First Nations filmmaker (born 1977)
Danis Goulet |
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| Born | 1977 (age 46–47)
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| Occupation(s) | Director and screenwriter |
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| Notable work | Night Raiders |
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| Parent | |
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Danis Goulet (born 1977) is a First Nations (Cree-Métis) film director and screenwriter from Canada,[1] whose debut feature film Night Raiders premiered in 2021.[2]
Early life
Goulet is originally from La Ronge, Saskatchewan.[3] Her non-Indigenous mother worked in the education department of First Nations University. Her Nehinuw (Cree) father, Keith, was an MLA,[4] and is a fluent Nehinuwehin (Cree) speaker who grew up living a trapping, hunting, fishing and gathering lifestyle in the Cree community of Cumberland House.[5]
After graduating high school, Goulet backpacked abroad. She returned to Regina in 1998.[4]
Career
Goulet's first experience in the film industry was in 1998. She was assistant to the casting director for a CBC miniseries about the life of Chief Big Bear that was filming in Regina, a job she got when her mother was asked for help finding extras for the film. She worked in the film industry in Saskatchewan and Alberta for the next two years.[4]
Goulet moved to Toronto in the early 2000s to study at the Canadian Film Centre.[4] After being asked to cast a "Pocahontas type" for an American television pilot, convincing her that Indigenous people needed more creative control over their own stories,[1] Goulet began to realize the importance of Indigenous people taking key creative roles in film and changing narratives about Indigenous people. She attended a filmmaking workshop in New York, which led to her creating her first short film.[4] She has since directed a number of films, including Spin (2004),[6] Divided by Zero (2006), Wapawekka (2010),[3] Barefoot (2012),[7] Wakening (2013),[8] and Night Raiders (2021).[9]
In 2013, Goulet co-authored a report for Telefilm Canada about the lack of Indigenous feature film production in the country.[4] She served for a number of years as artistic director of the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival.[10][11] She was also a consulting producer on the 2020 television series Trickster, but resigned from the show after the emergence of allegations that series creator Michelle Latimer had misrepresented her Indigenous identity.[12]
Goulet began writing Night Raiders in 2013 after her science-fiction short Wakening inspired her to experiment more with the genre. She shot the film in 2019 in Ontario.[5] Post-production was completed in New Zealand.[4] Night Raiders had the largest production budget of any Indigenous-led Canadian film. The record was previously held by Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum.[13] Goulet stated that the film was inspired in large part by Indigenous resistance movements.[9]
Night Raiders, directed by Goulet, was produced by New Zealand film director Taika Waititi. It premiered at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival in March 2021,[14] though Goulet was unable to attend the premiere.[15] Night Raiders was one of the first 13 films announced for the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.[16] She was also announced as the 2021 recipient of TIFF's Emerging Talent Award.[17] The film was nominated for 11 awards at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards, tied with Scarborough for the most nominations for one film that year.[18] Goulet was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022, winning Best Original Screenplay.[19] The film was also a nominee for both Best Picture and the John Dunning Best First Feature Award.[20]
In its year-end review of Canadian film and television in 2021, the trade magazine Playback named Goulet the Director of the Year.[21] Goulet directed the fourth episode of the second season of Reservation Dogs.[22]
In the same year Goulet was announced as the director of Ivy, an upcoming Netflix thriller film slated to star Brazilian actress Alice Braga.[23]
Personal life
Goulet is married to Tony Elliott.[4] She has a son and a daughter.[24]
