Synopsis
PLACEnta is the sharing between a mother, her daughter and a midwife of the re-discovery of First Nations traditional childbirth teachings.
Writer/director Jules Koostachin
Jules was raised by her Cree speaking grandparents in Moosonee, as well as her mother in Ottawa. She is known for her social activism work in Indigenous rights and education, combining social issues with her artistic ventures. In the spring of 2008, Jules completed Screenwriting and Produce & Direct Your Own Short Film at George Brown College. Later, she successfully completed the Ryerson University Summer Film Intensive Program, where she was nominated for the Peter Gerretsen Film Awards for Best Achievement and Editing, and won the award for Screenwriting.
Jules is from Attawapiskat First Nation, currently living in Toronto where she completed graduate school at Ryerson University, awarded with the Award of Distinction for her thesis work, as well as the Masters level Ryerson Gold Medal for academic achievement in 2010. While completing her Masters, she completed her first feature documentary film, entitled Remembering Inninimowin. Soon after graduation, Jules was one of six women selected across Canada for the Women in the Directors Chair program at the Banff Centre. Her film script Broken Angel, won Best Fresh Voice at the Female Eye Film Festival.
Jules is the Aboriginal and Indigenous Program Director for the Female Eye Film Festival in Canada, which places a spotlight on debut, emerging and established Canadian and International Indigenous film makers. Her company, VisJuelles Productions, was incorporated in September of 2010, where she has many projects in development.
Her short film, ‘PLACEnta’, premiered at Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol, UK, as part of a Commonwealth Writers event.
Journalist and broadcaster Rosie Goldsmith, talks to Jules Koostachin
Watch ‘PLACEnta’ below.
D.W. Wilson was born and raised in the small towns of the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia. He is the recipient of the University of East Anglia’s inaugural MAN Booker Prize Scholarship – the most prestigious award available to students in the MA programme – and the 2011 BBC Short Story Prize. His stories have appeared in literary magazines across Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, including the Malahat Review, Grain, and Southword.