Indigenous creators in Grande Prairie are being invited to share their stories. For the first time in its history, TELUS STORYHIVE will help fund 20 Indigenous-led film projects, selected by an all-Indigenous jury. Communications, Engagement and Equity Manager Megan Lau says the series was created after getting feedback from past participants.
“We started having conversations with creators who had participated in our program or who had applied and asked them for their really honest feedback about how we were doing. Out of that research, we learned that there was a real great demand to have an edition that was just for Indigenous creators.”
The TELUS STORYHIVE program started in 2013. It was created to help people living in Alberta and BC who were looking to enter the film industry or who wanted to further their careers. Each project chosen will receive $20,000 in funding to pay for training, mentorship and production costs.
For this series, the project lead must be of Indigenous descent and live in BC or Alberta. Submissions can be for a Comedy, Drama, Animation, Web Series Pilot or Documentary. Lau says judges will be looking for diversity in the projects.
“We are looking for diversity even within this quote on quote diverse group. We’re looking for Gender Parity and we’re looking for regional representation. We want to have stories coming from both provinces and not just urban centres but really reflecting all different types of communities.”
Creators can submit a one minute pitch on STORYHIVE’s website until December 4th.