Danis Goulet

Early Life & Education

Danis Goulet was born in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. La Ronge is a town on the western side of Lac la Ronge. Her mother, Linda May Hemingway, worked in the education department at First Nations University. Her father is Keith Napoleon Goulet, a former member of the legislative assembly (MLA) of Saskatchewan. He was a member of the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan. During his career, he became the first Metis cabinet minister in Saskatchewan. Keith Goulet grew up speaking Cree, hunting and trapping in the community of Cumberland House. Danis has a sister, Kona. In her youth, she lived in Regina while her father was an MLA. She recounts her father facing anti-Indigenous racism in his political career.

Goulet first considered a career behind the camera as a child. During her childhood, she entertained herself by playing with the family camcorder.

Career

Danis Goulet’s work in the film industry began in 1998, when she returned to Regina after a post-high school backpacking trip abroad. With some help from her mother, she landed a job as an assistant to the casting director. This position was for a CBC miniseries about Chief Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear). Goulet recalls the significance of the production at the time. It featured an all-Indigenous cast and was directed by late Métis documentary filmmaker Gil Cardinal.

She continued working on film productions in Saskatchewan and Alberta for the next few years. In 2000, she and her future husband, Tony Elliott, moved to Toronto for his studies at the Canadian Film Centre. Goulet is an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre as well.

Shortly after moving to Toronto, Goulet was hired to work in casting for an American television pilot. She was instructed to cast for a role that involved an Indigenous woman. This character was meant to sacrifice herself without saying a word of dialogue. Goulet described this character as a ‘Pocahontas type’. Goulet said it was difficult to see so many talented actors audition for a role that further diminished the presence of Indigenous people in North American mass media. It was this experience that encouraged her to work towards a greater role in the creative process in the film and television industry.

Shortly after this event, Goulet took a filmmaking course in New York City. This course led her to develop her first film. Her short film Spin premiered at the 2004 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. In 2006, her second short film, Divided by Zero, premiered at the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival in the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Throughout much of her early career, Goulet worked in casting. Eventually, she advanced to casting director.

In 2003, she joined the board of directors of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (imagineNATIVE). In 2013, Goulet co-wrote a report commissioned by imagineNATIVE about the lack of Indigenous film production in Canada.

Goulet has screened her films at numerous important international film competitions and major cultural venues. She has screened films at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Sundance, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Goulet has worked as a programmer for TIFF. She is a graduate of the TIFF Filmmakers lab and the National Screen Institute. In 2010, Goulet was a member of the board of directors for the Toronto Arts Council. That same year, she was the co-chair for the Toronto Arts Council’s Visual/Media Arts Committee. Goulet serves on the board of the TIFF. Formerly, Goulet was a board member of the Images Festival. Goulet joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018.

Goulet has stated she is motivated by the racism she experienced growing up in the Prairies. Her films characteristically include well-rounded, fully developed Indigenous characters, particularly Indigenous women.

Goulet is one of several Indigenous filmmakers and creators who have used the science fiction, horror and dystopian genres to address Canada’s history of genocide and the residential schools system. According to Goulet, setting these stories in the future is an act of defiance. She has said the attempted genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada meant Indigenous peoples were not meant to have a future. As a result, situating these stories in the future challenges those ideas and actions.

It’s actually a very powerful act just to say that we as Indigenous people have futures and will exist in the future.

- Danis Goulet

Award Nominations

Danis Goulet’s first major film award nomination came in 2011. Her film Wapawekka was nominated for the short filmmaking award at the Sundance Film Festival. She returned to Sundance in 2014 when her film Wakening was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.

In 2022, her debut feature film Night Raiders was nominated for 11 awards at the Canadian Screen Awards. Night Raiders was also selected to open the 2021 edition of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

In 2023, Reservation Dogs was nominated for a Peabody Award. Goulet directed a total of three episodes of Reservation Dogs in 2022 and 2023. Additionally, Goulet directed “House/Wife” for Netflix. However, the movie was never released.

Awards

• Special Mention (Special Prize of the Generation 14plus International Jury) (Barefoot), Berlin International Film Festival (2013)
• Emerging Talent Award (Night Raiders), Toronto International Film Festival (2021)
• Tribute Award, Toronto International Film Festival (2021)
• Discovery Award (Night Raiders), Directors Guild of Canada (2021)
• Grand Prix (Night Raiders), Festival du nouveau cinéma de Montréal (2021)
• Director of the Year, Playback Magazine (2021)
• Best Original Screenplay (Night Raiders), Canadian Screen Awards (2022)
• Best Director in a Canadian Film (Night Raiders), Vancouver Film Critics Circle (2022)
• Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film (Night Raiders), Vancouver Film Critics Circle (2022)