Elle-Máijá TAILFEATHERS

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, director, producer and actor. She
of Sami (Norway) descent and is a member of the Kainai First Nation (Blood Tribe, Blackfoot
Confederacy)
As a filmmaker, one of her prime focuses is activism and social justice for Indigenous people.
Her films often focus on issues that directly relate to and affect Indigenous women and
communities. She has received and been nominated for awards at various international film
festivals and has been recognized for her work rooted in social justice. Most recently, her
documentary film Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy won the award for Best Feature
Length Documentary at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022.
Tailfeathers co-directed The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open with Kathleen
Hepburn. The film premiered at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival in the Generation program and
had its Canadian premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for
six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and won three. Tailfeathers shared
the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director with Hepburn. The film also won the Toronto Film
Critics Association’s $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.
Tailfeathers studied acting at the Vancouver Film School. She graduated in 2006 and then
moved on to the University of British Columbia where she would graduate with a degree in First
Nations studies and a minor in women and gender studies in 2011.