Our mission statement

The Dreamspeakers Festival Society supports and educates the public about Indigenous culture, art & heritage

It is a resource for Aboriginal filmmakers, for directors, scriptwriters, cameramen, technicians, actors, musicians, storytellers, artists and craftspeople. The Society is also a resource bank - a way to get in touch with Aboriginal filmmakers, performers and artists. And through Dreamspeakers, Aboriginal people receive training in arts, culture and festival operations.

– EST 1993 –

About us

The Dreamspeakers Festival Society is a registered non-profit charitable status organization that produces an international film festival that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples innovation in film, video, radio, and new media, presenting selections of Indigenous works from around the globe since 1993. The festival attracts and connects filmmakers, media artists, programmers, buyers, and industry professionals. The works accepted reflect the diversity of the world's Indigenous nations and illustrate the vitality and excellence of our art and culture.

Beginning in 2018 The Dreamspeakers Festival Society also produces Rubaboo - Alberta’s only Aboriginal multi-disciplinary arts festival. Rubaboo is a philosophy about what sustains us; it’s about feeding the spirit, and it’s about thriving. Rubaboo features Aboriginal theatre, music, dance, art, food, family and youth events, artist workshops, cultural workshops and visual arts. Its mandate is to encourage collaborations and to develop new artistic works and present these works in progress to a broad audience both during the festival but also through full production and touring. We’re committed to giving Aboriginal artists this forum and platform to perform their art, grow as artists, contribute their work to the community, and to bring audiences of all backgrounds together to enjoy the vast artistic expressions that exist in Aboriginal culture.

The Dreamspeakers Festival Society goal remains the same for the past 25 years, which is to connect in a meaningful way, to learn how to be more impactful to the needs of artists and our greater community. The activities we propose will advance our effective strategic planning for years and puts us in a better position to honour the original vision of the Dreamspeakers founders to be a resource for Aboriginal filmmakers, storytellers, artists and community. We can create more opportunities and make a better impact on arts, culture and our collective identity. And we can do it all here based in Edmonton!

Dream Team

Dreamspeakers-Board-of-Directors-Executive-Director-Christine-Frederick.png — Christine Sokaymoh Frederick

***Executive Director***

Christine Sokaymoh Frederick is an urban Aboriginal Cree-Métis residing in Edmonton, Alberta. She is co-founder and the artistic director of Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts and produces the annual Rubaboo Festival and the Executive Director of the Dreamspeakers Film Festival. She is the first Indigenous Associate Artist of the Citadel Theatre, and the first indigenous board member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. She is former chair of the Edmonton Arts Council and former Vice Chair of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Christine served on the steering, working and selection committee for the ÎNÎW River Lot 11 one of the first Indigenous Public Art Parks in the world. She is the recipient of the 2007 Esquao Award in Arts, and the 2016 Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Artistic Leadership.

christine@dreamspeakers.org

Jessica Daniels

***Operations Director***

Jessica Daniels is Cree/Metis from Edmonton, Alberta. When she is not busy working at Dreamspeakers, she spends her time with her granddaughter Kris.

jessica@dreamspeakers.org

Aretha Greatrix is James Bay Cree from Kashechewan First Nation (Albany Band), but born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. In 2005 obtain a Certificate in Digital and Interactive Media. In 2012, Bachelor of Applied Communications in Professional Writing Degree from Grant MacEwan University. Aretha is currently a Graduate student in the Master of Arts in Communication and Technology from the University of Alberta where she is exploring the reconciliation process and examining its effectiveness. An entrepreneur, she is co-owner of Miyo Pimatisiwin Productions Inc and owner of Simplistique Media. In 2016, Aretha was recognized as Cultural Ambassador for the Women of Inspiration Award from the Canadian Business Chicks for her work with mentoring youth in filmmaking with Miyo Pimatisiwin Productions.

aretha@dreamspeakers.org

Joshua Jackson is a contemporary First Nations director, producer, writer and musician. His background includes acclaimed work with indigenous youth. He has also collaborated nationally and internationally with professional artists across visual, performance and sonic mediums.

As an extremely proud member of the Maskekosihk people (Enoch Cree Nation), Joshua is the the founder and president of Lightning Mill Productions. He’s the producer of “Hey Viktor” the company’s flagship venture and feature length film. He is also the founder, producer and art director of the Neon Landscape. A collective dedicated to the production of First Nations experimental performance. Their current project is a full length dance piece which highlights the exploration of traditional forms of ballet and hoop dance. Together with music and story telling “In the Echo of Ghosts” is set to premiere in 2021.

Joshuas art direction for the former Soar Aboriginal Arts program has successfully transformed and changed lives. It’s a training program that combines theatre, film, music, dance and design. This has been helpful to over 60 emerging indigenous artists. Soar premiered 2 works at Edmonton’s acclaimed Citadel Theatre (Blackness of white -2014 and Crux-2015). As a producer Joshua has established the collaborative process of multiple disciplines in performative works, short films and music videos. The most distinct being “All my Lives at Once- Lostboycrow).

Contemporary Indigenous art is and always has been at the core of the process of the work. He has the logical understanding of visual, performative, theatrical, sonic mediums and the traditional elements of the old way that add precision in their respective value to the creative process of contemporary native works.

