Award-winning filmmaker, writer and activist Michelle Latimer's feature documentary Inconvenient Indian (90th Parallel Productions/National Film Board of Canada) will have its world premiere as part of the Toronto International Film Festival's TIFF Docs and TIFF Next Wave programs (September 10-19, 2020).
About the film
Inconvenient Indian dives deep into the brilliant mind of Thomas King, Indigenous intellectual, master storyteller, and author of the bestselling book The Inconvenient Indian, to take us on a critical journey through the colonial narratives of North America. In this time of momentous change and essential re-examination, Latimer's Inconvenient Indian is a powerful visual poem anchored in the land and amplified by the voices of those who continue the tradition of Indigenous resistance. Artist activists, land protectors, hunters, and those leading cultural revitalization powerfully subvert the "inconvenience" of their existence, creating an essential new narrative and a possible path forward for us all.
Inconvenient Indian is produced by Stuart Henderson (90th Parallel Productions), Justine Pimlott (NFB) and Jesse Wente. The executive producers are Gordon Henderson, for 90th Parallel Productions, and Anita Lee, head of the NFB's Ontario Studio in Toronto.
About the filmmaker
Michelle Latimer is currently showrunning and directing the CBC series Trickster. Her 2017 eight-part Indigenous resistance series RISE premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was named Best Documentary Program at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards. Michelle's short Nuuca premiered at TIFF 2017 and screened at the 2018 Sundance and Berlin film festivals. In 2020, she was named the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs and was awarded the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Award, a prize given to five international filmmakers for their work in social-justice filmmaking. This is her second collaboration with the NFB Ontario Studio, after her 2015 short Nimmikaage (She Dances for People), created as part of the series Souvenir. Michelle's mixed heritage informs her filmmaking perspective, and much of her work is dedicated to the pursuit of Indigenous rights and sovereignty. She is of Algonquin, Métis and French heritage, from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg (Maniwaki), Quebec. She grew up on Treaty 9 territory in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and currently splits her time between there and Toronto, Canada.
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