Evaluation Juries

Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D. is an award-winning designer, writer, artist, and researcher who creates and studies Indigenous-led media such as games and comics. She is Anishinaabe from Baawaating with relations at Bay Mills Indian Community, Métis named for Elizabeth Morris, and settler-Irish. She is an Assistant Professor of Media & Information and Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures at Michigan State University. Most recently, she designed and created art for Thunderbird Strike (2017), a lightning-searing side-scroller game which won Best Digital Media at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. She is a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow.

Melissa Mollen Dupuis is an Innu Nation member from the community of Ekuanitshit on the North-Shore region of Quebec. She has over 17 years of experience in the cultural activities sector with First Nations organisations including the First Nations Garden, McCord Museum, Wapikoni mobile and more recently Native Montreal. She developed a great facility at sharing the richness of her Innu culture through contemporary visual arts, video, performance and storytelling. She studied Mediatic visual arts at UQAM University in Montreal. An organizer, actress, cinematographer and urban activist within the indigenous community in Montréal, Melissa is engaged with Native Montreal Friendship Centre, she is also the Board President of the Wapikoni and the co-founder of Idle No More Quebec. She has been awarded as one the 2017 Ambassador of Conscience by Amnesty International.

Sylvain Rivard is interested in the many aspects of First Nations culture. Holder of a certificate in multidisciplinary micro-program in children's literature, he specialized in First Nations art and culture. His knowledge of languages ​​allows him to render songs and stories with respect and accuracy. His knowledge of material culture allows him to create contemporary works intimately linked to ancestral techniques. His work is of interest to the museum, film and television community as well as to education and publishing. He is the author of a collection of tales entitled "Tales of the Asshole" published by Cornac in 2010, a series of three books of legends "Moz in five times, Skok in seven times and Pmola in four times" and as "Joseph Lawrence" an essay on one of the first Native American writers. He is also co-author of the book "archeology Sound" dealing with the songs of the First Nations published in 2001 at Éditions Trois, "The Algonquins" published by Cornac in 2012 and "The Iroquoi" also published at Cornac in 2015. He is presently working on a series of trilingual youth books on First Nations clothing, three of which have already been published (The Ribbons 2015, La Tuque 2015, and The 2014 Sash) at Hannenorak. In addition, he has hosted the documentary series "Indians in the City" on the image of First Nations in urban areas in six languages ​​(Mohawk, Innu, Anishnabe, Cree, English and French) on APTN. His work in visual art has been seen in publications such as the magazine "Amerindian Research in Quebec" (2010) and the book "Native American Splendor" (Éditions Henri Rivard 2004), as well as in the following places: The Canadian Guild of Métiers d'arts (Montreal), The Abenakis Museum (Odanak), The Huron-Wendat Museum (Wendake), The Native American Museum of Mashteuiatsh, The House of Governors (Sorel), The House of Culture Ahuntsic-Cartierville (Montreal) , the Gabrielle-Roy Library (Quebec City), National Library and Archives of Quebec (Montreal), and the Montreal Botanical Garden. His story book "Moz in Five Times" is selected by the International Youth Library Munich in 2012 and Mr. Rivard is invited to represent Canada at the White Raven's Festival in Munich as an author, illustrator and storyteller.

Tina Keeper, Norway House Cree Nation, is a producer and actor. She is best known for her work on the hit television series 'North of 60', and for serving as a Member of Parliament for the federal riding of Churchill. To collaborate in the development and production of Indigenous film and television, Tina partnered with Buffalo Gal pictures in 2010 to create Kistikan Pictures Inc. Most recently, Tina has co-produced the feature film Through Black Spruce with Serendipity Point Films, and co-produced a 360-3D VR short film Sky Stories with Tangent Animation. Additional projects include 2015 feature film Road of Iniquity, the full-length ballet Going Home Star co-produced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Cashing In drama Tv series for APTN and the REDress Redress Project, short documentary.