Michelle Latimer facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michelle Latimer
Latimer at the Genie Awards in 2012
Born	Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actress, director, filmmaker
Years active	2001–present

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). Since the early 2010s, she has directed several documentaries, including her feature film directorial debut, Alias (2013), 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.

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. She is also the co-creator, writer, and director of the CBC Television series Trickster.

Early life

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

Career

Latimer initially garnered recognition for portraying goth teen Trish Simpkin in Paradise Falls. 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.

After Paradise Falls, she returned to the stage, starring in Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, written by Brad Fraser. .....

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.

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

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. The series won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018. 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.

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

Trickster premiered on CBC Television on October 7, 2020. She adapted the series from Eden Robinson's 2017 novel Son of a Trickster. ..... The series was renewed for a second season prior to the first season's premiere; 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. In its December 2020 year in review, the Canadian film and television industry magazine Playback named Trickster the Scripted Series of the Year.

Latimer's documentary film, Inconvenient Indian, also premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Adapted from Thomas King's non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian, the film presents a history of the indigenous peoples in Canada. 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.

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

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.

Accolades

See also

• List of female film and television directors