Tonight's Movie: THE BODY REMEMBERS WHEN THE WORLD BROKE OPEN
Directed By: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn
Watch ON NETFLIX
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a writer, director, producer, and actor. She is a member of the kainai first nation (Blood tribe, Blackfoot Confederacy) as well as Sámi from Norway. Beginning her career as an actor in 2006 and a filmmaker in 2011, Elle-Máijá is a true creative force both in front of and behind the lens. Her short documentary, BIHTTOŠwas included in 2015 TIFF top ten shorts and was commissioned for the Imaginenative Embargo Collective. With THE BODY REMEMBERS WHEN THE WORLD BROKE OPEN, she made her feature co-directorial debut (alongside Kathleen Hepburn), as well as co-starring and co-writing. Taking its title from an essay about indigenous poet Billy-Ray Belcourt, THE BODY, is based on a true-chance encounter between Tailfeathers and another indigenous woman that "packs a powerful emotional punch" (Cinema Axis). Premiering at the Berlinale in 2019, the film received the Toronto Film Critics Association and Vancouver Film Critics Awards for Best Canadian Feature Film. The film was also nominated for siz Canadian Screen Awards, and Tailfeathers and Hepburn received the CSAS for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay.
Kathleen Hepburn first attracted acclaim for her film Never Steady, Never Still, which premiered as a short film in 2015 before being expanded into her feature film debut in 2017. The film received eight Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018. Hepburn won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director of a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2017. She was also nominated for the Directors Guild of Canada's DGC Discovery Award. In 2018, she was one of eight women filmmakers selected for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Apprenticeship for Women Directors program. Her second full-length feature film, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, was co-directed with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival. The film won the Best BC Film Award at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival, the Vancouver Film Critics Circle awards for Best Canadian Film and Best Director of a Canadian Film, and the Toronto Film Critics Association's Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.
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