Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers (born in 1986) is a Blackfoot and Sámi filmmaker, actor, and producer from the Kainai First Nation in Canada. She has won several accolades for her film work, including multiple Canadian Screen Awards.

Born in Cardston, Alberta, Tailfeathers began acting in the late 2000s before embarking on a career as a filmmaker.

For directing '' The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open'', she shared the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director with Kathleen Hepburn. That film also won the Toronto Film Critics Association's $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

Early life

Tailfeathers was born to Bjarne Store-Jakobsen, a Sámi rights activist and journalist from Norway, and Kainai activist and doctor Esther Tailfeathers, from Canada. Her parents met at a global indigenous peoples' conference in Australia, and married sometime after.

Career

Tailfeathers studied acting at the Vancouver Film School, and graduated in 2006 and then moved on to the University of British Columbia where she would graduate with a degree in First Nations studies and a minor in women and gender studies in 2011.

After acting for a period of time, Tailfeathers shifted her focus to filmmaking and began to work as a writer, director, and producer. During her time at the University of British Columbia she started to use film equipment and editing software.

''Bloodland''

''Bloodland'' (2011) is an experimental short film that offers a commentary on fracking practices in Canada and across the world. It can be found on YouTube, where it was made public in 2013 in solidarity with the Idle No More movement. The short film uses metaphoric imagery of a woman being held down and drilled into as a comment on the current fracking practices in Canada. This project was funded by the Blood Tribe Chief and Council through a distribution cheque, and as a result was indirectly funded by the proceeds of various gas and oil companies, as well as KRI Resources. The film was well received at its premier in Lethbridge, and was the subject of a greater national debate regarding the practice of fracking in Indigenous lands.

The film was selected for the following film festivals:
* Vancouver International Film Festival 2011
* ImagineNATIVE Film Festival 2011
* American Indian Film Festival 2011
* L.A. Skins Festival 2011
* Tulsa International Film Festival 2011
* Yellowknife International Film Festival 2011
* Riddu Riđđu International Indigenous Peoples Festival 2011 (Norway)
* Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival 2011
* Skábmagovat Film Festival 2012 (Finland)
* Vancouver Women in Film Festival 2012

''A Red Girl's Reasoning''

''A Red Girl's Reasoning'' (2012) is a short film that was created in response to the growing numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. This film centres around a survivor of sexual assault and her quest to bring justice to the attackers of her fellow women. While originally a short film, it is currently in the process of expanding into a feature film. This film was the winner of the 2012 Vancouver Crazy8s Competition, where filmmakers were challenged to create a film in under eight days.

''Rebel (Bihttoš)''

''Rebel (Bihttoš)'' is an experimental and unconventional documentary where a young woman (Tailfeathers) explores her complex "relationship with her father through an examination of family photos and the family lore surrounding her parents’ courtship and marriage." ''Bihttoš combines "''animation, re-enactments, and archival photos, nddelves into the dissolution of her parents' mythic love story and how it has coloured her perception of love in her adult life."

''Bihttoš'' first screened at the imagineNATIVE film festival in 2014.

''cəsnaʔəm, the city before the city''

''cəsnaʔəm, the city before the city'' (2017) is a feature film on the history of the land in the area which is now known as Vancouver. Made in partnership with Musqueam First Nation, the film was part of a larger exhibition put on in partnership with the