We Will Be Brave

Writer, Producer, and Director: Chrisann Hessing

Project Website 

Date of Release: September 26, 2023

We Will Be Brave is an award-winning documentary film which follows the journey of Toronto’s “Good Guise” collective, a group of men who are committed to sparking conversations around healthy masculinity through art. From photography and beat-boxing to poetry and martial arts, the artists in the collective share their unique lived experiences and welcome others to join in their mission of finding radical alternatives to shame and punishment. As each of them grapple with upheavals in their personal lives, their resolve is further tested by a dire lack of resources and the burden of racialized discrimination. We Will be Brave is a Canadian story about personal evolution, healing and an unlikely brotherhood forged in vulnerability.

The film is a recipient of the highly competitive Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch Program Fund, and was produced entirely by a professional team of Toronto-based filmmakers. It features a story which is ingrained in Toronto’s history, culture, and heritage, and showcases untold stories from marginalized communities based in Eglinton West, the Village, and other pockets of Toronto. It had a sold-out Toronto Premiere at the Reel Asian International Canadian Film Festival, where it won the Blue Ant Media Audience Choice Feature Film Award. It has gone on to premiere in several film festivals in Canada and the US, and is an official select of the Hot Docs For Viola Series in Toronto, which centers Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led stories and filmmakers, named in honour of Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond.

Additional Project Members: 

Tanya Hoshi – Producer

Ryan J. Noth – Editor

Joshua “Classic Roots” Deperry – Composer