Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
writer and filmmaker from
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
Attawapiskat First Nation
The Attawapiskat First Nation ( Cree: , "People of the parting of the rocks"; unpointed: ) is an isolated First Nations in Canada, First Nation located in Kenora District in northern Ontario, Canada, at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River on J ...
, she was born in
Moose Factory
Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River (Ontario), Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English language ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, and grew up in
Moosonee
Moosonee () is a town in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, on the Moose River approximately south of James Bay. It is considered to be "the Gateway to the Arctic" and has Ontario's only saltwater port. Nearby, on Moose Factory Island, is the com ...
CBC News
CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...
Indigenous, October 26, 2022. She directed a number of short films, both narrative dramas and documentaries, before making ''Broken Angel'' as her feature debut.
Career
''Broken Angel'' won the award for Best Film at the 2022
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 ...
Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award The Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award is an annual Canadian award, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada
The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC; ) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupat ...
.
Her documentary film '' WaaPaKe'' premiered at the
2023 Vancouver International Film Festival
The 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 42nd event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 28 to October 8, 2023.
Awards
Winners of the juried Canadian film awards were announced on Octob ...
, and has been shortlisted for the 2023
DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film The DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film is an annual Canadian award, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada to honour the year's best direction in documentary films in Canada. The award was renamed in 2010 to honour influential Canadi ...
. In 2023, she also released the documentary ''Chubby Cree: PiMahCiHoWin (The Journey)'' about the Cree hand drum group Chubby Cree.
''
Angela's Shadow
''Angela's Shadow'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Jules Arita Koostachin and released in 2024. Set in the 1930s, the film stars Sera-Lys McArthur as Angela, a pregnant woman who travels with her husband Henry (Matthew Kevin Anderson) to ...
'', her second narrative feature film, premiered at the
2024 Vancouver International Film Festival
The 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 43rd event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 26 to October 6, 2024. The first five films in the program were announced on August 8, 2024, with ...
, where it won the Audience Award for the Panorama program.
She has also previously been announced as working on a screenplay adaptation of
Richard Wagamese
Richard Wagamese (October 14, 1955 – March 10, 2017) was an Ojibwe Canadian author and journalist from the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in Northwestern Ontario. He was best known for his novel '' Indian Horse'' (2012), which won the Burt Aw ...
's novel ''Ragged Company''.
As a writer she published the poetry collection ''Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths'' in 2018, and received a nomination in the English poetry category at the 2019
Indigenous Voices Awards
The Indigenous Voices Awards are a Canadian literary award program, created in 2017 to honour Indigenous literatures in Canada.Bones of Crows'' and as the voice of Layla Mabray in the television series ''
Molly of Denali
''Molly of Denali'' (stylized in all caps) is an animated children's television series produced by WGBH-TV, WGBH Kids and animated by Atomic Cartoons, created by Dorothea Gillim and Kathy Waugh for PBS Kids and CBC Kids.
APTN News
''APTN National News'' is a Canadian television national news program broadcast by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
The program produces a single half hour of news each day, broadcasts at 6 and 11:30&nbs ...
'', January 31, 2023.
Personal life
Her son, Asivak Koostachin, is an actor. Her twin sons, Pawaken and Tapwewin Koostachin-Chakasim, have had acting roles, notably in their mother's short film ''MisTik''.
She and her family are currently based in
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 cit ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, where she studied at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
Vancouver Sun
The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...