’d also worked with Alfons Adetuyi (Executive Producer of Blue Circle partner Inner City Films) on the pilot for Black Community Mixtapes, so there was already a connection there. What began as conversations around one project turned into a bigger idea: instead of building a producing relationship around a single title, why not look at a slate? They responded to that slate in a big way, and it felt like a strong fit and mutually beneficial. We bring a deep documentary background, and they bring real strength on the scripted side with productions like Diggstown. We already have projects in the works that suit that collaboration well, including a series and a grounded sci-fi project.
For filmmakers coming up now, especially those considering the documentary world or building a production company, what advice would you pass on?
Alison Duke: Work with people to see how they do it. It’s the best way to get an eye into the industry and learn. Don’t take those moments for granted, because you may be watching something and not yet fully understand what’s really going on – but you will one day.
Spend the time. Give your best. Give your all. People will remember you and want to hire you again because they can see you really tried and took the job seriously. Then you take all those learnings and build from there.
Ngardy Conteh George: Especially in documentary, listen to that inner voice and trust your gut. Documentary unfolds in real time, and you have to make split-second decisions. Learning how to follow your instincts is so important.
And respect the documentary craft. It is such an art form. It’s not just an interview with someone and a few photos on top. It’s storytelling. It is writing. It’s not for the faint-hearted.
Alison Duke: You learn a lot about people, about the world, and about life through documentary. That’s also why we’re excited to move further into drama: we’re taking those stories and lived experiences and telling them in a different way. When you’re making documentaries, you’re being given valuable information about people’s lives. It’s a gift, and it’s important to respect that.
