Helen Haig-Brown is a Tsilhqot'in filmmaker working primarily with indigenous and

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

themes. Many of these derive from her maternal roots in the Tsilhqot'in First Nation.

Early life and education

Helen Haig-Brown is from the Yunesit'in community of the Tsilhqot'in Nation in British Columbia, Canada. She is the granddaughter of naturalist

Roderick Haig-Brown Roderick Langmere Haig-Brown (February 21, 1908 – October 9, 1976) was a Canadian writer and conservationist. Early life Haig-Brown was born in Lancing, Sussex, England. His father, Alan Haig-Brown, was a teacher and a prolific writer ...

and daughter of Alan Haig-Brown. She graduated from the Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking (IIDF) program at

Capilano University Capilano University (CapU) is a teaching-focused public university based in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, located on the slopes of the North Shore Mountains, with programming that also serves the Sea-to-Sky Corridor and the Sunshin ...

Career in film

Haig-Brown's short drama '' The Cave (?E?Anx)'' received funding from the

National Film Board The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

and BC Native Arts Council. It was selected for screening at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and at Berlinale 2010. In 2009 ''?E?Anx'' was named one of

Canada's Top Ten Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival and announced in December each year to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films."Canada's Top Ten awards will honour excellence in Canadian cinema" ...

Short Films by the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

. Haig-Brown has directed a number of independent documentary films as well as serving as director of photography on others. She contributed to the Knowledge Networks series ''Our First Voices'', with three scripted and directed works in addition to serving as director of photography on the work of colleagues. A recent collaboration with her aunt Dr. Celia Haig-Brown of

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

resulted in Pelq'ilc, an account of the Secwepemc Nation’s language revitalization programs. Earlier works included ''Su Naa (My Big Brother)'' (2005) which she wrote and directed. She completed a feature film, ''My Legacy'', examining the universal and personal theme of mother-daughter relations. The film was screened at the Victoria Film Festival, and was shown on the APTN Network in 2014. The film is supported by an interactive web page. The film '' Edge of the Knife'', co-directed by Haig-Brown and

Gwaai Edenshaw Gwaai Edenshaw is a Haida artist and filmmaker from Canada. Along with Helen Haig-Brown, he co-directed ''Edge of the Knife'' (), the first Haida language feature film. Background The son of noted Haida artist Guujaaw (Gary Edenshaw), he was r ...

, premiered at the

2018 Toronto International Film Festival The 43rd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 6 to 16, 2018. In June 2018, the TIFF organizers announced a program to ensure that at least 20 percent of all film critics and journalists given press accreditation to ...

. The film was named to the Canada's Top Ten list for 2018,"TIFF's Canada's Top Ten list skews a lot younger this year"
''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Now ...

'', December 5, 2018. and the duo won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director of a Canadian Film."Vancouver Film Critics Circle names Edge of the Knife top Canadian feature film"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'', January 8, 2019.

Notes

References

Reel Insights , Helen Haig-Brown’s Legacy

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haig-Brown, Helen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people First Nations filmmakers Film directors from British Columbia Canadian women film directors Tsilhqot'in people First Nations women