Michelle Latimer

Michelle Latimer is a Canadian actress, director, writer, and filmmaker. She initially rose to prominence for her role as Trish Simkin on the television series Paradise Falls, shown nationally in Canada on Showcase Television (2001–2004).[1] Since the early 2010s, she has directed several documentaries, including her feature film directorial debut, Alias (2013),[2] and the Viceland series, Rise, which focuses on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests; the latter won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018.[3][4]

Michelle Latimer
Latimer at the Genie Awards in 2012
Born
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
OccupationActress, director, filmmaker
Years active2001–present

Latimer's 2020 film Inconvenient Indian won the People's Choice Award for Documentaries and the award for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.[5] She is also the co-creator, writer, and director of the CBC Television series Trickster.[6]

Early life

Latimer was born and raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario.[7] Latimer later studied theatre at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.[8]

Career

Latimer initially garnered recognition for portraying goth teen Trish Simpkin in Paradise Falls.[9][1] Aside from Paradise Falls, Latimer has had limited roles in other television productions. In 2004, she had two guest appearances on the low budget Canadian series Train 48. She also had a minor appearance in the 2004 film Resident Evil: Apocalypse.[10]

After Paradise Falls, she returned to the stage, starring in Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, written by Brad Fraser.[11] She performed the play in 2004 at Crow's Theatre in Toronto and she played Benita, a psychic prostitute. Like Paradise Falls, the play also had some controversy for its open depiction of sexuality.[11]

Latimer later produced and directed an animated film titled Choke, which was funded by bravoFACT and screened at the Sundance Film Festival and was one of five animated shorts nominated for a Genie Award in 2011.[12]

Since the early 2010s, Latimer has dedicated her time to documentary filmmaking.[13] In 2013, she made her feature film directorial debut Alias, which "follows aspiring rappers trying to escape the gangster life."[14] The film received positive reviews, was nominated for several awards,[15] including for a Canadian Screen Award,[16] and screened at the Hot Docs Film Festival.[17] Also in 2013, she was chosen as one of Playback's "10 To Watch".[18]

Latimer's Viceland documentary series, titled Rise, which focuses on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests, premiered at the Special Events section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.[19] The series won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018.[3][4] While accepting the award, Latimer delivered what was described by CBC News as "one of the night's most passionate speeches", in which she celebrated Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock.[3]

In 2020, she was announced as the creator, writer, and director of the drama series Trickster.[20] In advance of the television premiere, two episodes of the series was screened in the Primetime program at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival,[21] and at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival in Sudbury.[22]

Trickster premiered on CBC Television on October 7, 2020.[23] She adapted the series from Eden Robinson's 2017 novel Son of a Trickster.[24][25][26] The series centres on Jared, an Indigenous Haisla teenager and small-time drug dealer in Kitimat, British Columbia, who becomes increasingly aware of the magical events that seem to follow him. The series was renewed for a second season prior to the first season's premiere;[27] the second season is expected to be based on Trickster Drift, the second novel in Robinson's trilogy. The CW acquired the U.S. broadcast rights for the series, which premiered in the country on January 12, 2021.[28] In its December 2020 year in review, the Canadian film and television industry magazine Playback named Trickster the Scripted Series of the Year.[29]

Latimer's documentary film, Inconvenient Indian, also premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.[21] Adapted from Thomas King's non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian, the film presents a history of the indigenous peoples in Canada.[30] The film blends scenes in which King, filmed in a taxi cab being driven by actress Gail Maurice in character as an indigenous trickster, narrates portions of his own book, blended with video clips of historical representation of indigenous peoples as well as segments profiling modern figures, such as Kent Monkman, Christi Belcourt, A Tribe Called Red, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and Nyla Innuksuk, who are reshaping the narrative with their contemporary work in art, music, literature and film.[31]

At the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, Inconvenient Indian won the People's Choice Award for Documentaries and the award for Best Canadian Film.[5] For Now and The Georgia Straight, Radheyan Simonpillai praised the film.[31] The film was named to TIFF's year-end Canada's Top Ten list for feature films.[32]

Other work

Latimer also works as a film curator; she is a programmer for the ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the Hot Docs Film Festival and is a programming advisor for Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque and the Regent Park Film Festival.[7]

