Cleo Reece is a Cree Métis Red Power movement activist,

environmental activist The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advo ...

, and filmmaker. She is currently a band councilor for Fort McMurray #468 First Nation. Cleo is the mother of

Skeena Reece Skeena Reece (born 1974) is a Canadians, Canadian First Nations in Canada, First Nations artist whose multi-disciplinary practice includes such genres as performance art, "sacred clowning," songwriting, and video art. Reece is of Cree, Tsimshian, ...

, and has taken part in some of Skeena's work. This includes the performance piece ''I Still Know,'' which was performed as a part of Skeena's solo exhibition at the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in an award-winning building designed by architect Peter Cardew and o ...

in 2019.

Activism & film-making

Much of Reece's environmental activism highlights the intersections of resource extraction and its ongoing negative effects on the environment, and its effects on

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

' lives, bodies, and territories. Drawing from a background in film making, she often uses film alongside activism on site. She produced the 1998 film ''Red Power Women,'' which focuses on a lively community of urban Indigenous women in North Vancouver, and reflects on the political coalition they formed in the 1970s as a form of self-empowerment. She was also involved in the production of ''No Turning Back,'' a 1997 documentary film which followed Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples across Canada. In 2010 she co-organized the Keepers of the Athabasca's first 13-kilometer Healing Walk, which was undertaken to draw attention to the negative environmental consequences of development in the Fort McMurray area, including resource extraction in the tar sands.

Indigenous Media Arts Group

Reece was a co-founder of the Indigenous Media Arts Group (IMAG), and the director from foundation until 2005. IMAG was a coalition of Indigenous media artists organized to improve access to media equipment and increase Indigenous representation in artist run centers in the

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

area, and ran from 1998 to 2007. IMAG grew out of the First Nations Arts Performance group (FNAP), which was organized by Margo Kane and operated out of Video In from 1992 until 1995. In addition to providing access to equipment and mentoring for and by Indigenous media makers, including mentorship by Indigenous filmmakers such as

Dana Claxton Dana Claxton (born 1959) is a Hunkpapa Lakota filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist. Her work looks at stereotypes, historical context, and gender studies of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, specifically those of the First Nation ...

and

Loretta Todd Loretta Sarah Todd is a Canadian Indigenous film director. Her first dramatic feature, ''Monkey Beach,'' is based on the iconic novel by Eden Robinson, recently launched to a strong audience and critical response, screening at TIFF Industry Select ...

, IMAG held the annual IMAGeNation Aboriginal Film and Video Festival. Reece stepped down as director of IMAG in 2005, and IMAG closed in 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reece, Cleo Métis filmmakers Canadian activists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Living people Canadian women film directors Canadian women film producers Film directors from Alberta Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian women documentary filmmakers