April 2005

Filmmaker Loretta Todd (Métis/Cree) meshes expressionistic footage with more traditional nonfiction storytelling elements to create original documentaries. Her first feature-length documentary, The Learning Path, won a Silver Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival. Forgotten Warriors won Best Documentary at the American Indian Film Festival, Best History Award at Hot Docs, and was nominated for a Genie Award. Todd received a Special Honouring and Screening Retrospective at the 2000 ImagineNATIVE Media Arts Festival. In 1998 she won the Taos Mountain Award for lifetime achievement from the Taos Talking Picture Festival. She was instrumental in establishing the Aboriginal Arts Program at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, and teaches critical and technical courses on cinema for organizations such as the Chief Dan George Foundation. Todd is has participated in the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, and in 1996 received a fellowship from New York University's Center for Media, Culture, and History, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Todd studied film at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. She was born in Edmonton, Alberta.

"I think Native Indian people are rich in many gifts, including gifts of drama, humor, storytelling, and image making. That's what I try to express in my films."

Screened by NMAI

• Kainayssini Imanistaisiwa: The People Go On (2003) director, writer
  
• Today is a Good Day: Remembering Chief Dan George (1999) producer, director, writer
  
• Forgotten Warriors (1996) producer, director, writer
  
• Hands of History (1995) director, writer
  
• The Learning Path (1991) director

Image credits: Loretta Todd - courtesy of the filmmaker