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Leena Minifie

Leena Minifie

Producer

Leena Minifie (Gitxaala Nation/British) is a Vancouver-based film and television producer and digital strategist whose work has included: Lily Gladstone: Far Out There (PBS), Bones of Crows (CBC/APTN), British Columbia - An Untold History (Knowledge), The Reckoning: Secrets Unearthed by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (CBC), and production of an interactive web-art piece Sense of Home (Best New Media ImagineNative 2012), and ?E?anx ‘THE CAVE’ (Sundance Festival 2011, TIFF Top Ten 2011). Her company Stories First strategically marketed Indian Horse, The Grizzlies, Monkey Beach, The New Corporation, Night Raiders and Run Woman Run.

At what age did you know you wanted to work in film and television and what led you to it?

I was 19 when I worked with my first media company and knew from that point on I wanted to be a producer of stories and media.


How did you get your start in the industry?

I called the first media company around me in Edmonton, Media Masters and begged to be hired, and volunteered in Edmonton on 8mm and 16mm short films.


What’s the highlight of your career so far or the thing you are most proud of?

Transitioning to working with Stories First and our new film, The Good Canadian, a big idea film about Canada that is currently in production. I am co-producing and co-directing with David Paperny. Also my dedication to hiring a diverse staff and implementing protocols and trauma-informed practices into filming, since the early 2000s on shows, which was twenty years ahead of the curve.


Careers are full of ups and downs. Was there ever a low point in your career you could talk about, or a time when you thought you wouldn’t make it in this industry?

Yes, the early 2000s when people thought I was too demanding to implement diverse teams and Indigenous crew members on Indigenous shows, as there was pushback. Also, leaving our national broadcaster during the time of MMIW and Residential School Survivor coverage, because of the restrictive approach and language of the times.


Tell us about your production company Stories First, and the kinds of projects you’ve been working on.

Looking ahead, Stories First, along with Taiga Pictures, will be embarking on the production of Jonny Appleseed, a 6-part television series with Joshua Whitehead as EP, Brad Fraser as co-showrunner and writer, and Simon Faber of Taiga Pictures as EP and Producer. I will also be co-writing and co-producing The Last Resort, a 12-part sitcom directed and co-written by Brooke Swaney and with Haydn Wazelle as EP/Producer.

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