Danielle Black starts Indigenous filmmakers collective in Calgary

A young woman is starting up an Indigenous filmmakers collective in Calgary to help local filmmakers tell the stories of the city's Aboriginal people.

Danielle Black is the founder of the Treaty 7 Filmmakers Collective, which will hold its first monthly meeting in downtown Calgary on Thursday.

"The goal is to bring Indigenous artists, filmmakers, sound tech people, screenwriters, script writers, editors … to come out to meet each other, to sit in a circle, and to really talk about what needs to be done," Black told The Homestretch on Tuesday.

Black — who also goes by the Blackfoot name Sui-Taa-Kii which means Rain Woman — was inspired by the work of the Aboriginal Filmmakers Collective in Winnipeg, where she spent three months doing a film program.

The Homestretch8:08Treaty 7 Filmmakers Collective founder Danielle Black

Expect more indigenous stories -- by indigenous filmmakers -- to hit theatres if the Treaty 7 Filmmakers Collective has its way. Danielle Black is the founder of the newly formed group, which is meeting for the first time tomorrow night in Calgary.

Black says Indigenous people haven't been given enough opportunity to tell their own stories.

"Indigenous people are a part of a culture that is deeply rooted in story-telling, and because we are in a time where there is a demand for our stories to be told, it's only right to have our people be the ones to tell them," she said. 

The meeting will be held on Thursday at 6 p.m. at EMMEDIA Gallery & Production Society, which has offered the group space once a month.

Everyone is welcome, including non-Indigenous filmmakers.

"The focus is Indigenous filmmakers [but of course] everybody is welcome … We are all Treaty people and we all live on Treaty 7 land," Black said.

With files from The Homestretch