Koostachin views cinema as a means for filling the void, for adding to conversations notably omitted from the mainstream. “I always see my work as a way to create some sort of Indigenous archive, so future generations can actually access these cultural stories.” As a former social worker and certified counsellor, she sometimes refers to her art as therapeutic cinema or ceremonial films, offering audiences the curative benefits of connecting to each other and to themselves. After struggles with perimenopause and dismay with the lack of resources surrounding women’s health, Koostachin made KaYaMenTa: Sharing Truths about Menopause (2020). “I became the menopause queen,” she shares. “People started having menopause parties, and I’m still being invited to talk about that film to this day.” 

Her debut feature Broken Angel (2023) follows a young Cree mother grappling with an abusive boyfriend. The first act paints a harrowing portrait of the realities of intimate partner violence and the particular racialized brutality Indigenous women face. However, in keeping with Koostachin’s therapeutic ethos, the ensuing narrative provides a blueprint for healing through community, tradition, and returning to the land. 

“The work that I do is always a reflection of what I don’t see and what I want people to be able to access,” shares Koostachin. “I see it as a way to start the conversation, to scratch the surface and get the dialogue going, so other filmmakers can pick up where I’ve left off.”

This filmmaking philosophy crystalized through Koostachin’s scholarship. While pursuing her PhD in Indigenous documentary practices at UBC, she developed a methodology for ensuring reciprocal relations between storytellers and film subjects. “I was interested in finding out how to share Indigenous story and do it in a way so we’re not exploiting or extracting narratives from community,” she explains. 

Applied on a film set in the real world, those protocols look like hiring as many Indigenous crew as possible, having an on-call counsellor available at all times, and allowing documentary subjects to review footage of them and consent to its use after the fact. They also mean lifting up workers who haven’t had a fair shake in the business. “As a social activist I want to make sure that we’re addressing the gender disparity within the industry. I want to provide up-and-coming filmmakers real opportunities on my set,” she says. “Not just, ‘P.A., go stand in the parking lot,’ but meaningful opportunities. Because that’s how we grow, we’ve got to build capacity.”

It’s those opportunities that she sees missing from non-Indigenous productions. Oftentimes, instead, underrepresented filmmakers are invited on set to shadow as a means of meeting a diversity quota. “Why do we always have to shadow? It’s like, ‘Holy crap! I’ve already made six films! I think I can do this now,” she says with a laugh. But there’s an upside to the gatekeeping. “With all these mentorship and training programs and forcing Indigenous people to self-produce, we’re actually becoming quite savvy and sharp and resourceful. So we’re getting really damn good at what we’re doing because we’re forced to do it without a lot of resources,” says Koostachin. “So watch out world.”

WaaPaKe is available now for free streaming across Canada on nfb.ca. Koostachin’s forthcoming fiction feature film Angela’s Shadow will be screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival Oct. 2 and 5 with the filmmaker in attendance for a Q&A

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