Marjorie Beaucage (born 1947) is a Canadian Métis filmmaker and teacher from

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

Early life and education

Beaucage was born in

Vassar, Manitoba Vassar is a community located in southeastern Manitoba. It is located in the Rural Municipality of Piney, approximately north of the Canada–United States border The international border between Canada and the United States is the longest i ...

in 1947. She obtained a degree in education from the University of Brandon and studied film at

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District in downtown Toronto, although i ...

Career

Beaucage was a Catholic nun of the order of Our Lady of Missions in Manitoba. She spent 25 years in adult education and community organizing before turning to film in her 40s. Her documentary films are often collaborative in nature and have reflected the participation of Indigenous peoples in political forums, conferences, local activism, and community events. Her 1997 film ''Ntapueu... i am telling the truth'' followed the environmental impact work of the Innu Nation regarding a mining project in

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

Voisey's Bay Voisey's Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean in Labrador, Canada. The bay is located south of the community of Nain. The bay is heavily indented with numerous inlets and islands and is extremely rocky. It is the site of the Voisey's Bay Mine. ...

. She was invited by the Innu to capture their work following her documentation of the efforts of elders in northern Saskatchewan during a 1992 Wiggins Bay blockage in opposition to the province's

clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with Shelterwood cutting, shelterwood and Seed tree, seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters t ...

policies In 2017 Beaucage released ''Coming In Stories: Two Spirit in Saskatchewan'' in an attempt to raise awareness about the experiences of

two-spirit ''Two-spirit'' (also known as ''two spirit'' or occasionally ''twospirited'', or abbreviated as ''2S'' or ''2E'', especially in Canada) is a umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people who fulfill a trad ...

individuals in Saskatchewan. The coordinator of OUTSaskatoon and a two-spirit person herself, Beaucage explained in an interview with the ''Saskatoon StarPhoenix'' that she made the film because of the number of people who don't understand the role and experiences of two spirit individuals: "there are really young people that have lived experiences and need support, so the film was created to be intimate face-to-face storytelling that opens people's hearts and helps them to understand in a way they didn't before." Beaucage is the co-founder of the Aboriginal Film and Video Art Alliance.

Films

*''Bingo'' (1991) *''Good Grief'' (1993) *''China... Through One Woman's Eyes'' (1996) *''Ntapueu... i am telling the truth'' (1997) *''Proz Anthology'' (2000) *''Coming In Stories: Two Spirit in Saskatchewan'' (2017)

Awards

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaucage, Marjorie Métis filmmakers Two-spirit people 1947 births Living people Canadian documentary film directors Canadian LGBTQ film directors LGBTQ First Nations people Canadian women film directors Canadian women documentary filmmakers 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners