spotlight FILMMAKER
Danis goulet

One of Toronto’s most exciting new filmmakers of recent years, Danis Goulet is featured this summer as TOPS’ 2023 Spotlight Filmmaker, with a selection of her work showcased across the season’s programme. A Cree-Métis (nêhinaw âpihtawikosisân) filmmaker hailing originally from La Ronge, Saskatchewan, she has been a favourite local filmmaker of TOPS curators since we first programmed her short films for our audiences in 2014.

Goulet’s short film Wakening (2013) and her auspicious feature début ᑎᐱᐢᑳᐃ ᓇᑐᐸᓃᒐᑫᐊᐧᐠ (Night Raiders) (2021), are Indigenous futurist dystopian thrillers paired together as the Opening Night screening of TOPS’ Another World programme, taking place at Fort York National Historic Site on June 22. Screening later in the summer at Bell Manor Park, Goulet’s 2010 short film Wapawekka is a deeply personal short film about a Saskatchewan teenager and his traditional Cree father who visit their family cabin for the last time, both contemplating connections to the land despite feeling a generational disconnect between them.

Goulet’s work - which also includes directing for the hit TV series Reservation Dogs - addresses urgent themes of settler colonialism, technology, and climate change while foregrounding Indigenous knowledge, family, and community bonds to envision presents/futures that are equal parts alarming and hopeful. One thing is sure: we will always look forward to future cinema created by Danis Goulet.