Personal life

Indigenous identity

Through much of her career Latimer claimed to have Algonquin and Métis heritage, based on a family oral history of indigenous ancestry in the province of Quebec. In interviews, Latimer has said that her father is French-Canadian and that her mother is Algonquin and Métis.[33] In a September 2020 interview about her current film and TV projects, she stated that her mother had a complicated relationship with her mixed race identity.[34]

In December 2020, her indigenous identity came into question after a National Film Board (NFB) press release announcing the release of her film Inconvenient Indian specifically stated a connection to the community of Kitigan Zibi in Quebec, which the community denies.[35] The Métis National Council also does not recognise the existence of any Métis communities in Quebec.[36] According to members of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg nation, erroneous claims of Algonquin ancestry in the community are common due to historical confusion with Baskatong, a French Catholic community north of Kitigan Zibi which was flooded by the creation of the Baskatong Reservoir in 1927.[35]

In her emailed responses, Latimer said her claim rested on the oral history of her maternal grandfather who talked about being Indigenous and sometimes used the term Métis.[35] Census records reviewed by CBC News suggest that Latimer's grandfather was French-Canadian. Dominique Ritchot, a genealogist and researcher with an expertise in French-Canadian families, claimed that most of Latimer's ancestors were easily identifiable as French Canadian, Irish and Scottish, except for two Indigenous ancestors dating from 1644.[35][37]

Latimer subsequently apologized for having claimed historical roots to the Kitigan Zibi community before fully verifying them,[33] and resigned from the production of her television series Trickster,[38] after the husband and wife producing team of Tony Elliott and Danis Goulet resigned from the show, stating Latimer’s identity as the reason.[36] Latimer's documentary film Inconvenient Indian was withdrawn from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, all other film festivals, and from distribution, by the NFB until further notice.[37]

In January 2021, it was reported that Latimer served CBC with a notice of libel,[39] claiming to "have grave concerns about the fairness and accuracy" of the CBC's reporting on her ancestry.[40] Latimer elaborated that the CBC "created a false narrative about my character and my lineage."[40]

Accolades
Year Association Category Nominated work Result Ref.
2012 Gemini Awards Best Animated Short Choke Nominated [41]
2013 Hot Docs Film Festival Best Canadian Documentary Alias Nominated [42]
2015 Canadian Screen Awards Best Biography or Arts Documentary Program or Series Nominated [43]
2015 Yorkton Film Festival Golden Sheaf Award - Short Subject The Underground Won [44]
2018 Canadian Screen Awards Best Documentary Program Rise Won
2020 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award for Documentaries Inconvenient Indian Won
2020 Toronto International Film Festival Best Canadian Film Inconvenient Indian Won
2020 Toronto International Film Festival Amplify Voices Award: BIPOC Directors Inconvenient Indian / Michelle Latimer Nominated [45]
2020 Toronto International Film Festival Top Ten Canadian Film Inconvenient Indian Won
2020 Directors Guild of Canada Awards Allan King Award for Best Documentary Inconvenient Indian Won
2020 Vancouver International Film Festival Most Popular Canadian Documentary Inconvenient Indian Won [46]
2020 Montreal International Documentary Festival National Feature Inconvenient Indian Won
2020 Montreal International Documentary Festival Magnus Isacsson Award Inconvenient Indian / Michelle Latimer Won

