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Alma mater York University (MFA, 2016) Movies How a People Live, Savage, Embargo Collective, Suckerfish, Intemperance, The Visit, Snare Awards Genie Award for Best Live Action Short Drama Similar Lauren Grant, Taika Waititi, Blackhorse Lowe, Sterlin Harjo, Helen Haig‑Brown | ||
Lisa Jackson is a Genie Award-winning Canadian and Anishinaabe filmmaker. Her films have been broadcast on APTN and Knowledge, as well as CBC’s ZeD, Canadian Reflections and Newsworld and have screened at festivals including HotDocs, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Melbourne, Worldwide Short Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.
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Early life and education
Jackson holds a BFA in Film Production from Simon Fraser University.
Career
In 2004, Jackson wrote, directed and produced Suckerfish, an short experimental documentary about her relationship with her mother. The film, a mixture of photographs and animation, was screened at more than fifty festivals and was broadcast nationally in Canada, on CBC.
From 1999 - 2006, Jackson was the Director/Producer on the Media Team at Open Learning Agency, as a script writer and carrying out field production for their online educational media. In addition, Jackson worked with clients to structure both video and online projects, most of which aired on Knowledge Network, BC’s educational broadcaster. From 2007 to 2013, she has worked as a Story Mentor with “Our World” Initiative and would travel to remote Aboriginal communities in BC and the Yukon to teach digital storytelling workshops. In these workshops, Jackson taught small groups of youth make films in First Language, using contemporary digital technology.
In 2009 and 2014, Jackson worked with Embargo Collective, an ongoing international group of seven Indigenous artists who collaborate and challenge one another to create new films. Savage was the result of the first Embargo Collective in 2009 and was included in the 2013 exhibition Witnesses: Art and Canada’s Indian Residential Schools, at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Intemperance premiered on October 26, 2014 at the closing night of imagineNATIVE.
Since 2014, she has been working as the Director Mentor at National Screen Institute’s Aboriginal Documentary Program. Jackson has recently worked with special projects featuring the production of short films by First Nations filmmakers, including the National Film Board’s Vistas series, screened as part of the public presentations of the Canadian Olympics in Vancouver, and Knowledge Network’s Our First Voices television series on Indigenous languages in British Columbia.
Filmography
Awards
In 2004, Jackson received the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Alliance Atlantis Mentorship award.
In 2005, Jackson was awarded $5,000 for the Vancouver Arts Award for Emerging Media Artists.
In 2007, Lisa Jackson's one-hour documentary Reservation Soldiers, (Screen Siren Pictures Inc.) was awarded Yorkton Film Festival (Toronto) Best Aboriginal Production, Talking Stick Film Festival (New Mexico) Best International Documentary. The film focuses on the relationship between the Canadian military and Aboriginal youth for CTV’s “W5 Presents.”
In 2010, Savage, a 6-minute Cree-language musical was the recipient of a Genie award for Best Short Film, ReelWorld Film Festival Award in Outstanding Canadian Short Film and 2 Leo Awards for Best Editing in a short film, and Best Actress in a short film in addition to the Yorkton Golden Sheaf: Best Multicultural Film award.
In 2011, Jackson's 35mm film Parkdale, won two awards from Women in Film and Television International: First Place Legacy Award and Best Actress in a Short Film Award. Reel 2 Real Int’l Film Fest for Youth, awarded the film the Most Inspirational Short Film Award.
In 2012, Jackson was the recipient of Playback Magazine’s 10 to Watch Award in addition to The ReelWorld Festival Trailblazer Award.
In 2013, Jackson was commissioned by imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival Stolen Sisters Digital Initiative to create Snare, a 3.5 minute short performance-based film. That same year, she created a video about Violinist, Andrew Dawes who was the recipient of the NFB Governor General’s Award. This film was produced by the National Film Board with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation.