Workshop: Developing, Producing and Directing a Media Project

Workshop: Developing, Producing and Directing a Media Project

Attendance limit: 25 students, faculty, and staff

Please send RSVP to amilne@ecuad.ca to attend the workshop. Applicants will be alerted regarding event capacity. Preference will be given first to students, then faculty and staff. Students will have priority until March 9.

People interested in animation, film, and new platforms for media story-telling are invited to attend a lecture and conversational workshop, as media artist Amanda Strong walks us through the visual story-telling and directorial processes of animation filmmaking in detail, from start to finish. Strong’s experience encompasses producing her own award-winning film work with grants and partnerships with the NFB, as well as acting as co-producer and mentor to emerging Indigenous and non-binary media artists. Strong’s own films are developed for environments that include festivals, TV, broadcast, subscription, and a newly developing focus on VR. Beautiful and compelling puppets and props from previous film projects will be available for close-up viewing.

Amanda Strong, Bio

Amanda Strong is a Michif, Indigenous filmmaker, and stop-motion puppet animation director currently based in the unceded Coast Salish territories known as Vancouver, BC, Canada. Strong is the Owner/Director/Producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc.. Her work explores themes of blood memory and reclamation of Indigenous histories, lineage, language and culture. Her work is fiercely process-driven and takes form in various mediums such as: virtual reality, stop-motion, 2D/3D animation, gallery/museum installations, published books and community-activated projects. Strong is currently in research and development for bringing these works into more interactive spaces. The studio aims to create space for Indigenous people, women and non-binary individuals to engage in the many aspects of film, animation and production.

Strong’s puppet animation film productions include Four Faces of the Moon, Flood, and Biidaaban (The dawn comes), which won the 2018 VIFF Best British Columbia Short Film Award. As an artist she has been recognized with the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Awards for Emerging Film and Media Artist (2016). Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin selected Strong to be the recipient of the Gilmour Technicolour Prize (2016), acknowledging Strong’s important contributions to contemporary Indigenous cinema.

Strong’s films have screened across the globe, most notably at Cannes, TIFF, VIFF, and Ottawa International Animation Festival. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, BC Arts Council and the NFB. Spotted Fawn Productions is currently developing new short animations Wheetago War and Spirit Bear. Her work can be seen online, on television, in festivals and in galleries and museums. Strong received a BAA in Interpretative Illustration and a Diploma in Applied Photography from the Sheridan Institute.