Toronto (Tkaronto) _ The Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) has selected four Indigenous producers to attend Content London 2022, where they will be able to network and present their projects in development at this premiere international market taking place November 28 to December 1st, 2022.
“ISO is excited to announce its support to four Indigenous producers to develop business relations at the international level. Their participation in Content London is an unique opportunity to network with peers, pitch their projects and attend seminars – and for ISO to connect Indigenous talent to the global market,” said Kerry Swanson, Executive Director of ISO.
The four ISO delegates attending Content are Paula Devonshire (Devonshire Productions Inc), Leena Minifie (Stories First Productions), Tina Keeper (Kistikan Pictures Inc.) and Gail Maurice (Assini Productions).
Prior to Content London, the delegation will receive support from ISO for pre-preparation to optimize their trip to London, UK in connecting with potential international networks, streaming networks, buyers, distributors and broadcasters. ISO delegates will participate in programming and events hosted by the Canadian Media Producers’ Association (CMPA) and the High Commission of Canada in the UK.
In addition, The Canadian Media Fund (CMF) in partnership with ISO, will be hosting a breakfast conversation with Valerie Creighton, CMF’s CEO and Gail Maurice, award winning Indigenous filmmaker and producer. As part of the Canada-UK Co-production forum, the CMPA hosts a panel on inclusion and representation on screens and Kerry Swanson, Executive Director, will be among the panelists.
2022 Delegate Bios
Paula Devonshire, Devonshire Production Inc.
Paula is a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, she graduated with a Business degree from the University of Toronto and a degree in Radio and Television from Ryerson University. She attended the prestigious Canadian Film Centre’s Producer’s Lab, Trans-Atlantic Partners and was the first Canadian to participate in the Inside Pictures Producer Program in London, UK. Devonshire worked at eOne as a Production Executive supervising several TV shows in production and development. Paula produced on the feature films: George Romero’s DIARY OF THE DEAD, the GINGER SNAPS sequel and prequel, Jeremiah Chechik’s THE RIGHT KIND OF WRONG, Atom Egoyan’s REMEMBER starring the legendary Christopher Plummer, and Neil Jordan’s GRETA, starring Isabel Huppert.
Paula is also a talented writer with several series in development with various broadcasters: a police procedural THE THIN RED LINE, a post-apocalyptic thriller THE LAST NATION, and a comedic drama CLARAVOYANT. Devonshire is also currently adapting as a feature film, the Governor General Award-winning short story, MARY REPARATRIX, supported by Telefilm Canada and the Harold Greenberg Fund.
Leena Minifie, Stories First Productions
Leena Minifie (Tsimshian/British) is a film, television, impact producer and digital strategist in Vancouver, British Columbia. Notable projects include the feature drama series called Bones of Crows; a four-part series and interactive digital timeline British Columbia – An Untold History, a one-hour investigative documentary The Reckoning: Secrets unearthed by Tkemlúps te Secwépemc, a one-hour investigative documentary. Leena produced an interactive web art Sense of Home (Best New Media ImagineNative 2012), and ?E?anx ‘The Cave’ (Sundance Festival 2011, TIFF Top Ten 2011). Her company Stories First designed strategy and roll-out for online or impact marketing campaigns including Indian Horse, The Grizzlies, Monkey Beach, The New Corporation: An Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, Night Raiders, and Run Woman Run. Leena is both a BANFF Spark Accelerator for Women and Bell Reelworld Producer’s Program fellow. She recently acquired the rights to adapt the Canada Reads-winning novel, Johnny Appleseed.
Tina Keeper, Kistikan Pictures Inc.
Tina Keeper, Norway House Cree Nation, Treaty 5. Tina is best known for her work, as an actor, on the CBC television series ‘North of 60’ from 1992-2003. In 2010, Tina partnered with Buffalo Gal pictures to create Kistikan Pictures Inc. for development and production of Indigenous film and television.
Kistikan projects include the short documentary The REDress Redress Project, the APTN series Cashing In with Buffalo Gal Pictures, feature by Maliseet writer/director Mark Ennis Road if Iniquity, the feature film Through Black Spruce with Serendipity Point Films, and the most recent project, currently airing on CTV Comedy Bell Media, the half-hour series, Acting Good by co-creators Paul Rabliauskis, Amber-Sekowan Daniels, Eric Toth and Pat Thornton.
Gail Maurice, Assini Productions
Gail Maurice is an award-winning filmmaker, actor, writer, producer and a proud fluent speaking member of her Cree/Métis community, Beauval, Saskatchewan. Her debut feature film, ROSIE, won the Audience Choice Award at ImagineNATIVE and is currently Opening and Closing film festivals across the nation with sold-out audiences at TIFF and VIFF. ROSIE will have a theatrical release in November with APTN and Super Channel Fuse airing it in 2023.
Gail is currently in development on her 2nd feature film, Blood Lines and a comedy series, Rez in the City, produced through her company, Assini Productions. Gail’s nine award winning short films, which she wrote, produced and directed have screened at Sundance, ImagineNATIVE, the Smithsonian, Enroute, CBC and APTN, to name a few, with a recent win for Best Children’s film with Unicef. She’s nominated for the prestigious Jean-Marc Vallée award, presented by the DGC. She’s an alumnus of the prestigious Women in the Director’s Chair, A recipient of the Hnatyshyn Indigenous award of excellence, she won a Chalmers Arts Fellowship and was selected to the 2020 Netflix Banff Diversity of voices initiative.
As an actor, she’s a two-time Canadian Screen Award nominee for best supporting actor for Trickster and Night Raiders.
For more information please contact:
Jean-François D. O’Bomsawin
Director of Marketing & Communications
jfobomsawin@indigenousscreenoffice.com
(438) 826-6291
www.iso-bea.ca
About the Indigenous Screen Office
The Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) is an independent national advocacy and funding organization serving First Nations, Inuit and Métis creators of screen content in Canada. The ISO’s mandate is to foster and support narrative sovereignty and cultural revitalization by increasing Indigenous storytelling on screens and promoting Indigenous values and participation across the sector.