Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers facts for kids

Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers was born in 1986. She is a talented Canadian filmmaker, actor, and producer. She has won many awards for her films. These include several Canadian Screen Awards.

Elle-Máijá was born in Cardston, Alberta. She started acting in the late 2000s. Later, she began her career as a filmmaker.

She co-directed the film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. For this film, she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director. She shared this award with Kathleen Hepburn. The film also won the Toronto Film Critics Association's $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

Early Life and Background

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers' father is Bjarne Store-Jakobsen. He is a Sámi rights activist and journalist from Norway. Her mother is Esther Tailfeathers, a Kainai activist and doctor from Canada.

Her parents met at a big meeting for Indigenous peoples in Australia. They got married sometime after that.

Her Journey in Film

Tailfeathers studied acting at the Vancouver Film School. She finished there in 2006. Then, she went to the University of British Columbia. She earned a degree in First Nations studies in 2011. She also studied women and gender studies.

After acting for a while, Tailfeathers started focusing on filmmaking. She began to write, direct, and produce films. While at the University of British Columbia, she learned to use film equipment and editing tools.

Bloodland (2011)

Bloodland is an experimental short film from 2011. It talks about fracking practices in Canada and worldwide. Fracking is a way of drilling into the earth to get gas and oil.

The film was put on YouTube in 2013. This was to support the Idle No More movement. The short film uses images of a woman being held down and drilled into. This is a way to comment on fracking in Canada. This project was supported by the Blood Tribe Chief and Council.

The film was shown at many festivals:

• Vancouver International Film Festival 2011
• ImagineNATIVE Film Festival 2011
• American Indian Film Festival 2011
• L.A. Skins Festival 2011
• Tulsa International Film Festival 2011
• Yellowknife International Film Festival 2011
• Riddu Riđđu International Indigenous Peoples Festival 2011 (Norway)
• Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival 2011
• Skábmagovat Film Festival 2012 (Finland)
• Vancouver Women in Film Festival 2012

A Red Girl's Reasoning (2012)

A Red Girl's Reasoning is a short film from 2012. It was made to highlight important issues affecting missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. This film won the 2012 Vancouver Crazy8s Competition. In this contest, filmmakers had to create a film in less than eight days.

This short film is now being made into a longer feature film.

Rebel (Bihttoš) (2014)

Rebel (Bihttoš) is a special kind of documentary. In this film, Elle-Máijá explores her connection with her father. She uses family photos and stories about her parents' love story.

The film mixes animation, re-enactments, and old photos. It looks at how her parents' story ended. It also shows how this has shaped her own ideas about love. Bihttoš was first shown at the imagineNATIVE film festival in 2014.

cəsnaʔəm, the city before the city (2017)

cəsnaʔəm, the city before the city is a feature film from 2017. It tells the history of the land where Vancouver is now. This film was made with the Musqueam First Nation. It was part of a bigger art show. This show was a partnership with the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, the Museum of Vancouver, and the Musqueam Cultural Centre.

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019)

This film was co-directed with Kathleen Hepburn. It is about two Indigenous women, Áila (played by Tailfeathers) and Rosie (Violet Nelson). Áila has a stable life. Rosie is a First Nations woman who has just been in a difficult situation at home. They meet on the street.

Most of the film is shot in one long, continuous scene. This means the camera keeps rolling without stopping.

The film was first shown at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival. It then premiered in Canada at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards. This included Best Motion Picture. It won three awards.

For directing this film, Tailfeathers shared the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director with Kathleen Hepburn. The film also won the Toronto Film Critics Association's $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

Important Themes in Her Work

Elle-Máijá's films are known for showing women of color. They also focus on First Nations topics and issues. She finds new ways to tell stories. She uses different film styles like fiction, documentaries, and experimental films.

Her film projects often have mostly Indigenous actors and crew members. This shows her commitment to working with Indigenous filmmakers.

One of Tailfeathers' main goals as a filmmaker is activism and social justice. She uses film to bring attention to issues. These include violence against women and harm to Indigenous land. Her films and activism focus on problems that directly affect Indigenous women and their communities.

Awards and Special Recognition

Elle-Máijá has won and been nominated for awards at many film festivals around the world. She is recognized for her work that focuses on social justice.

Some of her notable awards include a Kodak Image Award. She also received the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award as a new filmmaker. CBC named her one of "Young Indigenous Leaders: 5 Under 30 To Watch in 2015."

Her short film Rebel (Bihttoš) was named one of the Top Ten short films at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It also won best documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2015.

In 2017, Tailfeathers won a Canadian Screen Award for best actress. This was for her role in the CBC movie Unclaimed. She also won an award for best performance at the Vancouver Women in Film Festival.

At the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival, Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn won the $25,000 Best BC Film Award for The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. Tailfeathers also won the $17,500 BC Emerging Filmmaker Award.

In 2020, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers received the Skábmagovat Prize. This award honors her important contributions to Sámi culture and communities.

At the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022, she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress. This was for her role in Night Raiders. Her documentary film Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy won the award for Best Feature Length Documentary.

Personal Life

Tailfeathers spends her time in Vancouver, Canada. She also lives on the Blood Reserve. And she spends time in Sapmi territory in Norway.

She is very active in speaking up for issues that affect First Nations communities. In 2011, she was arrested for taking part in a peaceful blockade. This protest was at the entrance of a drilling site in the Alberta Blood Reserve.

Filmography

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Acting Roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Another Cinderella Story	Amazonian model girl
2016	Unclaimed	Nikki Taylor
2019	Blood Quantum	Joss
2019	The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open	Áila	Also co-director
2021	Night Raiders	Niska
2022	Stellar	Woman
2022	Three Pines	Isabelle Lacoste
2024	Sweet Angel Baby	Toni
TBA	The Abandons	TBA	In Production

Filmmaking Work