Danis Goulet

Danis Goulet is a writer and director. Her films have screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, Berlinale, and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and have been developed with support of the Sundance Institute, the National Screen Institute and the TIFF Talent lab. Her film Wakening (2013) screened at TIFF and Sundance and her film Barefoot (2012) was recognized with a special jury mention at the 2013 Berlinale. She is a former programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and a former director of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. She is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her debut feature NIGHT RAIDERS was selected for the Sundance Institute’s inaugural Talent Forum in 2019 and is currently in post production. Danis is Cree/Metis, originally from northern Saskatchewan in Canada. 

Artist's Chosen Interviews:

• This is Worldtown
• Interview for CBC radio in Canada about my film and an upcoming wave of Indigenous film

Artist's Chosen Resources:

imagineNATIVE is the largest Indigenous film festival in the world and it is a major gathering place and event for our community. Returning to imagineNATIVE every year is like coming home (we sometimes called it “Native Christmas”). It’s always inspiring! 

Still Processing Podcast: This is the NY Times culture podcast hosted by Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris. They break down movies and pop culture and contend with the many important cultural questions of our times. I find that the way that they engage with topics on the show really helps me reflect on themes or topics or threads that I’m possibly curious about exploring in my own work. 

National Film Board of Canada: the NFB funds, produces and distributes documentary and animation in Canada. There are tons of short films and docs from over many years that are often free to watch on their website. Many incredible films to dig into or re-watch. 

Colour Palette websites: I really love searching through colour palette websites like digital synopsis, as there is something so satisfying about looking at work from the perspective of colour. 

Paul Seesquasis’s (@PaulSeesequasis) photo archives on Twitter: Paul Seeseequasis curates an Indigenous Archival Photo Project and he posts a lot of archival photos on Twitter, which are so amazing. So much can be contained within one image, and his stream of archives of photos contain so many universes in the images and are a constant inspiration. 

Language learning: I don’t speak my Indigenous language of Cree and last summer I was able to attend my first language immersion camp. It was such a profound experience to be back home learning the language. Language has such rich reserves for us to learn from and engaging in another language is also a way to just simply think differently, which I think lends itself to creativity. My dad is a language speaker so I also often record conversations with him about different concepts and ideas that come from a Cree worldview, which offer unique insights that I can’t tap into in most mainstream contexts. 

Going back home: I think a lot about specificity of place in my work. I’m originally from Saskatchewan, which is in the midwest of Canada and there hasn’t been a lot of films made about it. Spending time there often gives me something to draw on.