Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers facts for kids

Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers (born in 1986) is a talented Canadian filmmaker, actor, and producer. She has received many important awards for her movies, including several Canadian Screen Awards.

Elle-Máijá was born in Cardston, Alberta. She started acting in the late 2000s. Later, she decided to become a filmmaker, creating her own movies.

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

Early Life and Education

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

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

Elle-Máijá studied acting at the Vancouver Film School and finished in 2006. She then went to the University of British Columbia. In 2011, she earned a degree in First Nations studies. She also studied women and gender studies.

Becoming a Filmmaker

After acting for a while, Elle-Máijá decided to focus on making films. She started working as a writer, director, and producer. While at the University of British Columbia, she began learning how to use film equipment and editing tools.

Bloodland (2011)

Bloodland is a short film from 2011. It talks about fracking, which is a way to get gas and oil from the ground. The film uses powerful images to show how fracking affects the land.

This short film was put on YouTube in 2013. It was shared to support the Idle No More movement. The project was funded by the Blood Tribe Chief and Council. This meant it was indirectly supported by money from gas and oil companies. The film was well-received and sparked discussions about fracking on Indigenous lands.

Bloodland was shown at many film festivals, including:

• Vancouver International Film Festival 2011
• ImagineNATIVE Film Festival 2011
• American Indian Film Festival 2011
• Yellowknife International Film Festival 2011
• Riddu Riđđu International Indigenous Peoples Festival 2011 (Norway)
• Skábmagovat Film Festival 2012 (Finland)

A Red Girl's Reasoning (2012)

A Red Girl's Reasoning is a short film from 2012. It was made to highlight the issue of missing and harmed Indigenous women in Canada. The film tells the story of a woman who survived harm and seeks justice for other women.

This film won the 2012 Vancouver Crazy8s Competition. In this competition, filmmakers had to create a movie in less than eight days. This short film is now being made into a longer movie.

Rebel (Bihttoš) (2014)

Rebel (Bihttoš) is a unique documentary. In it, Elle-Máijá explores her relationship with her father. She uses family photos and stories about her parents' love story.

The film combines animation, re-enactments, and old photos. It looks at how her parents' story ended and how it 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 explores the history of the land where Vancouver is now located. This film was made with the Musqueam First Nation.

It was part of a larger exhibition. This exhibition 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)

Elle-Máijá co-directed The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open with Kathleen Hepburn. The movie is about a meeting between two Indigenous women. Áila (played by Tailfeathers) has a stable life. Rosie (Violet Nelson) is a First Nations woman who has just experienced harm at home. They meet on the street.

Most of the film is shot in one long, continuous scene. The movie first showed at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival. It had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards and won three.

For directing this film, Elle-Máijá 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.

Themes in Her Work

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers' films are known for showing women of color in important roles. Her work often focuses on First Nations topics and issues. She uses different ways to tell stories, like fiction, documentaries, and experimental films.

Her film projects usually have many Indigenous cast and crew members. This shows her commitment to working with Indigenous filmmakers.

A main goal for Elle-Máijá as a filmmaker is activism and social justice. She sees film as a way to take nonviolent action against issues like harm against women and damage to Indigenous land. Her films and activism focus on issues that directly affect Indigenous women and communities.

Awards and Recognition

Elle-Máijá has won and been nominated for awards at many international film festivals. She is recognized for her work that supports social justice. She received a Kodak Image Award and the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award as a new filmmaker.

CBC included her in their "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 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, Elle-Máijá and Kathleen Hepburn won the $25,000 Best BC Film Award for The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. Elle-Máijá also won the $17,500 BC Emerging Filmmaker Award.

In 2020, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers received the Skábmagovat Prize. This is an Indigenous film award that honors her important, long-term contributions to Sámi culture and communities.

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

Personal Life

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers spends her time living in Vancouver, Canada, on the Blood Reserve, and in Sápmi 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 protest. This protest was at the entrance of a drilling site on 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 Projects