Sonia Boileau is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

filmmaker belonging to the

Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...

Nation of the

Haudenosaunee Confederacy The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Biography

Sonia Bonspille-Boileau was raised between Oka, where her French-Canadian father hails from, and

Kanesatake Kanesatake (''Kanehsatà:ke'' in Mohawk) is a Mohawk (''Kanien'kéha:ka'' in Mohawk) settlement on the shore of the Lake of Two Mountains in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Ottawa and Saint Lawrence rivers and about west of ...

, the community of her Mohawk mother. Her 2010 film, ''Last Call Indian'', focuses on her personal connections to her Kanesatake, government intervention into Indigenous life, and her family's ties to the Shingwauk Indian Residential School. Boileau is bilingual, and has created, directed, and produced works in both English and French.

Education

Bonspille-Boileau has received an extensive and well-rounded education in multiple facets of creative performance and film production. She honed her craft and acquired her first degree in dramatic arts from College Lionel Groulx. Shortly thereafter, she attended the Université de Montreal securing a minor in film studies. From here, she continued to round out her knowledge of film production at the New York Film Academy at La Femis, scenography studies at Université de Quebec a Montreal and a bachelor's degree in film production at

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

Career

Boileau's debut feature, '' Le Dep'', was shot for under $250,000 from a grant provided by

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in V ...

. The movie premiered at the 2015

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival ( cs, Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary) is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become ...

. Boileau also took part in the 2016 Native Slam, working with Mike Jonathan, a Rotorua filmmaker, and Jeremiah Tauamiti. In 2017 she wrote and directed a short film called ''We'll Always Have Toynbee'' with Cheri Maracle and David Julian Hirsh which won Best Live Short at the 2018 American Indian Film Festival. Her sophomore feature film ''

Rustic Oracle ''Rustic Oracle'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Sonia Boileau and released in 2019. An exploration of the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, the film stars Lake Kahentawaks Delisle and Carmen Moore as Ivy and Susan, the young ...

'', starring Carmen Moore, Lake Delisle and Kevin Parent. premiered at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival. Carmen Moore won Best Supporting Actress and Lake Delisle won Best Lead Actress at the 2019 American Indian Film Festival.

Accolades

In 2017, Boileau won the Women in the Director's Chair (WIDC) Feature Film Award. The funding from this award will support Boileau's work on her film ''Rustic Oracle.'' Boileau's Rustic Oracle project has also been invested in by Telefilm Canada. Boileau was awarded an Honourable Mention in the BC Spotlight and Canadian Images Awards for her feature film ''Le Dep'' for "telling the story of a whole community within one small, detailed space." Le Dep premiered at VIFF 2015, and was also screened at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015, imagineNative 2015, Montreal's First Peoples Film Festival 2015, the 2015

Raindance Film Festival Raindance is an independent film festival and film school that operates in major cities including London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Budapest, Berlin, and Brussels. The festival was established in 1992 by Elliot Grove to ...

, and received awards for best actress at the 2015

American Indian Film Festival The American Indian Film Festival is an annual non-profit film festival in San Francisco, California, United States. It is the world's oldest venue dedicated solely to Native American/First Nations films and prepared the way for the 1979 formati ...

and best narrative feature at the

Santa Fe Independent Film Festival The Santa Fe International Film Festival (SFiFF), formerly known as the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, is an American film festival held annually in Santa Fe, New Mexico at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, Violet Crown Cinema, Center for Co ...

in 2016. Boileau's 2010 documentary ''Last Call Indian'' received a nomination for best feature-length documentary at the 2011

Gemini Awards The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States a ...

, was nominated for best point-of-view documentary at the 2011

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

, was nominated for best music in a documentary and won the Diversity Prize both at the Gala des Prix Gémeaux in 2011. ''Mouki'', Boileau's French language children's series, was nominated for the best French children's program at the Rockie Awards, part of the 2011 Banff World Media Festival.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boileau, Sonia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian women film directors Canadian Mohawk people Canadian documentary film directors Concordia University alumni Film directors from Quebec Francophone Canadians Iroquois people 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Canadian film actresses Canadian Screen Award winners First Nations actresses First Nations filmmakers Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Canadian women documentary filmmakers Canadian women screenwriters First Nations screenwriters