Night Raiders
Livestream Q&A with the Director: Wednesday, March 2 at 7:30pm EST
The festival opens on Wednesday March 2 with a livestream discussion of Night Raiders (2021) directed by Canadian filmmaker Danis Goulet (Cree-Métis) and produced by New Zealand film director Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor). Night Raiders, a science fiction drama set in the year 2044, centers on Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), a Cree woman who joins a resistance movement to the military government in order to save her daughter. Be sure to watch the film in advance of the livestream Q&A with Director Danis Goulet. Film available streaming on-demand starting February 25.
Night Raiders
(2021, Danis Goulet, Canada/New Zealand, 101 min, in Cree and English w/ English subtitles)
Guests: Danis Goulet (filmmaker)
Introduced by: Santee Frazier, UMass Amherst
Set in the year 2044, Night Raiders portrays a post-apocalyptic future where children, considered government property, are separated from their families and (re-)educated in state-run institutions. The film centers on Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), a Cree woman who joins a resistance movement in an effort to free her daughter from the grips of the military government. Directed by Danis Goulet (Cree-Métis) and produced by New Zealand director Taika Watiti, (JoJo Rabbit, Thor) Night Raiders is a dystopian thriller-cum-cautionary tale that tackles historic abuses of Indigenous peoples.
Watch and Participate
Introduction by Santee Frazier
Available through the festival platform Sparq starting February 25!
Live Conversation and Q&A with Filmmaker
via Facebook or YouTube
(Wed, March 2 at 7:30pm EST)
All events are free and open to the public.
Access Sparq with your Gmail and Apple ID, or UMass Amherst email address.
About the Filmmaker
Danis Goulet
“Danis Goulet is a writer and director. Her films have been screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, Berlinale, and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and have been developed with support of the Sundance Institute, the National Screen Institute and the TIFF Talent lab. Her film Wakening (2013) screened at TIFF and Sundance and her film Barefoot (2012) was recognized with a special jury mention at the 2013 Berlinale. She is a former programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and a former director of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. She is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her debut feature Night Raiders was selected for the Sundance Institute’s inaugural Talent Forum in 2019 […] Danis is Cree/Metis, originally from northern Saskatchewan in Canada.” (Sundance)
About the Introducer and Moderator
Santee Frazier
A member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Santee Frazier earned a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA from Syracuse University. His first collection of poems, Dark Thirty (2009), was published in the Sun Tracks series of the University of Arizona Press. Frazier’s honors include a Fall 2009 Lannan Residency Fellowship and 2011 School for Advanced Research Indigenous Writer in Residence, and was the 2014 Native Arts and Culture Foundation literature fellow. His second collection of poems Aurum was released in 2019 by The University of Arizona Press.