Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers

Early life and education Tailfeathers was born Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers in 1986 in Cardston, Alberta to a Sámi father and a Kainai mother. Tailfeathers' father, Bjarne Store-Jakobsen, is a politician, Sámi rights activist and journalist, and her mother, Esther Tailfeathers, is a physician and Kainai activist.

Raised on the Blood 148 reserve, Tailfeathers studied acting at the Vancouver Film School. In 2011, Tailfeathers graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor's in First Nations studies and a minor in women and gender studies.

Career After acting for a period of time, Tailfeathers shifted her focus to filmmaking and began to work as a writer, director, and producer. Her work has garnered attention for its focus on women of colour and First Nations issues. Tailfeathers has worked in "mediums including narrative fiction, docudrama, documentary, mockumentary, and experimental film." ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival 2011 Yellowknife International Film Festival 2011 Skábmagovat Film Festival 2012 Vancouver Women in Film Festival 2012

A Red Girl's Reasoning A Red Girl's Reasoning (2012) is a short film that was created in response to the growing numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. This film centres around a survivor of sexual assault and her quest to bring justice to the perpetrators of violence against Indigenous women. The film was the winner of the 2012 Vancouver Crazy8s Competition, where filmmakers were challenged to create a film in under eight days.

Rebel (Bihttoš) Rebel (Bihttoš) is an experimental documentary where a young woman (played by Tailfeathers) explores her complex "relationship with her father through an examination of family photos and the family lore surrounding her parents’ courtship and marriage." Bihttoš combines "animation, re-enactments, and archival photos."

cəsnaʔəm, the city before the city cəsnaʔəm, the city before the city (2017) is a feature film on the history of the land now known as Vancouver. Made in partnership with Musqueam First Nation, the film was part of a larger exhibition in partnership with the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, the Museum of Vancouver, and the Musqueam Cultural Centre.

The film premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival in the Generation program and had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and won three.

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

In 2020, Tailfeathers was awarded the Skábmagovat Prize, a Sámi film award, for contributions she has made to Sámi culture and communities.

At the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, she won the Emerging Canadian Filmmaker award for Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy.

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

Controversy At the 29th annual Toronto Film Critics Association awards ceremony, Tailfeathers was awarded Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Canadian Film, but she was not in attendance. Her pre-taped acceptance speech had been edited at the ceremony, purportedly for length, but Tailfeathers alleged that the edit was made for political reasons, as the end of her speech contained supportive remarks about the Palestinian people.

In response to her letter, Toronto Film Critics Association president Johanna Schneller said that Tailfeathers' speech had only been edited "to maintain the timing of the awards show" and not for political reasons, and that the decision was hers as president, but would nevertheless resign as the organization's president, writing, "In light of this outcome, I will be tendering my resignation."

In 2011, she was arrested for participating in a peaceful blockade at the entrance of a drilling site in the Blood 148 reserve.

Filmography Acting

Filmmaking