Joan Montreuil, Founder of Brilliant Women in Film & Author of A Filmmaker's Diary

Joan Montreuil is a proud mother of six. Her family consists of two beloved daughters, three sons, and her adopted son LaMarcus Tinker. She has been married 37 years to her husband Byron.

She has always sought to be a servant leader. Joan is an ordained minister and puts her money where her mouth is. In 1993 Joan founded and formed a group Sister II Sister along with her sister Wanda Bryant. This sisterhood association consisted of writers, singers, and actors who would travel throughout New Orleans’ impoverished neighborhoods performing stage plays and spreading the message of faith and love. However tragically one year later the organization was dismantled due to a lack of support and countless internal misunderstandings. Yet, the vision and the effort to aid the hopeless and helpless would not die. Joan relaunched the vision of the sisterhood focusing on the arts. In 2017 Brilliant Women in Film (BWIF) was born.

Joan is not only the founder, CEO, and director of the award-winning BWIF, but also her grandparent production company, Wisdom Production, L.L.C. She is an award-winning author and filmmaker. She has over 26 years in the arts, entertainment, and media industry. She has written, directed, and produced countless stage plays that led her into filmmaking. After years of learning the craft of filmmaking and the business side of film, she crafted countless workshops involving the art of writing, theater, and filmmaking. Joan has hosted countless seminars and major events that cater to the arts and entertainment industry, including an annual film festival.

Joan is a seasoned creative and author of three self-help books, The Unexpected, Delivered From Destruction, and Beyond The Vows. Her portfolio also includes: two SAG feature films Walk By Faith, and Closer To Home, one non-union film, Beyond The Vows, one short film, Consequences, three BWIF films, Bullied, Homecoming, and Karma, and one SAG Web Series, Bayou City. She has been a guest on countless talk shows, in featured articles, and contracted celebrity appearances. Joan is known as a literary guru! She writes, directs, produces, and edits her own films by choice! Her future includes a film school, Cinema, Media, & Things Academy.

Joan is also the founder of The BWIF Writers Room which has been in operation for over four years. She has assisted countless aspiring writers in starting their careers including Houston-based writers, Nikol Johnson and Knycole Amerson.

Joan’s heart has always been to serve the community. She offers help where she can when she can, and she never looks for anything in return except that you pay it forward to the next person. Throughout her journey, she has met some incredible women who share similar visions for women in film. These women have come together under her leadership and formed an all-female writer’s team and production crew. BWIF is in high demand and they are up to the challenge as trailblazers in the film industry.