Joshua@dreamspeakers.org

Dreamspeakers-Board-of-Directors-International-Curator-Antonio-Coello.png — Antonio Coello

***International Curator***

Antonio Coello is a Mexican and Colombian filmmaker and researcher who collaborates as curator with the Dreamspeakers International Film Festival. His short films involve indigenous communities with which he creates collective cinematic stories that have been shown at various festivals and museums like the Guggenheim Museum in New York and ImagineNATIVE at Toronto. His short films have won awards in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, the Czech Republic, India, Spain, Bulgaria, U.S.A., Canada, Belarus, Australia, and Mexico. As a teacher he has taught workshops and courses on screenplay writing and filmmaking in Mexico, Canada, U.S.A., India and Nepal. In his creative work he has benefited from grants from government and private institutions from different countries. He currently works on the post production of the first full-length feature film ever made in Seri indigenous language. For more than 10 years, Antonio has been carefully selecting for our festival some of the best indigenous films from around the world.

antonio@dreamspeakers.org

MJ Belcourt Moses

***Awards Designer***

Melissa-Jo Belcourt (MJ) comes from a rich Métis ancestry and possesses a wealth of cultural skills, acquired from Métis and First Nation Elders and Knowledge Holders throughout northern and central Alberta. As an instructor, she has taught decorative arts and creative skills within Indigenous cultural art programs and continues to support the community both aboriginal and non-aboriginal in facilitating workshops to teach both the history and traditional art skills. Recently as of January 2019 MJ accepted the role as Edmonton’s Indigenous Artist in Residency.

Board of Directors

Joyce is Metis from northern Alberta. Her ancestors migrated to Grouard from various historical Metis communities across western Canada. She was raised in the Big Meadow and High Prairie areas, a few miles from where her grandparents lived in Grouard. Like many Metis from Alberta, she is a descendent of Louis Callihoo from the Kahnawake Mohawk Reserve in Quebec. She participates in traditional harvesting practices and is very knowledgeable about the Metis culture,Metis history and her own genealogical connections.

Her background is in nursing and health care management. She has served on various boards and provided consultant services in board development.

Inupiat/Gwich’in filmmaker and storyteller Dennis Allen premiered his first film, Someplace Better, at the 2001 Sundance Festival, and later won imagineNATIVE’s Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award for CBQM, his big-hearted tribute to a radio station known as the “moccasin telegraph,” located in the Gwich’in community of Fort McPherson. Crazywater, in which he explores historical, colonial and intergenerational factors behind Indigenous substance abuse, received an Honourable Mention at Vancouver’s DOXA Festival. Allen was co-creator of Cashing In, an episodic TV series set within the world of an Indigenous-run casino.

Lese Skidmore is a First Nations woman of Anishinaabe and German/Canadian decent, and a member of Roseau River First Nation in Manitoba. Influential themes in her work have included Indigenous arts, knowledge, storytelling, and justice. There is a synergy in all these themes, they are reviving, reclaiming, and renewing she is passionate about how much more there is to explore in these areas. As a producer, director and editor with over two decades of experience, she has worked on broadcast media series, non-profit causes and short artistic projects. Recently, No More Kîyâm, a rotoscope animation that Lese produced and directed, was nominated for Best Educational Production at the 2023 Alberta Film and Television Awards, screened at the 2023 Calgary International Film Festival and will screen at the American Indian Film Festival in November 2023.

Norma Jean Chalifoux

***Board Member***

Cora-Lee Fedoruk is a member of Little Saskatchewan First Nation located in Treaty No.2 Territory. She is Saulteaux on her mother’s side and English, Irish and Scottish on her birth father’s side. Born in Edmonton and raised in Fort Saskatchewan, Cora-Lee currently makes her home in Edmonton. She lives with her mother, sister, niece and daughters in a multi-generational home. Cora-Lee, the mother of two precious children, has a story to share that is filled with healing power, passion, determination and resilience.

Travis Greatrix is a member of Kashechewan First Nation (Albany Band). But has called Edmonton home since he was young child. After working for over 20 years, he decided to go back to school to twilight his working years in Government. He is a full-time student at the University of Alberta working on a Major in Political Science double minoring in East Asian Studies and Native Studies Indigenous Politics. Effecting change in policy reform.

My name is Norma Jean Chalifoux, I have my own productions business under “Norma Jean Chalifoux Productions”. I promote Native musicians and do the recording/producing of their CDs’ and music videos. You can watch on YouTube the music video I’ve done for Ali Bright - Legend Love Song. I produced and recorded several other aboriginal musicians to date!

I always encourage & promote indigenous talent.

Luann Chalifoux was born and raised in Paddle Prairie Mètis settlement. She currently resides in Edmonton where she is an indigenous social worker and one half of the musical group Injun Josephine.

Hello, my name is Talon Giroux is from Ermineskin Cree Nation, however I was raised in Edmonton by my mother Tania Saddleback and with my 5 siblings. I’ve been working with Dreamspeakers for a few years now. Although it feels like yesterday I had met the lovely team. I currently am on the board as a youth representative, I graduated in June 2022 with my Diploma at age 17. And now 18 and just finished my first year of pursuing my Business Admin/Governance degree. It is very important to volunteer your extra time through community as you grow as a professional. It also is important to give youth opportunities and trust them with our future, as Dreamspeakers did with me.