See also

References
  1. "Arguably the gayest Canadian drama on TV | Daily Xtra". Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  2. 13, Playback Staff January; 2015. "Canadian Screen Awards '15: TV categories". Retrieved 2017-01-17.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. "Canadian Screen Awards 2018: Heather Hiscox, The Fifth Estate, APTN win top awards | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  4. "Hey, These VICELAND Shows Just Won Canadian Screen Awards". Vice. 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  5. Etan Vlessing, "Toronto: Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter, September 20, 2020.
  6. "How filmmaker Michelle Latimer adapted Eden Robinson's novel Son of a Trickster into new CBC series, Trickster | CBC Books". CBC. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  7. "About | Streel Films | Michelle Latimer". www.michellelatimer.ca. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  8. "Concordia's Thursday Report". ctr.concordia.ca. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  9. "Campy Soap Dives Between the Sheets in Cottage Country in Third Season of Paradise Falls". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  10. "Michelle Latimer". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  11. "Review - Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love - Crow's Theatre, Toronto - Christopher Hoile". www.stage-door.com. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  12. Minovitz, Ethan (17 January 2012). "Five animated shorts nominated for Genie Award". Big Cartoon News. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  13. "Filmmaker explores agony of solitary confinement in Canada". rabble.ca. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  14. Latimer, Michelle (2013-04-01), Alias, retrieved 2017-01-17
  15. Lattanzio, Ryan. "FatLabs Composer Vikas Kohli Heads to Cannes and HotDocs (VIDEO) | IndieWire". www.indiewire.com. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  16. "Canadian Screen Award nominations: 19 projects from 18 alumni". National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI). 2015-01-14. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  17. "Alias | Hot Docs 2013 Review". U.S. Indie News, Filmmaker Interviews, Film Festivals, Movie Reviews | Ioncinema. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  18. "The 2013 10 To Watch: Michelle Latimer". Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  19. Howell, Peter (January 13, 2017). "Canadians set to Rise up and shake up Sundance and Slamdance". Toronto Star.
  20. Jane van Koeverden, "Cast revealed for CBC's upcoming series, The Trickster". CBC Books, September 18, 2019.
  21. Ahearn, Victoria (July 30, 2020). "TIFF announces all 50 titles for pandemic-tailored 2020 event". Toronto Star. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  22. "Sudbury festivals adapting to COVID-19". Sudbury Star, September 2, 2020.
  23. Hank, Melissa (May 28, 2020). "CBC announces new fall TV series, returning favourites". O Canada. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  24. van Koeverden, Jane (May 29, 2019). "Adaptation of Eden Robinson's Trickster series coming to CBC-TV". CBC. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  25. "Trickster – About the Show". CBC Media Centre. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  26. van Koeverden, Jane (September 18, 2019). "Cast revealed for CBC's upcoming series, The Trickster". CBC. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  27. Lauren Malyk, "Upfronts ’20: CBC renews Trickster ahead of premiere". Playback, May 27, 2020.
  28. Pedersen, Erik (October 29, 2020). "The CW Sets Season Premiere Dates For 'Flash', 'Batwoman', 'Riverdale', 'Nancy Drew', 'Charmed', 'Walker' Reboot & More". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  29. Jordan Pinto, "Scripted Series of the Year 2020: Trickster: How the coming-of-age drama from Streel Films and Sienna Films has created a new narrative around Indigenous storytelling and become a red-hot commodity in an international marketplace hungry for new voices". Playback, December 14, 2020.
  30. Ryan Porter, "Film adaptations of Indigenous bestsellers The Inconvenient Indian, the Trickster series to premiere at TIFF". Quill & Quire, July 30, 2020.
  31. Radheyan Simonpillai, "VIFF review: Inconvenient Indian is made with love". The Georgia Straight, September 15, 2020.
  32. Victoria Ahearn, "Toronto International Film Festival releases Top Ten lists for 2020". Squamish Chief, December 9, 2020.
  33. Barry Hertz, "‘I made a mistake’: Canadian filmmaker Michelle Latimer addresses Indigenous ancestry questions". The Globe and Mail, December 17, 2020.
  34. Simonpillai, Radheyan (2020-09-08). "Filmmaker Michelle Latimer reclaims Indigenous storytelling with Trickster and Inconvenient Indian". Georgia Straight. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
  35. Ka’nhehsí:io Deer and Jorge Barrera, "Award-winning filmmaker Michelle Latimer's Indigenous identity under scrutiny". CBC News Indigenous, December 17, 2020.
  36. Ka’nhehsí:io Deer, Jorge Barrera, "Trickster producers resign amid Michelle Latimer Indigenous identity questions". CBC News Indigenous, December 18, 2020.
  37. Monkman, Lenard (22 December 2020). "NFB pulls Michelle Latimer's documentary Inconvenient Indian from Sundance festival". CBC News. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  38. Barry Hertz, "Michelle Latimer resigns from CBC’s Trickster week after addressing questions of Indigenous ancestry". The Globe and Mail, December 21, 2020.
  39. "Michelle Latimer serves CBC with notice of libel, while network cancels Trickster". Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  40. Ritchie, Kevin (2021-01-29). "CBC cancels Trickster after one season". NOW Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
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  44. Friesen, Laura (26 May 2015). "NSI grads win at Yorkton Film Festival". National Film Institute. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  45. Guber, Liz (2020-09-15). "Michelle Latimer Brings Indigenous Stories to TIFF and Beyond". The Kit. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
  46. "Inconvenient Indian Tops Directors' Guild of Canada Award Winners – Point of View Magazine". Point of View Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
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