Danis Goulet's Sci-Fi FeatureNIGHT RAIDERS Begins Production

Night Raiders, an Indigenous sci-fi feature from award-winning Saskatchewan-born Cree/Métis writer/director, Danis Goulet (Wakening, Barefoot), began principal photography on October 7, 2019. The film, which marks Goulet's feature film directorial debut, stars Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Blood Quantum), Brooklyn Letexier-Hart (Burden of Truth), New Zealand's Alex Tarrant (Seachange, When We Go to War), Shaun Sipos (Krypton, Dark Matter) and Emmy and Tony Award-winning Amanda Plummer (Hunger Games, Pulp Fiction). Filming will continue until November 11, 2019 in Toronto and surrounding area.

The near future. A military occupation controls disenfranchised cities in post-war North America. Children are property of the State. A desperate Cree woman joins an underground band of vigilantes to infiltrate a State children's academy and get her daughter back. Night Raiders is a female-driven dystopian drama about resilience, courage, and love.

Night Raiders is a Canada - New Zealand co-production, an Indigenous first for the Canadian film industry. It is produced by Tara Woodbury (Transplant, The Underground), Paul Barkin (The Colony, Amreeka, Firecrackers), Ainsley Gardiner (Boy, Eagle vs Shark, The Breaker Uppers) and Georgina Condor (Cousins, The Breaker Uppers, She Shears), co-produced by Chelsea Winstanley (Jojo Rabbit, Merata: How Mum Decolonized the Screen, What We Do in the Shadows), with Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarock, What We Do in the Shadows) serving as Executive Producer. Also executive producing are Lisa Meeches and Kyle Irving for Eagle Vision.

Night Raiders will be distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures. XYZ Films is handling US sales.

"This story focuses on the bond between a mother and her daughter and explores the impacts of colonization, and especially what happens to families when they're fractured by the State. Throughout cinema history, 99% of Indigenous stories on screen have been told without us. I'm so thrilled to be seeing change happen in the industry to support more Indigenous perspectives and it's an honour and privilege to make a film that I've been writing for seven years with such incredible industry support and with such a stellar cast," said writer/director, Danis Goulet.

Night Raiders was developed with support from the Sundance Institute and with assistance from Bell Media's Harold Greenberg Fund. Produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Canada Media Fund, Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, Ontario Creates, New Zealand Film Commission, and Manitoba Film and Music, in association with Bell Media's Crave and CBC Films.

Award-winning Cree/Métis filmmaker, Danis Goulet's short films have screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, the Toronto International Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, imagineNATIVE and Aspen Shortsfest. Her 2013 film Wakening had premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and went on to win the Outstanding Canadian Short Film Award at the 2014 ReelWorld Film Festival. In 2012, her film Barefoot premiered at TIFF and was later recognized with a Special Mention from the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival Generation 14plus international jury. Danis is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and her work has been broadcast on ARTE, CBC, and Movieola. Danis was born in La Ronge, Saskatchewan and now resides in Toronto.

Alcina Pictures is an award-winning, Toronto-based production company with selected credits that include Cherien Dabis' Sundance and Cannes entry, Amreeka, nominated for three INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS including Best Picture, The Tracey Fragments starring Ellen Page, the ice-age apocalypse, The Colony, starring Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton, Norway-Canada revenge thriller, Hevn, by Kjersti Steinsbø, and recently, Jasmin Mozafarri's TIFF Top Ten award-winning debut, Firecrackers. Upcoming projects include Jason Buxton's (Blackbird), Sharp Corner, and The Northwoods, a Canada-Norway co-production starring Sarah Gadon and Elli Harboe.

Miss Conception Films is a partnership between Ainsley Gardiner of Whenua Films and Georgina Allison Conder of Three Under Five Films. Our major motivating influence is to see strong female characters on screen. Miss Conception Films primary focus is on female writers and directors making films with strong female characters for a female audience. We have experience, ideas, creativity and a captive audience. Founded in 2015 we have produced The Breaker Upperers (sold worldwide to Netflix), She Shears (a feature documentary) and Reunion (in post starring Julia Ormond) and are in pre-production on Cousins (an adaptation of Patricia Grace's best-selling novel). We hold strong in our values of imagination, collaboration, excellence, expertise, partnerships, passion, honesty and transparency.

Delivering more Emmy® Award-winning programming than any other service, Crave is Canada's prestige entertainment offering, with HBO, SHOWTIME®, Starz, Hollywood-hit movies, a superior collection of kid's movies and programs, and thousands of hours of acclaimed television series, specials, factual programming, and originals that can't be found anywhere else. Crave is the exclusive home of HBO in Canada, delivering HBO's current slate of signature dramatic and comedic programs, documentaries, films, and live specials, as well as titles from HBO's extensive off-air library. Crave is also home to current Showtime series and specials, and past Showtime hits. Crave Original hit series include LETTERKENNY; candid interview series MUCH STUDIOS PRESENTS: MIKE ON MUCH IN CONVERSATION WITH...; upcoming darkly funny "true crime" comedy NEW EDEN; apocalyptic new original comedic documentary series WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE; Crave Original stand-up series, and animated series LITTLEKENNY. Crave is available directly to all Canadians with access to the Internet at Crave.ca, via iOS and Android, and other platforms. It's also available through participating television providers across six 24-hour High Definition linear and on demand channels. Crave is from Bell Media, Canada's leading content company, providing Canada's most-watched and most-acclaimed television programming on network, specialty, pay and digital platforms. Visit our website at Crave.ca.

Encompassing CBC's continued investment in Canadian film including funding, pre-buys and acquisitions, CBC Films showcases homegrown storytelling to audiences across Canada on CBC's broadcast and streaming platforms. CBC Films funds high-quality features that reflect, represent, and reframe a range of perspectives through character-driven stories that are at the centre of the Canadian experience, spanning 24 features to date led by female, LGBTQ2+, Indigenous and diverse filmmakers. With a new Canadian film added to the CBC Gem streaming library each week, CBC strives to create an unparalleled destination for Canadians to discover homegrown film.

To post a comment, you must register and login.