Eli Hirtle | Artist and Filmmaker

Eli Hirtle is a filmmaker, beadworker, and curator of nêhiyaw (Cree) and mixed european ancestry, based on Lekwungen Territory in Victoria, BC, Canada. His maternal nêhiyaw family come from the Bigstone Cree Nation in Wabasca, Alberta. His practice involves making films about Indigenous cultural resurgence and language revitalization, as well as investigating his nêhiyaw identity through beadwork. Current areas of interest are learning how to speak his ancestral language of nêhiyawêwin and mentoring emerging Indigenous artists, curators and filmmakers. Eli is currently the Director of Programming at the Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ICCA). He previously worked at Open Space Arts Society in Victoria as Curator, Indigenous and Contemporary Art from 2018-2023. Film projects include RESIST: The Unistoten’s Call to the Land (2013), Voices on the Rise (2016, 2019, 2021), and Lekwungen: Place to Smoke Herring (2018). Past curatorial projects include “Sacred” at Victoria City Hall, Pretty Good Not Bad Festival, IndigeVision Film Showcase, Wapakoni Cinema on Wheels Tour, “Constellations of Kin” in collaboration with the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre and ImagineNATIVE film festival, and “LAND BACK” & “online / on land” at Open Space. Eli has served on several peer-assessment committees for both the BC Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts, and has also written successful grants as an individual and for organizations he’s worked with and for.

Lou-Ann Neel | Executive Producer with the National Film Board of Canada

Since 2014, Shirley Vercruysse has been an Executive Producer with the National Film Board of Canada. Based in Vancouver she leads a team producing documentaries in Western Canada (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories and Yukon). Her producing team includes Teri Snelgrove (Vancouver) and Chehala Leonard and Coty Savard (Edmonton). Recent releases from the studio include the feature-length documentaries, The Stand, directed by Christopher Auchter, Incandescence directed by Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper, WaaPake (Tomorrow), directed by Jules Koostachin; Anything for Fame, directed by Tyler Funk; Laydown Your Heart, directed by Marie Clements; Unarchived, directed by Haley Gray and Elad Tzadok; and Voices Across the Water, directed by Fritz Mueller. Prior to joining the NFB, Shirley was based in Calgary where she produced independent Canadian feature films, fiction and documentary, including the award-winning Gary Burns titles waydowntown, Radiant City and Mike Dowe’s Fubar II.

Tara Audibert | Artist & Filmmaker

Spencer “Kanaka” Sacht-Lund is a storyteller of Kwakwaka’wakw, Hawaiian, and Scandinavian heritage. Spencer has worked in the live event and film industry for 15 years, with a career spanning across multiple countries, continents, and a few dirt roads. In film Spencer has worked primarily in the Set Dec department in a variety of senior or department head roles in a variety of union and non-union shows ranging from features to MOWs. Spencer also works as a production manager for large events and music festivals such as Sunfest and Rifflandia. Spencer holds a BA in Global Studies and Theatre from VIU, and a B.Ed from UVic

Lou-Ann | Neel Creative BC

Gilakas’la – my name is Lou-ann Neel and I am originally from Alert Bay, BC from the Kwakwaka’wakw people. I have lived and learned in the lands of the Lekwungen most of my life, completing high school and my studies in Public Administration at the University of Victoria. I completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Emily Carr University of Art & Design. My career is a balance of my own work as a practicing professional visual artist and program management – primarily grant funding programs for Indigenous artists and creatives. I currently work at Creative BC overseeing the Rogers Indigenous Film Fund grant program and development of an Indigenous Filmmaker’s Resource Hub to support Indigenous filmmakers and creatives at various stages of their respective careers.

Amanda Strong | Spotted Fawn Productions

Amanda Strong is a Canadian Screen Award and Emmy-nominated director, artist, stop motion storyteller and has served as a media-based artist for nearly 20 years. This retrospective will include her films – Flood (2017), Four Faces of the Moon (2016), Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) (2018), and Inkwo for When the Starving Return (2024).
She is Michif/Red River Métis and is a member of the MMF (Manitoba Métis Federation). Strong is the owner, producer and director of the Vancouver-based animation studio, Spotted Fawn Productions Inc, where they create stop motion animations, books, installations and explore digital technologies that complement the handmade art of stop motion. She was also a director at Atomic Cartoons, director of the recent Emmy award-winning 2D animated TV series, Molly of Denali on PBS.

Strong started Spotted Fawn Productions as a space to merge her artistic interests and training with the dream to make stories move – in informative, educational, entertaining and visually exciting ways. SFP utilizes a multi-layered approach and unconventional methods that are centered in collaboration and community on all aspects of their work. Strong’s studio successes have screened and exhibited across the globe, most notably at Sundance, Cannes, TIFF, TIFF Top 10, VIFF, OIAF, Museum of Anthropology, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the National Museum of American Hi

Steve Sxwithul’txw | Producer & Director

Steve Sxwithul’txw is an award-winning Producer & Director from the Penelakut Tribe located just off Vancouver Island, Canada. He was raised in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. Sxwithul’txw is in post-production on his 2nd season of his acclaimed TV series on APTN and CHEK called “Ocean Warriors ~ Mission Ready” which focuses on a team of volunteer First Nations mariners who react to calls for boaters in distress along BC’s vast coastline. We are working towards Season 3 right now and in development on a new series for APTN. Steve has produced and directed a previous series called “Tribal Police Files” in 2020 for 3 seasons which follows police officers working on reserve which is seen on APTN. Steve has completed several short films including “Our Table” in 2024 which highlights the Penelakut Tribe in working to educate others on protecting their shores from environmental disasters. In 2023, “Shaping Our Future” which highlights inmates carving a 40 ft totem pole out of a Victoria jail which is seen on Chek 6 . Steve’s other short film called “Finding the Balance” about 4 First Nations who are working to protect their territorial waters off southern Vancouver Island. In 2018, Steve directed his first short film called “Leave it on the Water” which highlights Indigenous youth working to train and fundraise to get the world’s largest outrigger canoe race in Hawaii.