TORONTO -- Thunder Bay's Michelle Latimer was a double winner at the Toronto International Film Festival, which wrapped up in Toronto this past weekend.
Latimer's film, Inconvenient Indian, captured the People's Choice Documentary Award and the Amplify Voices Award, for best Canadian feature film.
It was based on Thomas King's 2012 award-winning study, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, and examines the ongoing colonization of Indigenous peoples.
Using voiceovers by King, movie and archival footage, interviews, dance, visual arts and traditional customs, Latimer's work brings the issues front and centre, while taking direct aim at North America's notion of history and truth, according to the TIFF description of the film.
"I'm just in shock," Latimer told the Canadian Press. "The idea that, maybe, going forward other stories like this can be told, or other people could come up behind us, that's just an amazing thing."
Latimer said she plans to share the $10,000 prize for winning the Amplify Voices Award with five up-and-coming Indigenous filmmakers.
