DIRECTORS

Courtney Montour is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) filmmaker from Kahnawake whose work explores issues of Indigenous identity. Her films have screened at festivals internationally including Hot Docs, the Vancouver International Film Festival, Big Sky and Margaret Mead. Her recent documentary Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again (2021, produced by the National Film Board of Canada), shares the powerful story of Mary Two-Axe Earley, who fought for more than two decades to challenge sex discrimination against First Nations women in Canada’s Indian Act and became a key figure in Canada’s women’s rights movement. She directed, wrote and co-produced Flat Rocks (2017), a short documentary revealing how the development of Canada’s St. Lawrence Seaway forever changed the landscape and the livelihood of the Kahnawake Mohawk community. Her first documentary Sex Spirit Strength won Best of Festival and the Emerging Filmmaker award at the 2016 Yorkton Film Festival. She has directed episodes for several documentary series including Mohawk Ironworkers (2016) and Skindigenous seasons 2 and 3 (2020 & 2021). Courtney co-created and coordinated McGill University’s Indigenous Field Studies course, held in Kahnawake, for 8 years. Passionate about educating, the course surfaces the intergenerational effects of colonization and Canadian policies on contemporary Indigenous society.